Americanah By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Americanah takes us on an interesting love journey of two characters -Ifemelu and Obinze and the experiences they encountered on their search for a better life outside of their home country Nigeria. Through their experiences, the characters provide a window into hard issues of race, culture, class, identity and the struggles of living abroad in a fun yet very informative way.

Ifemulu and Obinze fell in love in Nigeria and lost touch through the scuffles encountered on their different paths in the USA and UK respectively and find themselves when they both return to Nigeria. All the different characters mentioned in the book no matter the length brought so much meaning and flavour to the story. Their stories, achievements, struggles, weaknesses and flaws make the reader connect to them at a deeper level. I could relate to some of the experiences from the culture shock experienced living abroad to the reverse culture shock of returning back home.

Although I had heard about Chimamanda through her TED talk (one of my favourite) ‘the Danger of a single story’ this is my first time reading her works, Americanah is storytelling at its best. I can’t wait to read more of her books.