“From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.”
----Salman Rushdie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, an award winning Nigerian author, has penned an immensely absorbing family drama in her literary fiction novel, Purple Hibiscus where the author weaves the tale of a young Nigerian girl who belongs from a very rich and affluent family where the father of the family is a religious fanatic and used to torture his wife, his daughter and his son in the name of Christ if they commit a slight mistake, but when the young girl goes to live with her aunt during the military coup invasion, she learns ugly secrets about her not so perfectly religious family.
Synopsis:
Fifteen-year-old Kambili’s world is circumscribed by the high walls and frangipani trees of her family compound. Her wealthy Catholic father, under whose shadow Kambili lives, while generous and politically active in the community, is repressive and fanatically religious at home.
When Nigeria begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili’s father sends her and her brother away to stay with their aunt, a University professor, whose house is noisy and full of laughter. There, Kambili and her brother discover a life and love beyond the confines of their father’s authority. The visit will lift the silence from their world and, in time, give rise to devotion and defiance that reveal themselves in profound and unexpected ways. This is a book about the promise of freedom; about the blurred lines between childhood and adulthood; between love and hatred, between the old gods and the new.
Kambili, a fifteen year old girl, lives under constant fear of her religiously fanatic father who is an ardent Catholic man and owner of some factories as well as contributes for a newspaper where he freely expresses his opinion about politics and the country. Kambili and her elder brother, Jaja and her mother live in a palatial mansion but their lives and happiness are dominated by the man who is a strong believer of rules laced with religion. So if Kambili or Jaja or her mother makes even a slight mistake, they are punished physically to repent and to learn a lesson about making mistakes. But pretty soon, Nigeria falls under the rule of a military coup where political scandals, corruption, poverty and public execution became a common affair, and Kambili's father, who is an influential and affluent man in the society, sends away his kids to his sister's house, who lives inside an university campus, in a different town. In her aunt's house, where her children laugh out heartily and the household is always happy even though they are very poor, Kambili realizes the real definition of freedom and also tastes it along with her brother. But is it easy to escape from her father's wrath who pushes her down as well as denies from any freedom of childhood happiness to his own children?
This is the very first time that I grabbed my hands on an Adichie novel and that too her debut book which bagged quite a lot of literary awards. Although unfortunately, the story is not that remarkable as most reviews say so. Why? Well mainly because of the fact that the author has failed to depict an intimidating man through the narrative of his 15-year old daughter, and also the author's own hometown which is a fractured projection into its deep cores, thereby I failed to visually or mentally form an image of a country dominated by a military coup or its people facing grave troubles because of the coup.
The author's writing style is incredible, eloquent and extremely redolent that readers will grab the readers with its flair right from the very start. The narrative is extremely sorrowful as the author strikingly captures the pain and the longing for a free childhood through a fifteen year old girl's voice, that the readers will find it easy to comprehend with even though the narrative has so many layers within. The pacing is moderate, as the author unravels the story through dimension and underlying stories of a country falling apart besides the story of a young girl and her family.
As already mentioned before, the author's portrayal of Nigeria is really vivid, yet it is projected through fractures thereby stopping the readers to recreate the complete portrait of Nigeria. Apart from that, the author strongly depicts the then corruption, riots, denial from basic amenities like water to the common people, public execution, scandals when Nigeria came under the rule of a military coup that set a fear into the hearts of its countrymen. The dusty roads, the mass, the churches, the garden in Kambili's mansion, the rare purple hibiscus, the people, the language, the food and the culture, all these aspects are vividly captured that will let the readers to take a peek into the heart of Nigeria.
The characters from this book are well developed, especially the central character and the protagonist of the book, Kambili, who is drawn with enough realism to make the readers connect with her simple yet fearful demeanor. Although there is not much evolution into her demeanor, but somehow she learns to enjoy the basic happiness that a teenager must experience while she goes away from her home, and later that makes her a mature woman. Her sadness will deeply move the readers as she narrates her cry for freedom from her dominating and torturing father. The rest of the supporting characters are also well etched out but fails to leave a mark into the minds of the readers. And also the author failed to make the readers grasp the mentality of a strong and rich Catholic family man and his ideals.
In a nutshell, this enduring story is not only poignant but thoroughly enlightening that will make the readers lose themselves into the world of a fifteen year old Nigerian girl whose only wish is freedom for herself, for her brother and mother as well as for her own country.

Purple Hibiscus
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©2003 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (P)2004 Recorded Books, LLC
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Product details
Listening Length | 10 hours and 53 minutes |
---|---|
Author | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
Narrator | Lisette Lecat |
Audible.in Release Date | 25 April 2011 |
Publisher | Recorded Books |
Program Type | Audiobook |
Version | Unabridged |
Language | English |
ASIN | B01NAUVUGD |
Best Sellers Rank |
#6,664 in Audible Audiobooks & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Audiobooks & Originals)
#347 in Literary Fiction #11,747 in Crime, Thriller & Mystery (Books) #12,297 in Contemporary Fiction (Books) |
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Reviewed in India on 21 August 2016
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15 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in India on 6 March 2019
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Purple Hibiscus takes you through a journey to experience the life of Kambili, a teenage girl in Nigeria and her family. She feels utterly suppressed by her religious father. She is forced to bottle up all her feelings and thoughts. She mostly counts her words when it is her turn to talk.
