The San Francisco City Arts & Lectures fall series went on sale today, and I bought tickets to see Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in conversation. Americanah was one of my favorite books of 2013, and I was not alone. It received the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named one of The New York Times Ten Best Books of the year.
Nigerian-born Adichie received a a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2008, also known as a "genius grant". The engaging book Uncommon Genius by Denise Shekerjian documents winners of the genius grants and looks for common ties between them. The grant process is unlike most: there is no application process and the judges are anonymous. The winner receives a phone call and is told they have won the grant in the form of an obligation-free $500,000, paid annually over five years.
Americanah is the story of a Nigerian man and woman, their time in America and England, and their relationship to their home. Having moved around growing up, I love books that provide an insider and outsider's view of a place - sometimes at the same time. It can be isolating to live in that state, but it makes for satisfying and thought-provoking reading. I learned as much about America as I did about Nigeria.
Her earlier books are on my list to read before the City Arts & Lectures event, which benefits the 826 Valencia Scholarship program. They include Half a Yellow Sun, which was also recently made into a film, Purple Hibiscus, and the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck.
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