I’ve been wanting to read Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for many months. Almost immediately after it was published I started seeing all sorts of rave reviews, from a variety of reputable sources. It also won the Orange Prize for Fiction.
That’s why I was very startled in Barnes and Noble when I stumbled across the just released U.S. paperback sitting on a table.
It’s 100% different from the U.S hardcover. (And in my opinion, bad different.) This surprises me because of how critically acclaimed this book was when it was released last year. Normally, if a book generates a lot of good buzz, or wins a major award, publishers like to keep the cover recognizable. That way, people who heard some of that good publicity might say, “Oh yeah, here’s this book, it’s supposed to be good, and oh great! – it’s in paperback now! Now it’s cheap enough to take a risk and buy it.”
An example that comes immediately to mind is Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl. That one had a lot of great buzz surrounding the hardcover’s release, and the paperback looked identical.
So the decision to change the cover so dramatically was surprising to me, for that reason. Additionally, while there is nothing really wrong* with the paperback cover, it’s so boring. I feel like I’ve seen this book cover a million times before.
I guess this means that when/if I buy this book, I’ll have to hunt down a hardcover copy. I don’t judge books to read based (solely) on the cover, but I do base which edition to add to my collection based on the cover/design. :)
Here are the covers….what do you think?
*By “nothing really wrong” with the paperback, I mean nothing wrong except that after seeing the hardcover and several foreign editions of the book, it’s the only one that displays a full yellow sun, rather than a half. Interesting. Very rebellious.
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