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Americanah: The beautiful literary novel from the Women's Prize-winning and global bestselling author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Paperback – 9 Mar. 2017

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 46,687 ratings

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PRE-ORDER DREAM COUNT, THE SEARING NEW NOVEL FROM CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE, NOW.

How easy it was to lie to strangers, to create with strangers the versions of our lives we imagined.

'A delicious, important novel' THE TIMES

‘Alert, alive and gripping’ INDEPENDENT

‘Some novels tell a great story and others make you change the way you look at the world. Americanah does both’ GUARDIAN

Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria. In America, Ifemelu suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Meanwhile, Obinze plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, when they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion – for each other and for their homeland – they face the hardest decision of their lives.

Fearless, gripping, spanning three continents and numerous lives, the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Americanah is a literary masterpiece, and one of the defining books of the decade.

'A love story for our time'VOGUE

‘A brilliant novel: epic in scope, personal in resonance and with lots to say’OBSERVER

'A tour de force. Hugely impressive' MAIL ON SUNDAY

Kindle Storyteller Award 2024
Check out last year's winner: 'Stateside' by J.D KIRK. Read more

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Review

‘A brilliant novel: epic in scope, personal in resonance and with lots to say’ Elizabeth Day, Observer

‘A delicious, important novel from a writer with a great deal to say’ The Times

‘A brilliant exploration of being African in America … an urgent and important book, further evidence that its author is a real talent’ Sunday Telegraph

‘An extremely thoughtful, subtly provocative exploration of structural inequality, of different kinds of oppression, of gender roles, of the idea of home. Subtle, but not afraid to pull its punches’ Alex Clark, Guardian

‘A tour de force … The artistry with which Adichie keeps her story moving, while animating the complex anxieties in which the characters live and work, is hugely impressive’ Mail on Sunday

‘Adichie is terrific on human interactions … Adichie’s writing always has an elegant shimmer to it … Wise, entertaining and unendingly perceptive’ Independent on Sunday

‘Adichie paints on a grand canvas, boldly and confidently … This is a very funny, very warm and moving intergenerational epic that confirms Adiche’s virtuosity, boundless empathy and searing social acuity’ Dave Eggers

‘“An honest novel about race” … with guts and lustre … within the context of a well-crafted, compassionate, visceral and delicately funny tale of lasting high-school love and the sorrows and adventures of immigration’ Diana Evans, The Times

‘[A] long, satisfying novel of cross-continental relationships, exile and the pull of home … Adichie’s first novel for seven years and well worth the wait’ FT

‘Alert, alive and gripping’ Independent

Book Description

The beautiful literary novel from the Women's Prize-winning and global bestselling author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fourth Estate; 1st edition (9 Mar. 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 000735634X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0007356348
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.7 x 3.1 x 19.6 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 46,687 ratings

About the author

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE grew up in Nigeria. Her work has been translated into more than fifty-five languages. She is the author of the novels Purple Hibiscus, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize; Half of a Yellow Sun, which was the recipient of the Women’s Prize for Fiction “Best of the Best” award; Americanah, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award; the story collection The Thing Around Your Neck and the essays We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. Her most recent work is an essay about losing her father, Notes on Grief, and Mama’s Sleeping Scarf, a children’s book written as Nwa Grace-James. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
46,687 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book readable and thought-provoking. They praise the writing quality as splendid, talented, and skillful. The story is described as interesting, intricately woven, and fluent. Readers appreciate the compelling characters and their development. The book explores issues of race and gender with insightful observations.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

626 customers mention ‘Readability’626 positive0 negative

Customers find the book readable and insightful. They appreciate the well-developed characters and the author's unique writing style. Readers also mention that the structure is enjoyable.

"...Chimamanda Adichie is a wonderful observer of human nature, of qualities and the finer, grainier, subtle things that become the reasons for a person..." Read more

"...The central characters were thoroughly believable and I enjoyed the structuring of it, with parallel lives in London and America...." Read more

"...Ifemelu for me, already one of my fave characters in fiction, so well realised, so awe inspiring yet so authentic feeling...." Read more

"...It is just an absolute pleasure to read." Read more

344 customers mention ‘Writing quality’295 positive49 negative

Customers praise the writing quality of the book. They find it well-written, with authentic character portrayals and skillful language use. The story is described as readable, gripping, and descriptive. Readers also appreciate the author's easy way with words and consider it suitable for all readers.

