The Women's prize-winning Nigerian author talks about sexism, hairstyles and living in America
'My intention wasn’t to upset. It’s just that I’m willing to if that’s what it takes to write the book' …Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Photograph: Victor Ehikhamenor
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's third novel, Americanah is the story of two Nigerian émigrés who love and lose each other across continents and years. It is a book about leaving, and loneliness and the intersection between class and race, all of which makes it sound rather hard work – unjustly so. It is a book about hair: straight versus afro; and discreet tensions, not just between white Americans and Nigerian immigrants, but between Africans and African Americans, between the light- and dark-skinned, between new and established immigrants, and its frankness – in particular on the subject of gender – has upset some people. "I knew that was coming," says Adichie. "I can't write a book like that and then go, 'Oh my God, they're upset.' But my intention wasn't to upset." She smiles. "It's just that I'm willing to if that's what it takes to write the book."
We are in New York, which Adichie is visiting from her part-time home in Maryland, and where the following evening, Americanah (the word refers to Nigerians returning home after living in America) will win best novel at the National Book Critics Circle awards, beating the favourite, Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch. At 36, she has three much-acclaimed novels behind her – her first, Purple Hibiscus (2003) was longlisted for the Man Booker prize and shortlisted for the Orange, which she won in 2007 with her second novel Half of a Yellow Sun, and Americanah is just out in paperback – and a film version of Half of a Yellow Sun out next month. Adichie is in a position to do precisely as she pleases – such as divide her time between the US and Lagos, where she owns a home. In fact, if her husband didn't work in Baltimore, she says, she would probably "live in Lagos all of the time and just come to the US when I want to go shopping." She hoots with laughter.
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We are in New York, which Adichie is visiting from her part-time home in Maryland, and where the following evening, Americanah (the word refers to Nigerians returning home after living in America) will win best novel at the National Book Critics Circle awards, beating the favourite, Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch. At 36, she has three much-acclaimed novels behind her – her first, Purple Hibiscus (2003) was longlisted for the Man Booker prize and shortlisted for the Orange, which she won in 2007 with her second novel Half of a Yellow Sun, and Americanah is just out in paperback – and a film version of Half of a Yellow Sun out next month. Adichie is in a position to do precisely as she pleases – such as divide her time between the US and Lagos, where she owns a home. In fact, if her husband didn't work in Baltimore, she says, she would probably "live in Lagos all of the time and just come to the US when I want to go shopping." She hoots with laughter.More
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