She almost losts what a life has to offer her apart from a good education that too put inhumane pressure to top the class until one day her aunt comes as a rescue. She unfolds a rather simple, flexible atmosphere full of fun and laughter. Where free air blows with no restrictions and inhibitions . She doesn't need to feel reluctant to air her views and thoughts.
It is a story of ruthless ,repressive patriarchy ,Nigerian culture and religious practices, political turmoil and corruption yet at the same time beautifully woven romantic thoughts of a teenage girl.
She almost losts what a life has to offer her apart from a good education that too put inhumane pressure to top the class until one day her aunt comes as a rescue. She unfolds a rather simple, flexible atmosphere full of fun and laughter. Where free air blows with no restrictions and inhibitions . She doesn't need to feel reluctant to air her views and thoughts.
It is a story of ruthless ,repressive patriarchy ,Nigerian culture and religious practices, political turmoil and corruption yet at the same time beautifully woven romantic thoughts of a teenage girl.
7 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in India on 20 December 2017
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When words flow before you like a peaceful, innocent river, you know the author has accomplished the task at her hand. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche is one such book. It was just unputdownable.
The story is set in post colonial Nigeria beset in a turmoil of political instability and economic crisis. Kambili, a fifteen year old, is the protagonist of the story who is born into a wealthy family and who lived her childhood under the dominance of her tyrant father, Eugene. Eugene is a devout Catholic, rather a religious fanatic. Kambili and her brother's childhood was spent doing things that would make their father proud and happy. Kambili never had her own thoughts or opinions. She did everything as per the schedule set by her father. Though from an affluent family, the kids never tasted freedom until they go to stay with their father's sister and kids in another town. A sister who is liberal unlike their father. Their cousins had opinions unlike them. They had the capability to argue unlike them. Kambili always wondered how her father would take such behaviour and shuddered. Even smallest of their mistakes, which were considered sins, were liable for punishments by their father. They were burnt, their fingers brutally broken, they were beaten until they collapsed. But despite all this Kambili loved her father because that is how she was brought up. These punishments were not considered punishments by the child. For her, it was a normal thing as her father had always made them believe that it was because of their sins they were punished. He hit them brutally then at the second moment would hug them and cry, not because he punished but because they sinned. The father character is portrayed with lot of complexities in the book. He is a religious fanatic, a tyrant, somebody who has disowned his own father for not converting to the faith he believed. He even stops his kids from seeing their grandfather as he followed pagan rituals and so was considered a heathen. However, he selflessly did charity; he fought for truth.
Like Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, this book too shows how the West deceitfully played with the innocence of the people just to rule them. They rebuked the pagan culture and converted the people of Africa, calling their Gods heathen, their rituals and beliefs superstitious, their colour and race deceitful. Few people like Eugene, Kambili's father, were so anglicized that they only believed in everything White and English. Their Igbo language was detested. They were rebuffed from having their kind of names while confirmation in the church.
All in all, it's a lovely book written in an effective and simple language with a ruthlessly hard-hitting storyline. I lived through it with the protagonist. 😊
The story is set in post colonial Nigeria beset in a turmoil of political instability and economic crisis. Kambili, a fifteen year old, is the protagonist of the story who is born into a wealthy family and who lived her childhood under the dominance of her tyrant father, Eugene. Eugene is a devout Catholic, rather a religious fanatic. Kambili and her brother's childhood was spent doing things that would make their father proud and happy. Kambili never had her own thoughts or opinions. She did everything as per the schedule set by her father. Though from an affluent family, the kids never tasted freedom until they go to stay with their father's sister and kids in another town. A sister who is liberal unlike their father. Their cousins had opinions unlike them. They had the capability to argue unlike them. Kambili always wondered how her father would take such behaviour and shuddered. Even smallest of their mistakes, which were considered sins, were liable for punishments by their father. They were burnt, their fingers brutally broken, they were beaten until they collapsed. But despite all this Kambili loved her father because that is how she was brought up. These punishments were not considered punishments by the child. For her, it was a normal thing as her father had always made them believe that it was because of their sins they were punished. He hit them brutally then at the second moment would hug them and cry, not because he punished but because they sinned. The father character is portrayed with lot of complexities in the book. He is a religious fanatic, a tyrant, somebody who has disowned his own father for not converting to the faith he believed. He even stops his kids from seeing their grandfather as he followed pagan rituals and so was considered a heathen. However, he selflessly did charity; he fought for truth.
