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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks to Ted Hodgkinson

Fictions – Americanah

Hay Festival 2014, 

As teenagers in Lagos, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are fleeing the country if they can. The self-assured Ifemelu departs for America. There she suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze 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. Thirteen years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly-democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a blogger. But after so long apart and so many changes, will they find the courage to meet again, face to face? From the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun, this is a powerful story of love, race and identity spanning three continents and filling numerous lives.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks to Ted Hodgkinson