num_pages: 336
description: 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.
language: English
title: Purple Hibiscus
titlecomplete: Purple Hibiscus
characters: Beatrice..., Eugene, Jaja, Kambili
genres: African Literature, Young Adult, Novels, Nigeria, Africa, School, Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Fiction
ratings_count: 113254
places: Nigeria
awards: awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Booker Prize
category: Longlist, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Orange Prize
category: Fiction Shortlist, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Hurston/Wright Legacy Award
category: Debut Fiction, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Commonwealth Writers' Prize
category: Best First Book Overall
publisher: Harper Perennial