"Lọlá Ákínmádé has given us a story that is at once enjoyable and disturbing as it explores the painful price millions of women around the world pay for walking around with black skin."

Imbolo Imbue, author of bestselling novels Behold the Dreamers and How Beautiful We Were

LOLÁ ÁKÍNMÁDÉ is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and award-winning photographer. She is based in Sweden. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, Sunday Times Travel, The Telegraph, New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Slate, Cosmopolitan. She is the author of 2018 Lowell Thomas Award winner for best travel book, Due North, and bestselling LAGOM: Swedish Secret of Living Well, available in 18 foreign language editions. She has been recognized with multiple awards for her work, including a 2022 Hasselblad Heroine and the 2018 Travel Photographer of the Year Bill Muster Award. She was honoured with a MIPAD 100 (Most Influential People of African Descent) Award within media and culture in 2018, and 2024 Condé Nast Women Who Travel Power List and a 2023 Most Influential Women in Travel by Travel Pulse. She contributed to National Geographic's Image Collection.

Her first novel In Every Mirror She's Black published in 2021 with Sourcebooks (USA), Head of Zeus (UK) and Parresia (Nigeria) is A Good Morning America (GMA) Book Club Buzz Pick, Amazon.com and Apple Books Editors' Pick, Book-of-the-Month (BOMC) Pick, Top Pick in Vulture (New York Magazine) Most Anticipated Books, Shortlisted for Bad Form's 2021 Best Book of the Year, Best Thought-Provoking Story in 10 Best Books of 2021 By Black Authors in Independent (UK)

Her second novel, Everything Is Not Enough, published in 2023 with William Morrow (North America) and Head of Zeus (UK), follows the loosely intertwined and messy lives of Kemi, Brittany, Muna and Yasmiin as they interrogate themes of place, prejudice, and patriarchy in Europe. It is a Finalist for NAACP Image Awards, Outstanding Fiction, Amazon Editors' Picks: Best Literature & Fiction, a top October 2023 book in Washington Post, Zibby Mag, Ms, The Times, Bad Form, and Book of the Week in Heat and Afreada.

REVIEWS:

"Brilliant...Lola Akinmade Akerstrom has a sharp voice in the world of nuanced contemporary women's fiction." Jennette McCurdy, best-selling author of I'm Glad My Mom Died

"A sharply written story with messy, deeply moving characters, raising brutal questions and steering clear of easy answers. A book that will stick with you long after you've turned the last page."—Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of bestselling novels Daisy Jones & The Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

"The best new popular fiction for October 2023…The soap opera energy is strong... The women's paths criss-cross as their personal crises worsen - all stemming from the struggles they are facing as black women in a white society...draws strong characters" The Times (UK)

"Book of the Week ...Told compellingly from the three perspectives of Yasmiin, Kemi and Brittany-Rae, hijacks your attention with her beautiful writing and well-drawn characters...Brilliant" Heat, Book of the Week

'I was intrigued by these three women navigating life, love, prejudice and privilege. Set in Stockholm' Adele Parks, Platinum

"Successfully rounds out the stories of three complicated women as they make mistakes and strive for their own places in the world." Washington Post

"Incendiary, emotionally devastating, absolutely wonderful" Onyi Nwabineli, author of Someday, Maybe

"Deft storytelling and absorbing prose. These rich characters' lives are complicated, messy and heartbreakingly real as they struggle with love, family and identity in a world that consistently thwarts women's ambitions. Their passions, desires and vulnerability will stay with readers long after they finish this fascinating page-turner." Jo Piazza and Christine Pride, co-authors of bestselling novel We Are Not Like Them

"Everything is Not Enough presents a fascinating and complex kaleidoscope of women's lives in Sweden, asking crucial questions around career, love, family, and the definition of success. There are no easy answers in this book—the characters are real, subtle and surprising and you root for them the whole way through." Kathy Wang, author of Imposter Sydrome

"Compulsively readable, Everything is Not Enough is a worthy successor to Akerstrom's debut. It was profoundly comforting to see Akerstrom's women wade into their power, claiming their space in a world that gives them very little room to be. Akerstrom is a master at shading the gaps between power and love. This book filled me up like food." Chika Unigwe, author of The Middle Daughter

"Deftly continues an engrossing storyline that exposes the harsh realities of Swedish society. Navigating the social, financial, and legal intricacies of living as immigrants in Sweden proves to be challenging to three Black women in a multitude of ways…Yasmiin, Brittany, and Kemi must navigate society's double standards, continue to be strong, and give themselves grace for their weaknesses and mistakes. For readers interested in immigrant experiences like those in Imbolo Mbue's Behold the Dreamers." Library Journal

"Carefully examines the loneliness of frequently feeling like an outsider and how this can draw the most disparate of people together. Balancing the trauma and turmoil of being judged and appraised based on the prejudices of individual people and societies, this fitting follow-up dwells on the comforts of finding a community on which to depend." Booklist

"Everything is Not Enough is a heart-racer. The passions, regrets, and vulnerabilities of Black women ignite each smartly crafted page. A very satisfying read!" Deesha Philyaw, award-winning author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

"Everything Is Not Enough is a searing account of three women struggling through heartbreak, deception, and the scars of their pasts to find their rightful place in a society that isn't eager to make space for them. Lola Akinmade Åkerström writes with clarity and fearlessness, baring ugly truths amidst the strength and resilience of women who come into their own, while also coming into the beauty of hope." Charlene Carr, author of Hold My Girl

"I was captivated by the writing from page one... Powerful." Lizzie Damilola Blackburn, best-selling author of Yinka, Where Is Your Husband?

"Sexy and fun, I raced through it, but it will stay with me for a long time. Amazing sense of place too, I´m now desperate to visit Stockholm. Bravo 5 stars!" Nikki May, best-selling author of Wahala

"Through lively prose and spirited dialogue, Ákínmádé Åkerström shows that for all the protagonists' differences, being a Black woman in a white-dominated society will inevitably lead them to the same fate." Vulture, 40 Books We Can't Wait to Read this Fall

"A guaranteed favorite for fans of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah." Booklist

"While rogue twitter fingers were waging diaspora wars, Akinmade Åkerström was crafting an engaging novel that presents the nuanced experiences of Black women from all walks of life. The author takes on misogynoir masterfully in this book that's never quite what you think it is." Essence

ESSAYS:

Cosmopolitan, Sweden is regularly voted one of the world's 'happiest' places – but as a Black woman I don't always agree

The Guardian, A Moment That Changed Me: 'I realized people will always judge my travelling career - so I stopped succumbing to mummy guilt

CNN, Why Is Sweden Afraid of Publishing This Book?

New York Times, A Social Media Takedown Is a Blessing In Disguise For Sweden

New York Times, Watching My Child Experience Racism in a Country of Contentment

Adventure.com, Who Gets to Tell the Story of a Place

Head of Zeus, Thriving Against the Tide: My Thoughts on Europe and the Self-Actualization of Black Women…

Her website

Follow Twitter: @LolaAkinmade

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See her TEDx Stockholm talk (16 November 2019), The Power of Asking Why Not