Purple Hibiscus, the first novel by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has received considerable critical attention since its publication in 2003. The book has been extensively reviewed in both newspapers and academic journals and, recently, detailed scholarly readings have provided illuminating insight into some of the narrative’s prominent themes and motifs. Ultimately, the split of the narrator’s intellectual and emotional allegiances in Purple Hibiscus may well mirror the author’s awareness of the complexities of her own relationship to postcolonial Nigeria—a bond whose intricacies need to be explored and probed into, but which cannot, at present, be simplistically resolved. -- Daria Tunca