"...However, here too it is the writer's strong story telling capability that shows the reader the world that Nigeria is; the reason why Ifemelu or..." Read more

"...It is a well-written, well-structured novel that would appeal to any general reader...." Read more

"...This is very splendidly written; includes multiple authentic characterisations of people from numerous backgrounds; has a super sound interpretation..." Read more

"Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie This as a very readable book...." Read more

340 customers mention ‘Thought provoking’333 positive7 negative

Customers find the book thought-provoking. They appreciate the insights and comical struggles. The writing is superb, with crisp analytical power and insightful details. The Nigerian part is enriching, offering discovery of habits, mentalities, and people. The author weaves in extra content brilliantly and is a wonderful observer of human nature.

"...are not the old world sixties' or seventies' immigrants; they are smart, capable, intelligent and educated middle class protagonists, who are forced..." Read more

"...It will give you depth of understanding if you know something." Read more

"...I love everything about this book as it tells the reader how middle class Africans (in this case Nigerians) see the world, how essentially different..." Read more

"...It is full of well observed detail, with touches of humour and is engaging and memorable...." Read more

306 customers mention ‘Story quality’241 positive65 negative

Customers enjoy the story's quality. They find it engaging from beginning to end, with an intricately woven narrative that spans continents and time. The story is straightforward and captures readers quickly. While some find the plot decent, others appreciate the ending that makes them wait.

"...or rushed, the ending of the novel feels as if it is emphatic, rich, real, perceptive and of course, hugely entertaining." Read more

"...I loved the ending that made us wait. The analysis of racism was astute, beyond the general understanding of the concept. Great depth throughout." Read more

"...I recommend this forceful narrative. It has tangible scenes translated into tangible reflections...." Read more

"...This ending was brilliant and had me feeling warm hours after whilst I walked our pet dog in our local park...." Read more

206 customers mention ‘Character development’181 positive25 negative

Customers find the characters engaging. They describe them as intelligent, educated, and middle-class protagonists. The characters' love is explored warmly and sensuously. Some readers feel the characters seem too rich or characterful, while others find them solid. Overall, the writing is described as delicious with wonderful characterizations and depictions of subtle emotions.

"...' immigrants; they are smart, capable, intelligent and educated middle class protagonists, who are forced to emigrate not because of ambition, or..." Read more

"I really enjoyed this book. The central characters were thoroughly believable and I enjoyed the structuring of it, with parallel lives in London..." Read more

"...characterisations of people from numerous backgrounds; has a super sound interpretation of even the minutiae in the United States, the UK and Nigeria..." Read more

"I loved the characters and the insight into America from Ifemelu’s point of view. I loved the ending that made us wait...." Read more

126 customers mention ‘Insight’118 positive8 negative

Customers find the book insightful and complex. They describe it as a love story that explores issues of race and gender. The book is described as culturally challenging and humorous. Readers appreciate the author's dignity and pride in her own ethnicity.

"...Perhaps it is this dignity and pride in her own ethnicity which is also her authenticity that allows Ifemelu to survive...." Read more

"...on Black hair, skin tones, American racial hierarchy and bi-racial relationships; as well as post 9-11 America, post-military rule capitalist Nigeria..." Read more

"...and non-black Americans, are all fuel for her very successful blog about blackness in America...." Read more

"...I loved the ending that made us wait. The analysis of racism was astute, beyond the general understanding of the concept. Great depth throughout." Read more

84 customers mention ‘Emotional content’84 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's emotional content nuanced and evocative. They appreciate the passionate writing style with cadence and rhythm. The themes resonate long after the book is finished, and the account of grief is heartbreaking yet inspiring.

"...However sudden or rushed, the ending of the novel feels as if it is emphatic, rich, real, perceptive and of course, hugely entertaining." Read more

"...already one of my fave characters in fiction, so well realised, so awe inspiring yet so authentic feeling...." Read more

"...That book was brilliant, intense and with a strong emotional hold - I gave it the top score of 5 stars...." Read more

"Absolutely loved these books. Left a huge impression on me. Cannot recommend highly enough Thank you so much. You will stay with me" Read more

79 customers mention ‘Humor’71 positive8 negative

Customers find the humor in the book witty and entertaining. They appreciate the insightful and comical aspects of race. The book feels real without frills or overdone cliches. The humor is clever and brilliant, with a lack of trifling novelty.

