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Americanah
Unavailable
Americanah
Unavailable
Americanah
Audiobook17 hours

Americanah

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILEY S WOMEN S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2014.

From the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun, a powerful story of love, race and identity.

As teenagers in Lagos, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are fleeing the country if they can. The self-assured Ifemelu departs for America. There she suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Thirteen years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a blogger. But after so long apart and so many changes, will they find the courage to meet again, face to face?

Fearless, gripping, spanning three continents and numerous lives, the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning ‘Americanah' is a richly told story of love and expectation set in today's globalized world.

“Actress Adjoa Andoh brings to life Adichie's complex, beautifully wrought novel – which is both a love story and a nuanced analysis of political topics including systemic racism in America; immigration in the UK; and the class system in Nigeria.” VOGUE

“One of the previous decade's landmark novels… Andoh is a skilled, exciting narrator.” THE TIMES
LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 11, 2013
ISBN9781471231957
Unavailable
Americanah
Author

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the author of Purple Hibiscus, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize, Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction; and acclaimed story collection The Thing Around Your Neck. Americanah, was published around the world in 2013, received numerous awards and was named one of New York Times Ten Books of the Year. A recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, she divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.

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Reviews for Americanah

Rating: 4.232465508777824 out of 5 stars
4/5

2,381 ratings170 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It was a great book. The narration wasn't accurate as names and words were pronounced wrong.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I can't really say how this book made me feel
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A stunning story. I was happy to be a fly on the wall taking in the observations of the characters as they navigated their lives.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Well thought and carefully written
    Totally worth reading the book
    This book gives a wide range of different cultural background
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An eye opener, I really enjoyed the narration as it made you invest a bit more Afropolitanism that is present and aee the difference between the cultures, race and socioeconomic status of the characters. The narrative made you expierience the story on a more in dept view as when you read the book on its own.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A captivating story about race, racism, immigration, ignorance, biases, authenticity and survival in a foreign country. The story is told through the authentic, opinionated, strong, charismatic and well spoken Ifemelu.

    Ifemelu is a Nigerian female who moves to America to study. It is in America where she for the first time recognizes her race because of the biases and racism that exist in America towards Africa and black people. The book brilliantly highlights the different biases, racism and ignorance towards black people, particularly black foreigners, through Ifemelu’s life experience in America.

    A must read!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An amazing book, Chimamanda writes such rich and beautiful characters!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Thus is a very interesting read. Another suspense Chimamanda! Happy ending though.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I was totally absorbed in every line of this piece. What a beau book it is.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Brilliant complex story of many believable characters in several equally believable and fascinating social, geographical and racial milieus. Adjoa Andoh reads it better than I thought humanly possible. She should get a prize.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Very engaging read...everything I heard and more- save that at the end its promotes the "selfie" idea at the expense of the family...if its okay for a spouse to up and leave just because a lost soul mate comes back or because of "acrobatic sex", I wonder what will be left of the society though...
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Such a great book. The characters were well developed and charming.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Story: 1 (woman goes to America where she meets a lot of racists)

    Narrator: 2 (Horrible accents)

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Adichie has a way with words! This is a beautiful work of art. I've listened to it twice.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wowed. Chimamanda’s incandescent writing, brought to brilliant life by the narrator.
    I didn’t want to stop
    listening—and i didn’t want it to end!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A great story to understand race in America from the perspective of a black Nigerian woman, all intertwined with a beautiful love story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Beautiful and rich story of love lost and found. The foreign experiences of the characters were especially relatable. Really loved every minute of this book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is a pleasure to listen to. It's a funny pervasive look into culture and change. It gives an interesting, real perspective on the subject of race and immigration in America, as well as an intimate look at love.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is the kind of book that makes you interested in reading books if you’re not much of a reading. Amazing read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The pronunciation of the Nigerian names was painful on the ear. But it was a beautiful reading. I loved, loved it!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Strong female voices and wonderful insights. I particularly loved the narration.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The story of Ifemelu and Obinze. Their romance overarches the narrative, but there are long periods (at least 50% of the book) where they are not even on the same continent and they both must get on with their lives. Neither character is easy to like, but then neither is racism.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Just amazing once again! The worst part is because it ends!!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Brilliant. The writing is incredible. Best book I've ever read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I wanted to love this book, but the pacing for me was too slow, and the characters got lost in long vignettes of observation. It was interesting and I loved learning about Nigeria and seeing America through a different lens, I just wish the editing had been stronger, making it a tighter, more readable book
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Such a great story, it was real and descriptive, wonderful!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Adichie is a perceptive and talented storyteller, and this book is a worthy successor to Half of a Yellow Sun, covering very different ground. The framework is a love story involving a couple of young Nigerians, which allows her to contrast the experiences and pitfalls facing legal and illegal immigrants in America and England. The American part of the story dominates, but the later section set back in Nigeria is fascinating.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The narrator only added to what was a terrific tale and insight into those of us who choose to leave home. A beautiful and stunningly accurate book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A fascinating book with lots of complex and thoughtful things to say about race, class and the modern world. The plot was the weakest part of the book, with the love story a bit shallow and over the top, but within the constraints of the story, Adichie explores race in ways that were invigorating and powerful.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When Ifemelu, a beautiful Nigerian woman attends a dinner party in Manhattan with her white boyfriend, the discussion buzzes about the potential election of Barack Obama as President. One guest expects that Obama will "end racism in this country". A Haitian woman agrees declaring that racism never affected her in California. Ifemelu argues: "The only reason you say that race was not an issue is because you wish it was not. We all wish it was not. But it's a lie. I came from a country where race was not an issue; I did not think of myself as black and I only became black when I came to America."This novel centers around Ifemelu's experience of coming to America to improve her life. leaving family, home, and love behind. This is the path to betterment that is well understood in Nigeria. However, Ifemelu's (and other immigrants) experience starts slowly with great difficulty with issues of race at the forefront of her struggles. Even after she breaks through the "class" barrier, she continues to experience racial inequalities while struggling to retain her ethnicity instead of conforming to "white America". Especially with the current focus on our country's racial discord, when it is easier to believe that racism only occurs in certain geographic or socio-economic populations, this novel reminds us that none of us are literally color-blind. It allows us an opportunity to walk in Ifemelu's figurative shoes to see how explicit and unintentional racism affects many people of color in our country. The narrative is interrupted a little too often by the "essays" on racism, but the characters and the story are worthwhile and keep you cheering for love and authenticity to win out in the end.