Americanah, written by Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie, has been chosen by Hay Festival as its first book of the month for 2019.

The story about a young couple who opt to leave their native Nigeria for the West but end up in different countries before rekindling their relationship 15 years later took the January award in the competition organised by the festival’s organisers.

A powerful, tender story about race and identity, Americanah has been published in 29 languages.

The novel won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction 2013, was listed among the New York Times Book Review’s ’Ten Best Books of 2013’, and won The Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Fiction 2013 and the ’One Book, One New York’ campaign 2017.

The Book of the Month is a newly established contest based on recommendations made using #HayBookOfTheMonth on social media.

The idea is to encourage debate about literature all year round, encouraging festival fans to try new or old books and suggest their own ideas of what makes a good read.

Anyone keen to recommend a book for consideration for the Book of the Month award, can do so by emailing [email protected].

About Hay Festival’s Book of the Month

Hay Festival’s Book of the Month is the festival’s monthly recommendation of a title that readers have loved or think holds added resonance today. While many recommendations celebrate the new, this is a chance to celebrate great works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry – new and old – that reach through time to the present.

Throughout the month, the festival will share interesting links and articles relating to the selection on social media using #HayBookOfTheMonth and invite supporters to get involved by sending in questions and comments.

Over on Hay Player, a special playlist of talks to view online offer additional perspectives on the books from some of the greatest writers and thinkers around the world.

About Americanah

Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion – for each other and for their homeland.

About the author

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in Nigeria. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages and has appeared in various publications, including The New Yorker, Granta, The O. Henry Prize Stories, the Financial Times, and Zoetrope. She is the author of the novels Purple Hibiscus, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the Orange Prize and was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and a New York Times Notable Book; and Americanah. She is also the author of the story collection The Thing Around Your Neck. Her 2012 talk ’We Should All Be Feminists’ was published as a book in 2014. And her most recent book, Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, was published in March 2017.Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is appearing at Hay Festival Cartagena in Colombia on February 2. To book tickets visit: http://boleteria.gematours.co/hayfestival/programa?id=75&categoria=88&tp=2&la=en