Kambili is the younger of Eugene and Beatrice Achike's two children.

That changes when she spends an extended amount of time away from her family home at the house of Aunty Ifeoma and her family. Kambili is shy and inhibited because of the years of abuse from her father. Kambili Achike is the central character in Purple Hibiscus and also the narrator of the story.Their mother, Beatrice, has deteriorated psychologically to a great degree. Kambili has become a young woman of eighteen, more confident than before, while her brother Jaja is about to be released from prison, hardened but not broken by his experience there. The novel ends almost three years after these events, on a cautiously optimistic note. In the meantime, Aunty Ifeoma and her family move to America after she is unfairly dismissed from her job as lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Jaja takes the blame for the crime and ends up in prison.

Unable to cope with Eugene's continual violence any longer, Beatrice poisons him. Ultimately, a critical mass is reached in terms of the lives of Kambili, Jaja and the existence of their family as it once was. While at Aunty Ifeoma's, Kambili also falls in love with a young priest, Father Amadi, which awakens her sense of her own sexuality. In this nurturing environment, both Kambili and Jaja become more open and more able to form and voice their own opinions. It practices a completely different form of Catholicism, making for a happy, liberal place that encourages its members to be inquisitive, form their own opinions and speak their minds. This household offers a marked contrast to what Kambili and Jaja are used to. A key period is the time Kambili and her brother spend at the house of her father's sister, Ifeoma, and her three children. The story is told through Kambili's eyes and is essentially about the disintegration of her family unit and her struggle to grow to maturity. Beatrice even has two miscarriages because of the violence. Eugene is both a religious zealot and a violent figure in the Achike household, subjecting his wife Beatrice, Kambili herself, and her brother Jaja to beatings and psychological cruelty. The central character is Kambili Achike, aged fifteen for much of the period covered by the book, a member of a wealthy family in Enugu State, dominated by her devoutly Catholic father, Eugene. Purple Hibiscus is set in postcolonial Nigeria, a country beset by political instability and economic difficulties. Her debut novel, it was first published by Algonquin Books in 2003. Purple Hibiscus is a novel written by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Purple hibiscus novel by chimamanda