It’s been a few years since I’ve read Adichie’s novels, and this was a really welcome reminder of how much I enjoy her fiction. I love her prickly characters, the way she writes about resentment, the way she examines class interactions through many different angles. My vague plan was to read about 4 stories a day, but I ended up reading 9 of the 12 in the first day, which I think says it all. Like so many others, would LOVE to have another short story collection or novel from her soon.

She's the Queen, our literary Beyonce who delivers the goods with an earlier collection of short stories. You can see here the briefest of outlines that will become Americanah later. Confidently African stories told with a measured awareness of Western sensibilities. That storyteller voice that gently leads you across the page with a sharp eye and wry line. Adichie is so adept at alluding to deeper themes with a light touch that doesn't slow down your reading. If I'm going to quibble the stories...

The power of a voice that cares!Is there a red thread between these intense short stories, moving between continents, generations, social circumstances, religions and customs seemingly easily but leaving deep track marks in the reader's mind? Home is not a place or a culture or even specific people. Home is where your heart is hurting most because it's caring most. And that hurt is beyond gender and skin colour and religion and ritual and politics. It just is. Home.

Shameless, brazen and lazy, I'm going to pinch the comment on the front of my edition: "Adichie makes storytelling seem as easy as birdsong."Will that do?I can add on some of those typical enthusiasms: stunning, exquisite, you know, you'll have used them yourself at some point. If you weren't entirely convinced by Adichie as a novelist (I was, fairly, but maybe not quite enough), try these short stories. They have certainly convinced me that I need to catch up with the rest of her oeuvre. Oh dea...

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the leading voices of African literature today. Her books Half of a Yellow Sun and Purple Hibiscus have won multiple awards and made her a respected writer of African issues. The Thing Around Your Neck is her first story collection, which weaves together tales of Nigerians in Africa and in the United States sharing the same hardships and love for their homeland. The collection commences with the story of Nnamabia who is falsely accused of running with his unive...

3.5 stars.A short story collection that is loosely linked by its emotional connections to Nigeria, I found most of the stories to be insightful and very well written. A breakdown of each story:Cell One - A story about a family who live in a closed off university town and everyone knows everyone. It centres around Nnamabia, a roguish young man who finds himself at the mercy of a brutal and violent police force following accusations of cult involvement. I liked the family dynamics in this one but

What an excellent set of short stories exploring the human condition with all its flaws and neurosis. Adichie addresses the institution of marriage - arranged marriage, infidelity; same sex desire, sibling rivalry and the consequences of subordinating female children; she then intersects these with immigration and migration and interracial relationships. Each story is complete yet you feel it could also form the basis for a longer novel. Unlike many young Nigerian writers Adichie's language is u...

‘The Thing Around Your Neck’ is a collection of 12 stories by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, all of which are uniformly great, although some stronger than others. (Some of which have been previously published separately elsewhere).As with all short stories and particularly with these, almost by definition – they lack the depth, breadth and sophistication of longer novels – in this case Adichies wonderful ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’, ‘Purple Hibiscus’ and ‘Americanah’.With the best of novels, the reader is...

4.5 stars rounded upAn excellent set of short stories which concentrate mostly on the lives and experiences of Nigerian women; ranging over issues such as tragedy, political and religious violence, new relationships (especially marriage), loneliness, sadness, displacement and the many problems of post colonialism. There is plenty of social and political comment, but it is wrapped up in human stories. The stories move between Nigeria and the US; the homeland and what is seen to be the Promised La...

++++2021 Update: Since I read this work by Adichie I have discovered that she is an author who shares very different ideologies than I do. And therefore she is an author I feel I can no longer support as I am unable to separate the art from the artist. I shall leave my review intact but remove my rating. ++++If you ask me who my current favourite contemporary author is I will undoubtedly answer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Her writing moves me like no one else's. She writes perfectly imperfect char...

Buddy read with SnezanaThis book is a collection of short pages, my ebook copy has just 193 pages and it has 12 stories. The stories are extremely short but they are captivating.Chimamanda is such a great author, she captured the readers with her unique writing style. The stories are all written in different perspectives, two was written in second person, I'm not a second person POV fan but I loved this. The rest of the books were written in third person. The story is easy to understand and it i...

In most short story collection there are are always some stories that are better than others. Sometimes gap isn't that big (Liu's Paper menagerie and other stories, anything by Bradbury) but there are obvious favorites and weak links and there are those that involve full spectrum from bad to brilliant (any short story collection from Neil Gaiman). This is first time I read collection that I would rate every short story same. Everything is 4 stars range with no clear favorite and no clear weakest...

4.5/5 The first thing that came to Ujunwa's mind was to ask if Isabel ever needed royal blood to explain the good looks of friends back in London. Look, I'm fully committed to rooting for Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie until the Nobel Prize for Lit committee gets their collective head out of their collective ass and gives it to her (spare me the political yibble yabble. My knowing what's up hasn't killed my excitement yet, so leave me this and go ruin Santa Clause or US democracy or something of tha...