"...It is full of well observed detail, with touches of humour and is engaging and memorable...." Read more

"...To illustrate the quality of Chimamanda’s writing and the mild humour within her novel, I will finish my review with 2 quotes that apart from the..." Read more

"...love affair with Obinze was cleverly put together, at times very funny, engaging, warm and a joy to read...." Read more

"...Very brilliant expressions abound in the book, "a lack of trifling novelty", "an indifference so indifferent...", "...the growing urgency of..." Read more

Looking at America through the lens of an educated and informed Nigerian woman
5 out of 5 stars
Looking at America through the lens of an educated and informed Nigerian woman
'Americanah' is a kind of snide term directed to, and sometimes at, Nigerians who have spent time living in America before returning, with an assumed superiority complex. The deeply passionate university sweethearts Ifemelu and her boyfriend Obinze, like many of their peers always had their eyes on migrating to the West, as they saw scant opportunity under the military ruled Nigeria. With alternate chapters but very much focusing on Ifemelu we follow their time in the West, she in the United States where she gets to feel 'Black' (= other) for the first time; and him in UK struggling to get papers so that he can stay and prosper legally. But frankly this book is all about Ifemelu for me, already one of my fave characters in fiction, so well realised, so awe inspiring yet so authentic feeling.I love everything about this book as it tells the reader how middle class Africans (in this case Nigerians) see the world, how essentially different they are, or how different their condition is to African-Americans and Caribbean peoples. This is very splendidly written; includes multiple authentic characterisations of people from numerous backgrounds; has a super sound interpretation of even the minutiae in the United States, the UK and Nigeria; and as ever Adichie captures the intricacies of modern relationship dynamics so much better than most of her peers, but...But what pushes this work in to the genius sphere is how it uses looking at race through the lens of a Nigerian in America, to really truly talk about race, really getting into it, and it's done so powerfully because it's around the culture shock of a Nigerian coming across systematic and widespread anti-Blackness for the first time...where for the first time in her life she could classify herself as 'Black'.It is also has interesting and educational(!) snippets on Black hair, skin tones, American racial hierarchy and bi-racial relationships; as well as post 9-11 America, post-military rule capitalist Nigeria, the Liberal elite; diversity programmes, blogging and the coming of Obama; and if that wasn't enough the entire book is written around the idea of 'true love' and the compromises we make in life and/or with ourselves to grasp/deny it? In case you need me to spell it out, this is a Five Star Read
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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 April 2013
    What is the difference between an African-American and an American-African? Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's new novel Americanah gives you much fodder for thought if you have never stopped to think about such detailed distinctions on your own.
    Although the book tells the story about the love and lives of its two central characters Ifemelu and Obinze, Americanah is essentially a book about race, the way race is perceived and the way it exists in today's modern and globalised world.
    Ifemelu and Obinze meet in high school and fall head over heels in love. They come from very different backgrounds. Ifemelu's father is a former civil servant out of work and her mother is a middle class woman blinded by her prejudicial faith in God and His miracles. She encompasses everything that happens around her in the light of the lord, creating explanations that only serve her deep faith, without much touch with reality.
    This is modern day Nigeria in the eighties where the military reign seeps into everyday life and Ifemelu's mother changes her church to one which is supported by the generals. When her husband's distant cousin Uju (who has come from a small village to live with them in Lagos) decides to become the kept woman of a married, much older general, Ifemelu's mother terms it a 'miracle of God'.
    Here Ifemelu grows up, with a general distrust for the obvious. Right in the beginning of the story, Adichie makes it clear that Ifemelu and Obinze are not easily bought into the conventional. They ask, prod and try to find their own ways to deal with things around them.
    When the general is killed, Aunt Uju manages to cross continents to make her way to the USA with the general's illegitimate son. Ifemelu too finds herself in the USA soon thereafter, winning a scholarship for higher studies. The harrowing experiences that follow are the making of Ifemelu. All her experience or idea about the land of opportunities is from such glossy TV shows as the Cosby Show. Facing a reality that is nothing like the obscure shiny images in her mind, Ifemelu eventually lands on her feet, but not before she manages to destroy her now long distance relationship with Obinze.
