Set following Nigeria’s 1993 military coup, this Chimamanda Adichie story includes themes of corruption, civil unrest and army brutality. The protagonist has a seemingly perfect case for U.S. asylum. Her anti-government journalist husband has already fled to America, and some troops searching for him accidentally shot their four-year-old son. Yet mid-way through the visa interview, she decides not to continue. The shooting has caused her to question their future together. This introduces two additional themes: the strong ties Africans have to their roots, and the importance of traditions… in this case the need for someone to tend the boy’s grave.

Some websites describe Nnamabia, the young protagonist in this story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, using terms such as ‘a wayward, rebellious son’. This is treating him too kindly. At the beginning of the story, Nnamabia is an entitled, spoiled, manipulative brat… too weak-willed to resist imitating the petty thefts of his peers, yet so cowardly that the only person he is game enough to steal from is his mother. Although he did not deserve the punishment he received at the hands of the so-called Nigerian justice system, he learnt some important lessons and came out of it a man.