Notes on Grief is a long-form personal essay by Nigerian American author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Originally published in book form by Knopf in 2021, the work was expanded from Adichie’s 2020 New York Times essay by the same name. In Notes on Grief, Adichie details her response to the unexpected death of her father, James Nwoye Adichie, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to pandemic-related lockdowns, Adichie was unable to see James before his passing or to mourn with her family in Nigeria thereafter. The essay is written from Adichie’s first-person point of view and in a numbered memoir style, exploring themes that include Grief as a Physical State, Separation, Loss, and Mourning During the Pandemic, and Fatherhood as Legacy-Making and Identity Inheritance. 

Adichie is best known for her 2013 novel Americanah. Her other works of fiction include Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), and Dream Count (2025). Her nonfiction publications include We Should All Be Feminists (2014) and Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017). Adichie studied creative writing at Johns Hopkins University and African history at Yale University. She has received numerous awards and accolades, including a Hodder fellowship, a Radcliffe Institute fellowship, and a MacArthur fellowship. In 2015, TIME magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. 

This guide refers to the 2021 Knopf hardback edition of the text. 

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, mental illness, death by suicide, and death. 

Notes on Grief is organized into 30 unnamed chapters and predominantly follows a linear mode of explanation. This summary abides by a chronological timeline for the sake of clarity. 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie reflects on the death of her father, James Nwoye Adichie. During the summer of 2020, Adichie was living in the United States, separated from her siblings and parents, who were respectively living in Lagos and Abba, Nigeria. In the early days of June, Adichie kept in touch with her family via Zoom. Three days prior to James’s death, she talked to him about a billionaire who had been trying to seize her family’s ancestral land. James seemed tired but relatively well; Adichie was glad that her brother Okey could be there to visit him. Then, on June 10, Adichie’s brother Chuks called to say that James had passed away. 

Adichie recalls screaming and crying at the news, behavior that scared her young daughter. She couldn’t make sense of what was happening. James had gone to the hospital for some tests, but Okey and Adichie’s sister Ijeoma thought that he was healthy, though he was having some kidney tests done the next day. Overcome, Adichie felt hot and breathless. The more she cried, the more her body hurt. Grief felt different than she expected.

In the days following, Adichie and her siblings shared their memories of James over Zoom. She recalled James always turning off her radio when he’d visit or showing skepticism when she suggested drinking pomegranate juice. These memories made them laugh, but Adichie’s laughter soon turned to crying and anger. She’d thought that she’d have more time with James. After all, she’d just talked to him, and he’d said that he was fine. 

Adichie struggled to respond to bereavement messages from family and friends. Her grief consumed her body and mind. She couldn’t believe that death was permanent, that James was really gone, or that life could continue without him. She recalls Chuks remarking on the grace found in denial. 

In retrospect, Adichie holds that June 10 was “the worst day of [her] life” (15). She recalls the events of the days just prior. She’d experienced a concussion and missed a few daily calls with her parents. Feeling guilty in the aftermath of James’s death, she told herself that if she hadn’t missed these calls, she would have recognized James’s illness and urged him to go to the hospital sooner. His ultimate cause of death was kidney failure exacerbated by an infection. For so long, Adichie had told herself that her elderly father was healthy and that his death wasn’t imminent. 

The more messages from loved ones Adichie received, the more she reflected on who James was. Although no one’s words were comforting, she was glad people remembered James well. Even still, she moved through the world under a leaden weight. 

Adichie describes her deep bond with James. She shares the nicknames they had for each other and their inside jokes. She loved spending time with him and admired him deeply. She recalls the particular way she’d laugh with him, which she feared she’d never do again. 

Adichie found comfort rereading a book on James’s life and work written by his fellow professors at the University of Nigeria. Revisiting old letters, cards, photographs, videos, and mementos helped, too. She found “his old sudoku books” in her things (31), and Okey sent her a photo of James’s watch; both were essential parts of him. Sometimes, she feared that she was forgetting her best memories of James, so she was glad when friends recalled him to her.

Adichie reflects on the trials that James faced throughout his life. In the months preceding his death, he was the victim of the billionaire trying to steal their land. He kept his anxiety to himself, always defending the land. James was also kidnapped at one point, the men demanding a ransom from Adichie, whom they saw as famous and wealthy. This experience changed James; he moved to Abba and grew more cautious. 

Adichie recalls her daughter’s observations of her grief. She hated seeing Adichie cry and urged her to stop watching videos of James. Adichie remarks on her daughter’s processing, remarking on her close bond with James, too. 

Adichie grew frustrated with Nigeria for not opening its borders. She still could not see her family, and they postponed James’s burial and memorial. There were other customs, too, that Adichie struggled to uphold. She could not share her sorrow, which was traditional in Igbo culture. In retrospect, Adichie realizes how distant she’d been from loss and grief her whole life. She found it nearly impossible to make James’s funeral arrangements, both because of the pandemic and her sorrow. She sometimes dreamed that James was still alive, which only worsened her despair. Even still, she was determined to give him a proper memorial because this is what he did for his father. 

Adichie reflects on James’s passions and accomplishments. He was a mathematician and an academic. He loved teaching, too, having studied in the US and Nigeria. When he returned to Nigeria, he immediately felt the effects of the Biafran War—all his books burned on his front lawn. 

Adichie reflects on the quotidian and monumental nature of loss. In the months surrounding James’s passing, two of her aunts died suddenly, too. She remarks that the pandemic brought death closer. 

Adichie considers how she has changed since James’s death. She muses on how wonderful James was and acknowledges that he is gone.