Like Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, this book too shows how the West deceitfully played with the innocence of the people just to rule them. They rebuked the pagan culture and converted the people of Africa, calling their Gods heathen, their rituals and beliefs superstitious, their colour and race deceitful. Few people like Eugene, Kambili's father, were so anglicized that they only believed in everything White and English. Their Igbo language was detested. They were rebuffed from having their kind of names while confirmation in the church.
All in all, it's a lovely book written in an effective and simple language with a ruthlessly hard-hitting storyline. I lived through it with the protagonist. 😊
7 people found this helpful
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Kenny
3.0 out of 5 stars
Emotive read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 November 2019Verified Purchase
There were elements I loved about this book, but an equal number of things that frustrated me. Let's start with the positives. The setting evoked a lot of nostalgia for me because I grew up in Enugu and holidayed in Nsukka, in the same university Kambili and Jaja stayed at, also roughly around the time the book was set. Adichie's description of the scenery and way of life was spot on and she perfectly captured the feelings I recall from back then. I always feel a sense of relief reading books where Nigerian culture and way of life is relayed so accurately, with no attempts to dumb down things for non African readers. Adichie never disappoints in that aspect (I highly recommend her other books for this reason and more). My frustration was with Kambili. I appreciate the fact that she was a shy and oppressed child who couldn't do much about her situation but, I just couldn't relate to her at all. She came across as weak, not just scared whilst her brother and cousins actually felt like they were real people who responded logically to the harsh realities of their lives. Everything was happening around her and she did very little to influence anything. Right up to the end, I kept waiting for her to use all the changes happening around her to snap out of her docile state but it never quite happened. I did, however, enjoy the story and how it unfolded, albeit at a pace that was too slow in places. A very emotive read.
10 people found this helpful
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Mr. T. Upton
5.0 out of 5 stars
A powerful and moving novel about two families in Nigeria
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 January 2020Verified Purchase
I found this book engrossing and easy to read. It's the story of two families of relatives, one ruled by a tyrannical and devoutly Catholic father, the other by a single mother, his sister, a rather more open-minded character. The story is told from the point of view of the daughter in the first family, the author describing very effectively how as a school-girl her eyes are opened by the experience of living with her aunt and cousins, and how she experiences her first pangs of passionate but platonic love. As someone who was born in Nigeria and returned for a holiday there when I was eighteen I felt that the writer succeeded in capturing the feel of the country without the need for long descriptive passages, allowing her to focus on the all-important personal relationships and on how the central character grew and developed, even though her role for most of the book is as a timid and passive observer.
5 people found this helpful
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Pamela Scott
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful and engrossing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 June 2018Verified Purchase
This book made me cry so much my eyes turned red and got so swollen I could hardly see. Purple Hibiscus is a beautiful book, beautiful and terrible at the same time. The setting is perfectly rendered and I felt like I was really there, seeing, tasting and smelling everything. I love it when a writer takes me out of my world. The characters are fantastic as well. The backdrop of the novel is one of conflict as a military coup changes the lives of the characters in devastating ways, threatening the sheltered life of Kambili’s wealthy family. The book is chilling at times especially with the fanatical bouts of violence doled out by Kambili’s father. Some pages were very painful to read. The ending completely floored me. I was not expecting that. I adored Purple Hibiscus.
8 people found this helpful
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Books R Best
5.0 out of 5 stars
POWERFUL
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 April 2021Verified Purchase
I loved it. I’m usually wary of top prize-winning books but this one is different. I loved it. Set in Nigeria the author describes an abusive childhood, and the effect in has on the whole family. Her world is small, enclosed, monitored yet despite the tyranny from her father, he does much good in the community, often anonymously. The difference to life in the house of her aunt highlights two separate worlds. To fight the system means death. To escape the system means emigration. Beautifully written, a book I shall not forget for years to come.

Brown
3.0 out of 5 stars
Over rated.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 February 2021Verified Purchase
Disappointed. Having read reviews expected a lot more from this book. Interesting book that had potential. Loved some of the descriptions and local flavour. However, felt the level of domestic violence and cruelty, along with repetition of the same was unnecessary. Lead characters felt under developed and at times seemed like caricatures. Contrast of dictatorship in Kambili’s home, to events in her country could have been explored in other more useful ways. Loved the complete contrast to her family, when she’s finally able to escape to spend time with her Aunt and cousins. Loved the vibrancy of her Aunt and that she wore her teacher hat all of the time. Hoped she’d learn more from spending time with them. Relieved that there was Father Amandi’s character in the story. He demonstrated love, kindness (as well as her Aunt’s family) and what the Christian faith should be about, verses her birth father’s extreme religious hypocritical behaviours, that are more about appearances to outside world, instead of about love. Would like to have seen more character development in the story. Would like to have left feeling that Kambili had learnt more from her direct families mistakes, so she could have a better future. The ending felt too rushed and was a bit predictable.