The Thing Around Your Neck

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie follows up her acclaimed novel Half a Yellow Sun with this bold short-story collection. The soul of the work lies in the heartfelt and occasionally surprising encounters between individuals across lines of class, ethnicity, and nationality. In “A Private Experience,” two strangers comfort each other in an abandoned store while their respective clans riot against each other outside. Each of Adichie’s stories is a sanctuary for the workings of the human heart, and her protagonists are infused with a spirit that shines through gut-turning violence, the posturing of “big men,” and the ugly trappings of greed.