Thought-provoking books by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie you must read

International bestselling author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born on September 15, 1977 in Nigeria. After studying medicine for some time, she left for the United States in 1997, where she studied communication and political science. Balancing her time between Nigeria and the United States, she got a master’s degree in creative writing from John Hopkins University and studied African history at Yale University. She has received multiple awards and honours, including the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007) and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2008).

Adichie’s 2009 TED Talk, ‘The Danger of A Single Story’, is currently one of the most viewed TED Talks ever. Her 2012 talk ‘We Should All Be Feminists’ began a global conversation about women's liberation and feminism, so much so that it was later published as a book in 2014.

Read on to know more about all the thought-provoking books written by Adichie.

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‘Purple Hibiscus’, published in 2003, is a haunting tale of Africa and how an adolescent goes through tremendous changes. The story revolves around 15-year-old Kambili, whose life is characterized by the high dividers of her family legacy and her repressive dad. Her world is regulated by schedules: prayer, rest, study, and more prayer. When Nigeria starts to fall apart during a military coup, Kambili's dad, who was involved in the political crisis, sends Kambili and her brother to live with their aunt. In this house, loaded with energy and laughter, Kambili explores life and finds love – and a horrendous mystery within her family. Adichie won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book (overall) in 2005 for ‘Purple Hibiscus’.

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‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ is a remarkable novel about moral responsibility, the end of colonialism, ethnic allegiances, class and race—and about the ways in which love can complicate them all. The book was published in 2006. With empathy and the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the turbulence of the decade. Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is a houseboy for a professor, brimming with revolutionary enthusiasm. Olanna is the professor’s delightful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privileges in Lagos for a dusty college town and the charm of her new darling. Richard is a modest, youthful Englishman in bondage to Olanna's twin sister, a baffling figure who denies being with anyone. As Nigerian soldiers advance and they should run for their lives, their beliefs are severely tried, just like their loyalties to each other. Adichie won the Orange Prize for Fiction (now called the Women’s Prize for Fiction) in 2007, and the ‘Best of the Best’ of the second decade of the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2015 for ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’.

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‘Americanah’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was published in 2013. The story revolves around Ifemelu and Obinze, who are young and in love when they leave military-administered Nigeria for the West. Lovely, confident Ifemelu sets out towards America where regardless of her scholarly achievement, she is compelled to wrestle with being dark unexpectedly. Calm, smart Obinze had hoped to join her, however post-9/11 America is shut to him; and so he dives into a perilous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they unite again in a democratic Nigeria, and reignite their love and affection for one another and for their country. Adichie won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 2013 for this book, among other awards.

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‘The Thing Around Your Neck’ is a collection of 12 short stories and the book was published in 2009. In ‘The Thing Around Your Neck’, Adichie turns her infiltrating eye on Nigeria as well as America. In ‘A Private Experience’, a medical student stows away from a mob with a helpless Muslim lady whose nobility and faith constrain her to go up against the real fears she's been driving endlessly. In ‘Tomorrow is Too Far’, a lady discovers the overwhelming mystery that encompasses her sibling's demise. These stories map the impact of two societies and the profoundly human battle to accommodate them.

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Published in 2014, this exceptionally acclaimed book is taken from the much-appreciated 2012 TEDx discussion of the same name. In this book Adichie offers readers a remarkable definition of woman's rights for the 21st century. Drawing widely on her own encounters and her profound comprehension of the often concealed real factors of sexual issues, here is one wonderful book on what it means being a woman now. She also writes about why we should all be women's activists.

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Published in 2017, ‘Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions’ is an amazing statement about women's liberation today, composed by Adichie as a letter to her friend. The book has 15 priceless suggestions for how to empower a little girl and raise her to be an independent lady. Giving advice to a girl to read and perceive the part of language in strengthening unfortunate social standards; urging her to pick a helicopter, and not just a doll, as a toy if she wants to; having open discussions with her about appearance, character, and sexuality; and exposing the myths that ladies are some way or another prepared to be in the kitchen, and that men can "permit" them to have full time professions, ‘Dear Ijeawele’ goes right to the core of sexual legislative issues in the 21st century. It began another and critically required conversation about what it truly intends to be a lady today.

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