Everything Is Not Enough
Sweden

Everything Is Not Enough

by Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström

Identity & Belonging Literary Fiction Contemporary Fiction Fiction 2023

Summary

Everything Is Not Enough follows three Black women navigating ambition, relationships, and belonging in contemporary Stockholm. Kemi Adeyemi, a Nigerian-born marketing executive, has built a successful career but struggles with the emotional costs of her choices. Brittany-Rae Johnson, an American socialite, finds that wealth and privilege cannot protect her from personal turmoil. Meanwhile, Yasmiin Abdullahi, a Somali-Swedish entrepreneur, faces the challenges of balancing her cultural heritage with her professional ambitions and personal desires.

As their lives intersect, the women confront the pressures of social expectations, the complexities of interracial relationships, and the inequalities that shape their experiences. Each must question what success means and whether the lives they have worked so hard to build truly fulfil them.

Through interconnected stories of love, friendship, ambition, and self-discovery, Åkerström explores race, class, migration, and the search for belonging. The novel examines the tension between outward success and inner fulfilment, asking whether achieving everything society values is enough to create a meaningful life.

Reviews

Login to leave a review.

No reviews yet. Be the first!

You might also like

The Details
The Details
Ia Genberg
Small Comfort
Small Comfort
Ia Genberg
In Every Mirror She's Black
In Every Mirror She's Black
Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström
Ædnan: An Epic
Ædnan: An Epic
Linnea Axelsson
Country
Sweden
Europe
About the author
Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström
Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström

Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström is a Nigerian-American author, award-winning travel photographer, and storyteller based in Stockholm, Sweden. Originally from Nigeria, she moved to the United States as a teenager and later relocated to Sweden. She studied information systems and worked in geographic information systems before pursuing a creative career in writing, photography, and travel storytelling. Her work has appeared in prominent publications including National Geographic, The New York Times, The Guardian, the BBC, and CNN. She is also the author of the bestselling nonfiction book LAGOM: The Swedish Secret of Living Well and the award-winning travel book Due North. Åkerström made her fiction debut with In Every Mirror She’s Black (2021), a novel following three Black women navigating identity, race, belonging, and social expectations in Sweden. Her subsequent novel, Everything Is Not Enough (2023), continues to explore the complexities of contemporary life, relationships, and cultural identity. Through her writing and photography, she examines how culture, place, and personal experience shape the ways people understand themselves and others.

View author page
Details
Published
2023
Author
Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström