Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been awarded the Women’s Prize for Fiction ‘Winner of Winners’ for her novel Half of a Yellow Sun in a public vote.
The public chose Chimamanda’s novel over a stellar-line up including Zadie Smith, the late Andrea Levy, Lionel Shriver, Rose Tremain and Maggie O’Farrell, amongst others.
The announcement was made in the UK this morning.
The Women’s Prize for Fiction is the United Kingdom’s most prestigious literary prizes annually awarded to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English, and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year.
Set in Nigeria during the Biafran War, Half Of A Yellow Sun won the Women’s Prize For Fiction in 2007.
Featuring issues of colonialism, class, race and female empowerment, it was adapted into a film starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton in 2013.
The Nigerian-born writer said: “I’m especially moved to be voted ‘Winner of Winners’ because this is the prize that first brought a wide readership to my work – and has also introduced me to the work of many talented writers.’”
