One of my very best friends from school (then uni) is Nigerian, we both love our books and the Purple Hibiscus is one of the many excellent reads she recommended. The book was published a while ago in 2003 as the first major publication of the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who, as most other people pointed out, also wrote the equally great Half of a Yellow Sun, and The Thing Around Your Neck.

Set in postcolonial Nigeria, the story is about a catholic family of 4 that is headed by the very religious father, a resectable business man with a narrow interpretation of what is right and wrong. Generous and much-loved within the community, the father is can be quite abusive and acts violently towards his wife and children when their actions are deemed 'sinful', to the point that he very much disowned his biological father due to his traditional believes, and transferred his unconditional love to the 'Fathers' in church. The mother is very likable but weak and submissive, and dwells too deeply in the social assumptions in regard to the role of a traditional wife. The children would experience a dramatic change in their ways of life; the taste of poverty, lack of material comforts and new insights into the 'traditional believes' of their grandfather gave them a chance to question inequality, to question religion, and to question their father.

I don't want to give away too much of the story line, for it'd be unfair to you as a potential reader of the book, and the author, an one of a kind story-teller with utmost talent.