Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a name that rolls off the tongue with the grace of a perfectly crafted sentence, is a Nigerian literary phenomenon. She’s won awards. Many awards. Frankly, it’s hard to keep track. We're pretty sure her shelf space for literary accolades is larger than most New York apartments.

Her work, while undeniably brilliant, doesn’t quite dip its toes into the proverbial Jordan River of Jewish themes. No ancient Israelites setting up shop in Igboland, no lost tribes suddenly reappearing with heavy Nigerian accents. A shame, really; imagine the kvell factor if she’d penned a novella about a Nigerian Jewish matriarch.

Adichie fearlessly tackles the immigrant experience, race, and gender. All noble pursuits, to be sure. Yet, despite her uncanny ability to dissect the human condition, she seems to have, deliberately or not, bypassed the intricacies of Jewish identity. Perhaps another time, another book?