Chimamanda Adichie’s “Americanah” chosen as BBC’s top book of 2013

Described as “supremely smart”, Nigerian Chimamanda Adichie has won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (for Purple Hibiscus), the Orange Broadband award (for Half of a Yellow Sun), and a MacArthur ‘genius’ grant. With Americanah, a star-crossed love story that spans three continents, she proves she is also supremely funny.  This is Chimamanda’s third novel after Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun.

Americanah is about Ifemelu who leaves her boyfriend behind in Nigeria to study in the US. After her initial disorienting days as an immigrant and a string of humiliating jobs, she finds an outlet in a satiric blog. “Dear Non-American Black, when you make the choice to come to America, you become black,” she writes. She becomes a Princeton fellow and dates a Yale professor. After 13 years her heart brings her back to Lagos, where she is not ‘black’. She’s Igbo. And Americanah.

Check out the top 10 below.

1. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
2. The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber
3. The Book of My Lives by Aleksandar Hemon
4. The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
5. The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud
6. The Son by Philipp Meyer
7. Sparta by Roxana Robinson
8. Tenth of December by George Saunders
9. The Woman Who Lost Her Soul by Bob Shacochis
10. Mary Coin by Marisa Silver