What Napoleon Could Not Do

What Napoleon Could Not Do (2023) follows two Ghanaian siblings, Jacob and Belinda, whose lives take drastically different paths in pursuit of the American dream. Jacob, a socially inept computer programmer living with his father, repeatedly fails to obtain a visa that would allow him to join his wife in the United States. His sister Belinda has built a life in America through education and marriage to Wilder, a wealthy Black Texan entrepreneur. Yet even she faces her own struggles while waiting for permanent residency, as racist experiences chip away at her idealized vision of America. The novel examines how the promise of opportunity in a new country can both inspire and disappoint, revealing the complex ways these siblings confront their fulfilled and unfulfilled ambitions.