    Ifemelu's self-consciousness and awkwardness turn into pride; she also finds herself distancing herself from her own kind who she feels are too desperate to blend in, like her Aunt Uju. Someone who once appeared full of practicality and wisdom and smartness now stinks of desperation. Uju herself faces the harsh reality of earning a livelihood instead of being kept by someone.
    Adichie very eloquently describes this falling out between Ifemelu and her once mentor as Uju tries to blend into being a American. Ifemelu finds a long term relationship with a white boy and discovers the depths of patronising from others on issues of race and colour. White American women, almost clueless about how to deal with a dark skinned girl, call her a 'beautiful woman', in tones that actually mean 'ordinary-looking black woman.'
    Adichie weaves this racial awakening of Ifemelu through a subtle input of events that expose the protagonist to her own identity. Adichie's characters are not all black, they are more multi coloured so to speak. They are in fact 'sable' or 'gingerbread' or 'caramel'. At one point Adichie describes one coloured woman as someone with 'skin so dark it has an undertone of blueberries.'
    Ifemelu deals with her increasing frustrations through her blog titled "Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black". She eventually wins a fellowship at Princeton, something Adichie herself won. The writer has said that many of Ifemelu's experiences are her own.
    Meanwhile, Obinze finds himself in the UK but ends up as an illegal immigrant. His experiences are really a world away from Ifemelu's more sophisticated problems with finding respect. Obinze is just looking for a day he can feel 'free' as he walks down the streets of London or Essex, cleaning toilets and putting up with crude racial encounters as he tries to make it on his own.
    Chimamanda Adichie is a wonderful observer of human nature, of qualities and the finer, grainier, subtle things that become the reasons for a person to become who he becomes. She captures human interactions superbly in this book. Ifemelu's extended visit to a New Jersey hair salon, where each hairdresser is justifiably 'correct' in the way she sees America as opposed to Ifemelu's own, is one of the first and most captivating such scenes in Americanah. African hair itself represents a political statement as the writer has said in most of her interviews. Promoting this book takes up some space in explaining how deep the roots of racial treatment has seeped into people's cultures.
    Ifemelu feels free after she stops hiding her Nigerian accent under an American one. She refuses to straighten her hair even when African-Americans ask her, 'You ever wonder why he likes you looking all jungle like that?" on observing her long term relationship with a white man.
    Perhaps it is this dignity and pride in her own ethnicity which is also her authenticity that allows Ifemelu to survive. Obinze struggles and fails and is shortly deported back to Lagos.
    Eventually, though, Obinze thrives in his own country, gets married to a high aspiring woman and again gets caught up between the values of wanting to be 'his own' or a 'wanna-be'. Ifemelu also returns to Nigeria and the rest of the novel very predictably returns to the unfinished love story between the two main protagonists. However, here too it is the writer's strong story telling capability that shows the reader the world that Nigeria is; the reason why Ifemelu or Obinze are who they are. The proud, home grown generation has no time for such nonsense as 'Americanahs' who seem to be returning home to just belittle and deride their own kind.
    Americanah is not just a simple novel. It deals with issues. It is a story of the new world, where immigrants are of a new kind. Ifemelu or Obinze are not the old world sixties' or seventies' immigrants; they are smart, capable, intelligent and educated middle class protagonists, who are forced to emigrate not because of ambition, or conflict or poverty but by "the oppressive lethargy of choicelessness".
    Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 2006 Orange Prize winner Half of a Yellow Sun was a complex book about the experiences of Igbo civilians during the Biafran war. The story was about history and politics and people. In Americanah, Adichie subtly tones her writing down one notch to deal with something that is far more complex than a war and history - she deals with identity and race in the modern age while explaining the present day socio-cultural and political background that makes people who they are.
    However sudden or rushed, the ending of the novel feels as if it is emphatic, rich, real, perceptive and of course, hugely entertaining.
    12 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 August 2014
    I really enjoyed this book. The central characters were thoroughly believable and I enjoyed the structuring of it, with parallel lives in London and America. I also leanrt a lot about myself, my own prejudices and preconceptions, which before reading the book I would have struggled to admit. (I'm all English, all white.)

