This is a collection of 12 short stories which, in general, cover the same kinds of themes - being an immigrant in America, being an Igbo academic, being an Igbo writer, facing war and persecution in Nigeria, having to reclaim your identity and history from white colonisers. These are essentially themes I don't have a lot of experience with, so I can't comment on how they're used or anything, but it was a collection of stories and themes I found interesting.

In response to some of the other reviews I glanced over - I don't think it's a problem that the stories were all largely on similar themes; to me it makes more sense for a collection to be on similar themes than for a collection to consist of things that have little to do with each other. But another criticism I read is that a lot of the stories have weak endings, and this I agree with; a lot of the time it seemed that they stopped suddenly, with no real conclusion reached.

As I mentioned when I reviewed Half of a Yellow Sun, I really like Adichie's prose. She also clearly writes things that are close to her, and her experiences - she returns to the same social layers, the same towns, etc. to tell her stories. It all seems very personal.

So in the end, I'm giving this four stars. For me, probably the highlight of the anthology was the last story, "The Headstrong Historian", but there were quite a few good ones. I recommend it!