It was with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's second novel Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) that I first discovered her writing talents. This was only her second novel following her debut novel Purple Hibiscus (2003). Both novels won numerous literary awards and were superb examples of novels and so I had always been looking forward to her next work, but it seems that we need to wait a little longer for that next novel. Instead 2009 saw the release of The Thing Around Your Neck, which although marketed by some as her third novel this is actually a collection of 12 short stories, all of which have previously appeared elsewhere. I'm not a huge fan of short stories and so ...  Read the complete review

As a big fan of Adichie's earlier work, I was really looking forward to getting my hands on this book. I was slightly disappointed when I got it to find that it was not another novel but a book of short stories. I was looking forward to losing myself in another amazing Adichie book. However, the short stories were also great little pieces of work that have the depth of longer stories. Each was set in Africa, usually Nigeria, and Adichie does a brilliant job as usual of conjuring up an image of Africa in the readers mind. Even though the stories were short, Adichie still managed to put real life into her characters. Each story made you sop and think after ...  Read the complete review