 Book cover, 2013 | |
| Author | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
Publication date | 14 May 2013 |
| Publication place | Nigeria |
| ISBN | 978-0-307-96212-6 |
Americanah is a 2013 novel byChimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Her third novel and fourth book, it was published on 14 May 2013 byAlfred A. Knopf. The novel recounts the story of a young Nigerian woman, Ifemelu, who emigrates to the United States to attend a university. It won theNational Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 2013.
The novel tells the story of a young Nigerian woman and her male schoolmate, who did not know about thetrans-Atlantic slave trade in school and had no understanding ofracism in the United States orsocial class in the United Kingdom.[1][2] A commercial success upon publication, a 2015 report byFrance 24 revealed thatAmericanah has sold more than 500,000 copies in the US and has been translated into 25 languages.
Adichie, in her 2009TED talk entitled "The Danger of a Single Story" argued for the understanding of the multiplicity of African experiences. With her second novelHalf of a Yellow Sun,Vogue classified her as the first in a series of young African authors writing about their countries with Western audiences in mind. Adichie started writing fiction atJohns Hopkins University and later got a master's in African studies atYale University.[3]
Adichie said that when she was growing up, "everyone wanted to go to America. But I never wanted to until I realised it would be a way of escaping becoming a doctor", hence, after a year of studying medicine, she dropped out and left Nigeria to the US at 19 years-old to live with her sister inBrooklyn, and then toPhiladelphia, where she studied. It took Adichie four years to write the novel. The title "Americanah" is a Lagosian slang for "Nigerians newly returned after a spell Stateside ranging from dissects, satirises, and, at its most potent, simply describes the immigrant experience, the myriad forms of racism, how race is viewed and experienced differently in America and Britain, and how we have to leave a place to belong to it".[4]
The novel was published in French byGallimard in 2015.[5]
Two Nigerian teenagers, Ifemelu and Obinze fell in love in their school days at Lagos. The country is ruled by the military and people seek to exit the country. Ifemelu moves to the United States to study, however she begins seeing another view of her from the people. Such views includes racism and for the first time, she begins understanding being black. Obinze, on his side hopes that he would join her but his visa gets denied following the September 11 attack in the US. He eventually moves to London and becomes an undocumented immigrant after his visa expires.
After many years, Obinze returns to Nigeria. He has become wealthy since he works as a property developer. Ifemelu gains attention in the United States following her blog about race. The blog is named "Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black". When she returns to Nigeria, the two consider reviving a relationship in light of their diverging experiences and identities during their many years apart.
In her review forSan Francisco Chronicle,Catherine Chung wrote, "Americanah is an exhilarating, mind-expanding pleasure of a read. It is a brilliant treatise on race, class and globalization, and also a deep, clear-eyed story about love — and how it can both demand and make possible the struggle to become our most authentic selves".[6] Kristy Davis ofOprah Daily wrote that the novel is "an expansive, epic love story. It pulls no punches with regard to race, class and the high-risk, heart-tearing struggle for belonging in a fractured world",[7] whileNPR wrote that "Adichie weaves whole entries into the narrative, and these tart editorials add yet another dimension toAmericanah, which is as capacious, absorbing and original a novel as you will read this year".[8] Eugenia Williamson ofThe Boston Globe wrote, "a cerebral and utterly transfixing epic...Americanah is superlative at making clear just how isolating it can be to live far away from home".[9] Mike Peed ofThe New York Times Book Review wrote that it is "a novel that holds the discomfiting realities of our times fearlessly before us...A steady-handed dissection of the universal human experience".[10]
In her review forThe Washington Post,Emily Raboteau praised the author, writing that "Adichie is uniquely positioned to compare racial hierarchies in the United States to social striving in her native Nigeria. She does so in this new work with a ruthless honesty about the ugly and beautiful sides of both nations".[11]The Dallas Morning News called the novel "a bright, bold book with unforgettable swagger that proves it sometimes takes a newcomer to show Americans to ourselves".[12] John Timpane ofThe Philadelphia Inquirer acknowledged that "Americanah tackles the U.S. race complex with a directness and brio no U.S. writer of any color would risk",[13] whileVogue andThe Seattle Times wrote that "Americanah is that rare thing in contemporary literary fiction: a lush, big-hearted love story that also happens to be a piercingly funny social critique"[3] and "a near-flawless novel",[14] respectively.
In a review forThe Chicago Tribune, Laura Pearson wrote, "sprawling, ambitious and gorgeously written, 'Americanah' covers race, identity, relationships, community, politics, privilege, language, hair, ethnocentrism, migration, intimacy, estrangement, blogging, books and Barack Obama. It covers three continents, spans decades, leaps gracefully, from chapter to chapter, to different cities and other lives".[15]
Americanah won the 2013National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.[16] It was shortlisted for theBaileys Women's Prize for Fiction in 2014.[17] It won the 2013 Heartland Award for Fiction byThe Chicago Tribune.[18]
It was rated in 2013 as "one of the Best Books of the Year" byThe New York Times,NPR,Chicago Tribune,The Washington Post,The Seattle Times,Entertainment Weekly, andNewsday. The novel was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of 2013 byNew York Times Book Review.[19] In March 2017,Americanah won the "One Book, One New York" program byOne City One Book.[20][21] In 2024, it was ranked #27 in the list of 100 best books of the21st century byThe New York Times.[22]
AFrance 24's 2015 report shows thatAmericanah sold more than 500,000 copies and has been translated into 25 languages.[5] The novel remained for 78 weeks onNPR's Paperback Best-Seller list.[23]The New York Times included it to their list of best books of 2013. Sales soared high and by 23 December 2013, it was on no. 179 onAmazon's list of its 10,000 best-selling books.[24]
In 2022,Americanah was banned in theClay County School District in Florida.[25]
In 2014, it was announced thatDavid Oyelowo andLupita Nyong'o would star in a film adaptation of the novel,[26] to be produced byBrad Pitt and his production companyPlan B.[27] In 2018, Nyong'o toldThe Hollywood Reporter that she was developing a television miniseries based on the book, which she would produce and star in.[28] It was announced on September 13, 2019, thatHBO Max would air the miniseries in ten episodes, with actor and playwrightDanai Gurira as writer andshowrunner.[29] On October 15, 2020, it was reported that the miniseries would not move forward due to scheduling conflicts.[30]
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