Recommendations
Books Like Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Nigerian diaspora and race in America
If you were captivated by Adichie's account of Ifemelu and Obinze — the Nigerian outsider's clarity on American race, the blog that says what the novel dramatizes, and the question of what it means to return as an Americanah — these books offer comparable depth in diaspora fiction, the literature of race in America, and the contemporary Nigerian literary tradition.
- 1
Buy on AmazonPurple Hibiscus
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Adichie's debut novel — the Nigerian world that Ifemelu and Obinze came from; the foundation of the literary project Americanah completes.
- 2
Buy on AmazonHalf of a Yellow Sun
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Adichie's Biafran War novel — the historical depth behind the contemporary Nigeria that Ifemelu returns to; the generation that produced Ifemelu and Obinze's parents.
- 3
Buy on AmazonOpen City
by Teju Cole
Cole's Nigerian-American novel of a doctor walking New York — the companion in contemporary Nigerian-American literary fiction; a different register but the same diaspora consciousness.
- 4
Buy on AmazonInvisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
Ellison's Black American classic — the American racial experience that Ifemelu is encountering from outside; the canonical American text that Adichie's African perspective is in dialogue with.
- 5
Buy on AmazonWe Need New Names
by NoViolet Bulawayo
Bulawayo's Zimbabwean-American novel — a young African woman in America encountering the same racial system Ifemelu navigates; the Southern African parallel to Americanah.
- 6
Buy on AmazonHomegoing
by Yaa Gyasi
Gyasi's Ghanaian-American multigenerational novel — the contemporary African-American literary tradition's expansion; the companion to Americanah in its engagement with the Atlantic world.
- 7
Buy on AmazonSecond Class Citizen
by Buchi Emecheta
Emecheta's autobiographical novel — a Nigerian woman in 1960s London; the predecessor to Americanah in the African diaspora literary tradition, an earlier generation's account.
- 8
Buy on AmazonBeloved
by Toni Morrison
Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel — the American racial history that underlies Ifemelu's experience of becoming Black in America; the deep past of the racial system she is navigating.
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