Profiled at the CBC.

The acclaim has come with a certain burden, Adichie says. “I’m often uncomfortable with the position my writing puts me in. Because, as a writer, my first responsibility is to my art. But sometimes, I think that’s too easy to say. Because I’ve grown up in Nigeria with the history I have. And I’m a black, African woman who writes realistic fiction, and in doing that, there is a political role that emerges. And it’s my responsibility to accept it.”

That responsibility has made her a little wary. She confesses she is so anti-social that “by the time I’m 50, I’ll probably become a full recluse.” Yet, even with the stress of juggling a book tour and the start of the fall semester at Yale — where she is working on a graduate degree in African history — Adichie is voluble and energetic. With her brown almond eyes and flawless skin, she is also, like her character Olanna, “illogically pretty” — a selling point her publisher has picked up on.

Ah, those publishers and their selling points…. To dangerously leave the art and book discussion for a moment — I, for one, don’t see anything illogical about her beauty. She’s drop-dead gorgeous by any standard.