Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is best known for Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun.
Adichie is also an accomplished short story writer. She recently hit the news when she gave her two cents on the Trump race to the presidency in a witty yet intimate story for the The New York Times.
Here are five of those short stories to get you started. Even better, they’re all online and free.
‘Nothing changed when Raphael came to live with us, not at first…’
Adichie charts a tale of friendship and betrayal in Enugu between a precocious only child and the house boy. The two boys harbour an intense bond, then something breaks it.
Read it here
‘She sagged suddenly with terror, imagining what would happen if Donald actually won. Everything would change. Her contentment would crack into pieces. The relentless intrusions into their lives; those horrible media people who never gave Donald any credit would get even worse.’
In The Arrangements, Chimamanda enters the Trump household. She explores the point of view of Melania Trump as she questions the ‘what ifs’ of a Trump victory.
Read it here
‘Years later, she told me that the reason I did not die was that small injection in my arm…’
A touching, short read about how one driver’s honesty (and a dose of chance) results in vaccinations being introduced to his village – and beyond. Effectively an ode to Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, former health minister of Nigeria, and Fela Kuti’s brother.
Read it here
‘Later, Chika will read in the Guardian that “the reactionary Hausa-speaking Muslims in the North have a history of violence against non-Muslims”, and in the middle of her grief, she will stop to remember that she examined the nipples and experienced the gentleness of a woman who is Hausa and Muslim.’
A Private Experience follows two women who find shelter in a shop following a riot in Kano. In this story, Chimamanda writes in the voice of a young med student who is confronted with the brutal reality of interethnic violence in the north of the country.
Read it here
‘By that morning in November, she no longer knew who she was; she no longer felt… ‘
A podcast to switch up the list (with Ngozi reading it herself) that delves into a sensual and immersive world of a woman on a walk, for a series commissioned for the Serpentine Galleries‘ audio walks.
Listen to it here