Americanah

A Novel

By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh

10th ANNIVERSARY EDITION • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic about star-crossed lovers that explores questions of race and being Black in America—and the search for what it means to call a place home. • From the award-winning author of We Should All Be Feminists and Half of a Yellow Sun • WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR

"An expansive, epic love story."—O, The Oprah Magazine

One of the New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century • One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be Black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.

At once powerful and tender, Americanah is a remarkable novel that is "dazzling…funny and defiant, and simultaneously so wise."—San Francisco Chronicle

©2024 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“What’s as American as the invention of race? Self-invention. So we are reminded by Adichie’s engaging third novel . . . 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. Americanah is social satire masquerading as romantic comedy. . . . Beyond race, the book is about the immigrant’s quest: self-invention, which is the American subject. Americanah is unique among the booming canon of immigrant literature of the last generation (including writers Junot Díaz, Jhumpa Lahiri, Gary Shteyngart, Chang-rae Lee, Dinaw Mengestu and Susan Choi). Its ultimate concern isn’t the challenge of becoming American or the hyphenation that requires, but the challenge of going back home. . . . Affecting.”—Emily Raboteau, The Washington Post

“Adichie has written a big knockout of a novel about immigration, American dreams, the power of first love, and the shifting meanings of skin color . . . Americanah is a sweeping story that derives its power as much from Adichie’s witty and fluid writing style as it does from keen social commentary. . . . Americanah works in so many different genres—coming-of-age novel, romance, comic novel of social manners, up-to-the-minute meditation on race, as well as the aforementioned immigrant saga—that I’m shortchanging its bounty by only mentioning some of the main characters’ adventures here. Like Ifemelu’s hairdo, Adichie’s novel tightly braids together multiple ideas and storylines. It’s a marvel of skilled construction and imagination.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR

“Americanah is one of the freshest pieces of fiction of the year, easily on par with George Saunders’s Tenth of December, and the fact that its subject isn’t instantly recognizable does not make it any less of an engrossing, all-encompassing read. Americanah is quite explicitly a book about race and African identity, but there are many moments when it transcends these themes. Adichie’s style of writing is familiar and personal, and her depiction of the African diaspora scathingly casts many of her main characters as a particularly loathsome type of East Coast intellectual. . . . Her success comes at the level of sentences, the way she can bring a character to life on the strength of a few words . . . This book is absolutely essential.”—Drew Grant, New York Observer

Great listen

The story is an eye opener. And I think listening to it had a greater effect as the narrator mastered the English Nigerian accent.

Dues race matter?

Terrific perspective on race relations in the US vs abroad. Smart. beautiful and complex love story.

Brilliant

An extraordinarily beautiful narration by Adjoa Andoh. Her inflections and tone were perfectly and aptly done for every character. The accents were brilliant. I truly enjoyed listening to this novel while I read this profound story.

This author never disappoints

I love the accuracy and how this book kept me on the edge wanting to keep reading

Brilliant story teller

I enjoyed everything about the book, Chimanmanda is one the best writers of her generation.

Great listen

I loved every minute of this book. The narration was point and the story of itself was relatable. Great listen!!

Beautiful and moving

One of the most beautiful stories I’ve ever read and the audio book is excellent

Everything!

Nothing, Listened to the ending of Americana’s with a foreboding.. I was thinking obinze will die.. now I am smiling.. content!

It is a must read for every Americanah

Here expending expending the definition of Americanah to all Africans who’ve migrated to the US in their teenage years or twenties! This book helps ground and give an explanation - not a reason - of the differences, or divide in perception Africans and African Americans have of each other. Above all, it is a love story of high school sweethearts separated by the hard realities of student migration, reunited by undying desires only to be separated again by the weight of responsibility and adulthood.

My book club could just focus on the accents of the reader

Listening to the audible really enhanced the flavor of this beautifully written novel. It offered me a unique perspective of America. I didn’t want the book to end. Highly recommended.