The National Book Critics Circle award-winning Nigerian writer Adichie, whose novel Amerikana we had previously published, is now presenting a collection of short stories. Focusing on carefully drawn characters, these stories explore the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, exiles and those left behind. Unflinchingly realistic, yet displaying extraordinary sensitivity and beauty, the stories shed light on the deep sense of frustration that comes with the experience of being in exile and without a home, and the struggle of "ordinary" people to overcome cultural differences and regain love.

In these stories set in America and Nigeria, questions of belonging and connectedness multiply and multiply... Most of the characters grew up in Nigeria and immigrated to the United States, but here they experience a sense of displacement and fall into danger and confusion. Rather than becoming cosmopolitan members of the global world, they are caught between two continents, pushed to the margins of two cultures in flux. The most powerful stories in this work tell of complex and conflicted characters, many of them in life-threatening situations... Adichie proves herself adept at revealing the volatility of political circumstances, the "harsh" and "hard" realities of history, and yet the softness and grace in the hearts of the perpetrators.

- Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times