Americanah

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013

Devastation Rating

Ugly Crying
literary fiction loss love injustice

Our Take

Ifemelu leaves Nigeria and arrives in America to discover that she has become black — a category that didn't exist for her at home. Adichie writes the immigration experience as identity surgery: painful, permanent, and no guarantee of belonging. The love story at the centre is real but the loneliness around it is realer.

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