At its heart, Americanah, winner of the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award and selected as one of the 10 Best Books of the year by the New York Times Book Review, is a true love story. Ifemelu and Obinze are dating when Ifemelu moves to America. After searching for a job in America and having a bad experience, Ifemleu and Obinze fall apart. Americanah takes on the complex issues of race and love and breaks them down into simple ones - showing that there is nothing complex about either issue. Love is simply love and racism is simply hatred. This novel will surely become a great American classic.
The bestselling novel--and one of Barack Obama's summer reading picks--from the award-winning author of We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele. "From one of the world's great contemporary writers comes the story of two Nigerians making their way in the U.S. and the UK, raising universal questions of race and belonging, the overseas experience for the African diaspora, and the search for identity and a home." --Barack Obama Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read 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. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion--for each other and for their homeland.