What Napoleon Could Not Do

One of the Books Barack Obama Is Reading This SummerOne of Vulture’s Best Books of 2023One of Goodreads’ Buzziest Debut Novels of 2023One of Essence’s 31 Books You Must ReadOne of the most anticipated books by Town & Country and ElleAmerica is seen through the eyes and ambitions of three characters with ties to Africa in this gripping novelWhen siblings Jacob and Belinda Nti were growing up in Ghana, their goal was simple: to move to America. For them, the United States was both an opportunity and a struggle, a goal and an obstacle. Jacob, an awkward computer programmer who still lives with his father, wants a visa so he can move to Virginia to live with his wife—a request that the U.S. government has repeatedly denied. He envies his sister, Belinda, who achieved, as their father put it, “what Napoleon could not do”: she went to college and law school in the United States and even managed to marry Wilder, a wealthy Black businessman from Texas. Wilder’s view of