“The Thing Around Your Neck” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)

In November 2016, as one of the Author Specials that were a part of the Story Connector Literature Circle, we had a discussion on Adichie’s novels and collection of short stories, and her inspiring views on culture and feminism. Readers agreed that she is a master storyteller.

Synopsis

In ‘A Private Experience’, a medical student hides from a violent riot with a poor Muslim woman whose dignity and faith force her to confront the realities and fears she’s been pushing away.

In ‘Tomorrow Is Too Far’, a woman unlocks the devastating secret that surrounds her brother’s death.

The young mother at the centre of ‘Imitation’ finds her comfortable life threatened when she learns that her husband back in Lagos has moved his mistress into their home.

And the title story depicts the choking loneliness of a Nigerian girl who moves to an America that turns out to be nothing like the country she expected; though falling in love brings her desires nearly within reach, a death in her homeland forces her to re-examine them.

Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow and longing, this collection is a resounding confirmation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s prodigious storytelling powers.

Favourite Quote

… riots do not happen in a vacuum, … religion and ethnicity are often politicized because the ruler is safe if the hungry ruled are killing one another.

– from the short story “A Private Experience” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (in the collection “The Thing Around Your Neck”)

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Story Connector Literature Circle (Oct 2016-Sep 2017)

Book Club Season 20
Self-Help Spring Season 2017
Summer Reading Group 2017
One-off discussions

PLUS

Author Specials

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Nov 2016
Kurt Vonnegut – Feb 2017

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From October 2016 to September 2017, Nicola tested out a new Story Connector Literature Circle. The idea behind this reading group came from her desire to take her two passions – world literature and personal development – and offer them in a combined package. Nicola was also fascinated by the many reasons WHY we read and wanted to explore them further with a group of like-minded readers.

The role of Story Connector in a Literature Circle is to try to find connections between the story and the outside world. This means connecting what we read with our own life, to what happens at work or in the community, to similar events at other times and places, or to other books we have read.

Nicola says author Ursula K. Le Guin sums up her reason for reading when she said: We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.