English books from Africa
Recommended English books (453)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you speak English here are some English books from Africa for the next part of the "Read Around The World Challenge".
101.
Do You Hear in the Mountains... and Other Stories by Maïssa Bey EN
AlgeriaDescription:
This new translation brings together two of Algerian author Maïssa Bey's important works for the first time in English. "Do You Hear in the Mountains..." is a compelling piece of autofiction in which three destinies meet dramatically on a train moving through France. We meet an Algerian refugee, whom we recognize as Bey herself. She has escaped the civil war and cannot forget her father's commitment to independence nor his death under the torture of the French soldiers. Sitting near her is a retired doctor whose military service in Algeria coincidentally took him to the same area at the time o... continue
102.
Don't Whisper Too Much and Portrait of a Young Artiste from Bona Mbella by Frieda Ekotto EN
CameroonDescription:
Don't Whisper Too Much and Bona Mbella present love stories between African women in a positive light. In presenting the emotional and romantic lives of gay African women, Ekotto addresses how female sexuality is often marked by violence, and yet is also a place for emotional connection, pleasure and agency.
103.
Dreams in a Time of War : A Childhood Memoir by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o EN
KenyaDescription:
Recounts the story of the author's childhood, covering his early years in World War II-era Kenya as the fifth child of a third wife, his thirst for learning that singled him out, and the political struggles that shaped his life.
104.
Dreams Of Trespass : Tales Of A Harem Girlhood by Fatima Mernissi EN
MoroccoDescription:
This "wonderful and enchanting" memoir tells the revelatory true story of one Muslim girl's life in her family's French Moroccan harem, set against the backdrop of World War II (The New York Times Book Review). "I was born in a harem in 1940 in Fez, Morocco..." So begins Fatima Mernissi in this illuminating narrative of a childhood behind the iron gates of a domestic harem. In Dreams of Trespass, Mernissi weaves her own memories with the dreams and memories of the women who surrounded her in the courtyard of her youth -- women who, without access to the world outside, recreated it from sheer i... continue
105.
Drinking from Graveyard Wells by Yvette Lisa Ndlovu EN
ZimbabweDescription:
"Even in death, who has ownership over Black women's bodies?" Questions like this lurk between the lines of this stunning collection of stories that engage with African women's histories, both personal and generational. Their history is not just one thing: there is heartbreak and pain, and joy, and flying and magic, so much magic. An avenging spirit takes on the patriarchy from beyond the grave. An immigrant woman undergoes a naturalization ceremony in an imagined American state that demands that immigrants pay a toll of the thing they love the most. A first-generation Zimbabwean-American woma... continue
106.
Dumba Nengue, Run for Your Life : Peasant Tales of Tragedy in Mozambique by Lina Magaia EN
Country: Africa / 
Mozambique
Mozambique
Description:
A personal account of the horrifying effects of life caused by apartheid South African backed MNR rebels in Mozambique
107.
Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor EN
Description:
An audacious and beautiful novel that is both a unique family saga and a spellbinding story of the country of Kenya
108.
Elsewhere, Home by Leila Aboulela EN
EgyptDescription:
Noveller. From the heat of Khartoum at the height of summer to the wintery streets of London, from the concrete high rises in the Gulf to the blustery coast in Aberdeen, this collection evokes the overlapping worlds of Africa, Britain and the Middle East
109.
Engaging Modernity : Muslim Women and the Politics of Agency in Postcolonial Niger by Ousseina D. Alidou EN
NigerDescription:
Seizing the space opened by the early 1990s democratization movement, Muslim women are carving an active, influential, but often-overlooked role for themselves during a time of great change. Engaging Modernity provides a compelling portrait of Muslim women in Niger as they confronted the challenges and opportunities of the late twentieth century. Based on thorough scholarly research and extensive fieldwork—including a wealth of interviews—Ousseina Alidou’s work offers insights into the meaning of modernity for Muslim women in Niger. Mixing biography with sociological data, social theory and li... continue
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