Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Purple Hibiscus

Reviewed by MARGIE THOMSON

This first novel by Adichie, a Nigerian now living in the United States, is one in which military dictatorship sits alongside the tyrannical domination of a man over his children and wife; and where Christianity in its different guises co-exists uneasily - and also hybridises - with the heathen religion of tribal tradition.

The voice that takes us through the story belongs to 15-year-old Kambili, a victim of her father's control, who slowly begins to see when she visits her liberal aunt's home that there is a more joyous way of living than the one she, her older brother and mother endure in their father's home.

The father, while coming from poor beginnings, is now a wealthy factory owner and publisher of the country's only outspoken, anti-military newspaper.

A fanatical Roman Catholic, he dominates his wife and children with his sense of their sin - the children are beaten, for instance, for the sin of not coming first in class, and he has some really horrific ways of making them fear the fires of hell - and every meal-time is book-ended by 20-minute prayers.

The community loves him for his largesse, however, and he is treated as a virtual god wherever he goes.

Despite the innocence of Kambili, and her consistently circumscribed view of her world - she is so oppressed by her father, whom she nevertheless adores, that she can hardly name either her fears or her desires - the story builds up a rich and varied picture of Nigerian society.

It moves between the exclusive, walled compound at Enugu in which Kambili lives in material luxury, only travelling outside it in a chauffeur-driven car; the village where her father's father lives in a tiny hut, refusing to give up his traditional religious practice and therefore rejected and ignored by his pious son; and the academic township of Nsukka (where the author herself grew up), where staff at the University of Nigeria rarely get paid, and supplies of fuel, food and electricity are sporadic.

Despite the undercurrent of brutality, both political and domestic, there is a tender, innocent quality to the writing that makes this a desperately, sweetly sad read.

It's been longlisted for the Orange Prize - dubbed "Britain's most international literary prize" by the Guardian - along with 19 other books by women, including Andrea Levy's Small Island, also reviewed on these pages.

While not all the longlisted books are available in New Zealand yet, among those chosen are Monica Ali's Brick Lane, Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, Shirley Hazzard's The Great Fire, Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife, Rose Tremain's The Colour, Anne Tyler's The Amateur Marriage. Ex-pat New Zealander Stella Duffy's State of Happiness, longlisted, will be available here in September. The shortlist is announced April 27, and the winner on June 8.

Fourth Estate, $34.99