Adichie Reads from "Americanah" at Princeton, May 15

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie — Americanah Wednesday, May 15th, 2013 at 6PM — Labyrinth Books Princeton

Labyrinth Books, Princeton's Center for African American Studies, the Program in African Studies, and the Carl Fields Center at Princeton invite you to a reading by acclaimed author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from her new novel. Introduction by Professor Chika Okeke-Agulu of Princeton. From the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun, comes a dazzling new novel: a story of love and race centered around a young man and woman from Nigeria who face difficult choices and challenges in the countries they come to call home. As teenagers in a Lagos secondary school, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are leaving the country if they can. Ifemelu—beautiful, self-assured—departs for America to study. She suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships and friendships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze—the quiet, thoughtful son of a professor—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.  Years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a writer of an eye-opening blog about race in America. But when Ifemelu returns to Nigeria, and she and Obinze reignite their shared passion—for their homeland and for each other—they will face the toughest decisions of their lives. Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a richly told story set in today’s globalized world. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the 2003 O. Henry Prize winner. She was shortlisted for the 2002 Caine Prize for African Writing. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and longlisted for the Booker. Her other books are the acclaimed novel Half of a Yellow Sun and the story collection The Thing Around Your Neck. She now divides her time between the U.S. and Nigeria. Chika Okeke-Agulu is Associate Professor in the Department of Art & Archaeology and at the Center for African American Studies, Princeton University. Please r.s.v.p to info-pr@labyrinthbooks.com