What Napoleon Could Not Do

A Novel

By: DK Nnuro

Narrated by: Kofi Boakye, Ana Hoffman, Adam Lazarre-White

One of the Books Barack Obama Is Reading This Summer
One of Vulture’s Best Books of 2023
One of Goodreads’ Buzziest Debut Novels of 2023
One of Essence’s 31 Books You Must Read
One of the most anticipated books by Town & Country and Elle

America is seen through the eyes and ambitions of three characters with ties to Africa in this gripping novel

When 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 America differs markedly from his wife’s, as he’s spent his life railing against the racism and marginalization that are part of life for every African American living here.

For these three, their desires and ambitions highlight the promise and the disappointment that life in a new country offers. How each character comes to understand this and how each learns from both their dashed hopes and their fulfilled dreams lie at the heart of what makes What Napoleon Could Not Do such a compelling, insightful read.

©2023 DK Nnuro (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“What Napoleon Could Not Do is a multifaceted drama of familial relationships, duty, loss, and dreams deferred. Nnuro creates beautiful symmetry between America and Ghana, juxtaposing the physically draining disappointments of the Ghanaian government with the emotionally draining letdowns of the U.S. bureaucracy. He boldly explores discrimination across and within race and culture and intricately crafts characters readers will feel intimately connected with. In this deeply thoughtful tale, Nnuro establishes himself as a powerful storyteller.” —Booklist

“[A] pristine debut …Belinda, Wilder and Belinda’s feckless brother Jacob form the heart of Nnuro’s novel, which explores how one extended Ghanian family grapples with its strained relationship with America, a country that mistreats them despite the family’s constant efforts to do right …Nnuro’s language is economical, precise, but never artless.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A carefully captured account of sibling rivalry, diverging ambitions, and the rot at the heart of the American Dream.” —Elle

Lovely Narrators

I enjoyed the use of multiple narrators and their unique accents and voices to add detail to a very dry and empty story.