Purple Hibiscus

Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche tells the evocative story of 15-year old Kambili’s life growing up in Nigeria during a military coup.
This set text for AQA GCSE is an ideal reader for any Key Stage 4 classroom.


The limits of fifteen-year-old Kambili's world are defined by the high walls of her family estate and the dictates of her repressive father. Her life is regulated by schedules: prayer, sleep, study, and more prayer. When Nigeria begins to fall apart during a military coup, Kambili's father is involved mysteriously in the political crisis, while Kambili and her brother are sent away to live with their aunt. In this house, full of energy and laughter, Kambili discovers life and love - and a terrible, bruising secret deep within her family.


Centring on the promise of freedom and the pain and exhilaration of adolescence, Purple Hibiscus is the extraordinary debut of a Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the prize-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun.