There are some novels that tell a great story and others that make you change the way you look at the world. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah is a book that manages to do both.
It is ostensibly a love story; the tale of childhood sweethearts at school in Nigeria, whose lives take different paths when they seek their fortunes in America and England…
But it is also a brilliant dissection of modern attitudes to race, spanning three continents and touching on issues of identity, loss and loneliness.
Selected by the New York Times as one of The 10 Best Books of 2013,[1] Americanah is a deeply felt book written with equal parts lyricism and erudition. More than that, it is an important book – and yet one that never lets its importance weigh down the need to tell a truly gripping human story.
Adapted from:
The Guardian. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – review. April 2013.
1. The New York Times. The 10 Best Books of 2013. December 2013. www.nytimes.com (last accessed 17 January 2015).