Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Purple Hibiscus is the first novel of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Orange Prize for Fiction-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun.  It’s the story of Kambili, a fifteen year old girl growing up in a prosperous Nigerian household, but while her classmates label her a snob for not talking to them, in reality she is painfully shy and in constant terror of her father.  Her father insists on the best grades and extreme religious devotion, and will accept no substitute.

Advertisement

Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith

Dream Angus: The Celtic God of Dreams is part of a series of mythical tales retold by great contemporary writers in a new way. Angus is a god and a giver of dreams in Celtic mythology. He not only brings dreams to people in their sleep, but he helps them to realise their wishes and desires in their waking lives, or at least this is McCall Smith’s interpretation of Angus.

This short read is made up of a number of shorter stories – one of which is Angus’s own story.