    One of the messages of the book is that, as a white person, you should just listen. Not rush in with an opinion or an evaluation. I have heard the same thing said by feminists for the same reasons and I would strongly recommend white men to read the book.

    The only thing that bothered me about it was the emphasis on the heroine's beauty and sexiness. At one moment I am to believe that a man in a US supermarket tells her she is fat- and I think you have to be pretty big for that to happen there- and the next she is attracting a succession of men with her svelte charms. Something didn't add up and it stopped me giving the last star.

    I read this book because it was up there on the list of books to read by women authors. It is the compelling tale of a young woman's journey to the United States and back to Nigeria again. Adichie has some tart observations about American society. She doesn't seem to love it much: there is no affectionate description of any of the little details of Americana, ironically enough, that might have made the descriptions of America equal to those of Nigeria.

    At the end I'm not sure quite how to read the book: as satire, as a straight-forward love story, as a book for and about women, as a book about exile.

    It is a well-written, well-structured novel that would appeal to any general reader. It will certainly educate you if you know nothing about Nigeria. It will give you depth of understanding if you know something.
    18 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Cliente Kindle
    5.0 out of 5 stars Envolve, emociona e faz refletir.
    Reviewed in Brazil on 8 August 2024
    É uma história envolvente, com personagens bem construídos, ao mesmo tempo que nos faz ver questões culturais e raciais, por diversos ângulos.
  • Ximena.Hegu
    5.0 out of 5 stars A must read book
    Reviewed in Mexico on 13 May 2021
    I'm not a freqent reader. But I can say that this book will make you a frequent reader. It's got an amazing plot plus the content of the book is filled with culture from Nigeria inside and outside of its country. Really give it a try.
  • Melanie
    5.0 out of 5 stars Eine Liebesgeschichte und ein kulturell unglaublich interessantes Buch in einem
    Reviewed in Germany on 4 July 2021
    Wundervoller Roman!
    Ich fand das Buch wirklich leicht zu lesen, es geht immer in der Geschichte voran und dennoch bekommt man vieles aus Nigeria mit, wovon ich bislang nichts wusste.
    Aber am besten gefallen hat mir die Stimme der Autorin. Sie schreibt das Leben wie es ist. Große Themen kommen zwischen Anrufen mit Freunden und dem Essen. Auch die Beziehung wirken so echt, wie die Hauptfigur Menschen trifft die für den Moment passen und dann doch auseinander gehen.
    Ich werde ihre anderen Bücher auch noch lesen!
  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book, with some issues
    Reviewed in Canada on 25 October 2019
    This was overall an excellent, well written book! As a 30 year old black woman, it is easily one of my favourite reads of the last couple of years. Slightly too long, but I enjoyed the journey and the conversations on culture and race in both America and the UK. The author captured perfectly the difference between the two places and of course them and Nigeria. Overall this is a story of identity, race, immigration, coming of age and love. All equally important and complex. I read the book in 4 days, it was a page turner.

    A couple of critiques I had:

    1. Not becoming black until moving to America - This was a central theme, but is race non-existent in Nigeria or is it just less important? If race was non-existent, skin bleaching, fake British and US accents and other whitening endeavors would not exist in Africa and other black countries worldwide. Blackness is a fact. But becoming a minority through immigration and race becoming a person's number one defining feature, is what changes.

    2. Ifemelu's life became too easy for me - Apart from her initial struggle in America, which was awful!, she really never struggled again. She had steady jobs, steady boyfriends, lucrative blogs. Even though there were issues, I think the fact that essentially everything she tried for worked out to some extent, is not indicative of life in your early 20s to mid 30s. Those times are often much more turbulent and riddled with mistakes and failures, in my opinion.
  • Cliente Amazon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Affascinante viaggio fra Nigeria e Stati Uniti
    Reviewed in Italy on 20 November 2020
    Bellissimo romanzo, mai scontato, che aiuta un po' ad approfondire la questione razziale negli Stati Uniti. Un viaggio affascinante dalla Nigeria agli USA e ritorno, con tutte le contraddizioni e le differenze di questi due paesi, viste con gli occhi di una giovane donna africana che, arrivata negli Stati Uniti, si rende conto di essere nera, con tutte le conseguenze e le problematiche che ciò comporta in quel paese.