I wanted to write about the type of immigration I am familiar with, an immigration of people who are not starving, who are middle class, who choose to leave because they want more choices.ĪrtsATL: What does the title mean exactly and when did you decide on it?Īdichie : I decided fairly early on and by the end of the book I wanted to change the title to something more flowery, but my editor disagreed, which was probably a good thing. on March 6.ĪrtsATL : How did you get the idea for Americanah ?Ĭhimamanda Ngozi Adichie : When people think of African immigrants, they immediately think of poverty. She will appear at the First Baptist Church of Decatur at 7 p.m. As such, Americanah is an eye-opening look at the meaning of love, luck, forbearance, inequality and the shades of life determined by the color of one’s skin and the origin of one’s birth.Ĭhimamanda Ngozi Adichie spoke to ArtsATL from Nigeria. In choosing to tell the state of the races through Ifemula’s personal blogs, Adichie adroitly avoids being didactic even as she regales the reader with delightfully razor-sharp sermons. Nigerian-born and raised, Ifemula and her lover Obinze both leave Nigeria - he to the U.K., where he struggles she to the U.S., where she eventually begins to write a wildly successful and candid blog that chronicles the African American and American African, i.e., a slave descendant’s narrative versus an immigrant’s narrative. Her second novel, the Orange Prize–winning Half of a Yellow Sun, clawed open the Biafran War of Independence and the meaning of nationalism, sovereignty and failure.Īdichie’s third novel, Americanah, is a searing exploration of race relations in America as well as a tender love story. Purple Hibiscus, her debut novel and Hurston/Wright Legacy Award winner, delved into the seamier side of one “perfect” Nigerian family. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a veteran at unearthing tales most would prefer remain buried.

2013 chimamanda ngozi adichie