English books from Africa
Recommended English books (652)
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".
Ghana302.
No Past, No Present, No Future by Yulisa Amadu Maddy EN
Country: Africa / 
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Description:
At a missionary school in colonial West Africa, three students from very different backgrounds forge a friendship in an effort to forget the difficulties they face at home. But when one of the boys betrays the other, a series of disastrous events spiral into out of control.
After finally leaving school, their paths cross once again in Europe but prejudice and diverging loyalties put the brotherhood they once had into question. How can they ever dream of a future together when the ghosts of the past are determined to haunt their present?
303.
No Time Like the Present by Nadine Gordimer EN
Country: Africa / 
South Africa
South Africa
Description:
A sharply observed new novel about post-apartheid South Africa from the Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer is one of our most telling contemporary writers. With each new work, she attacks—with a clear-eyed fierceness, a lack of sentimentality, and a deep understanding of the darkest depths of the human soul—her eternal themes: the inextricable link between personal and communal history; the inescapable moral ambiguities of daily life; the political and racial tensions that persist in her homeland, South Africa. And in each new work is fresh evidence of her literary genius: in the sharpness of ... continue
304.
No Time to Mourn : An Anthology by South Sudanese Women by Hilda J. Twongyeirwe, Elizabeth Ashamu Deng EN
Country: Africa / 
South Sudan
South Sudan
Description:
No Time to Mourn is a collection of short stories, poems, artwork and photography penned, produced and presented by South Sudanese women. It reflects the lives of the women writers and artists, and at the same time gives voice to the very real lived experiences and lives of every woman of South Sudanese heritage. The ideas and experiences in this book span decades they straddle borders, they cross continents and describe events that are hard to imagine, even with some knowledge of South Sudan's history. It is hard not to be moved as you read what many of these authors have lived through as the... continue
305.
Nomenclatures of Invisibility by Mahtem Shiferraw EN
EritreaDescription:
Through a lens simultaneously historical and political, Mahtem Shiferraw attends to personal and collective experiences of migration, motherhood, and immigration's complicated notions of home. In Nomenclatures of Invisibility, Shiferraw calls us to carve out space for the multitudes of selves we carry when we migrate across boundaries of body, language, and state. Through a decolonial poetics, giving name to everything in her path from the Italian colonization of Eritrea (and failure to colonize Ethiopia) to her beloved eucalyptus tree, she blurs physical and temporal borders, paying homage to... continue
306.
Norah's Secrets by Samia Shariff EN
AlgeriaDescription:
The many vicissitudes in Norah’s story possess an empowering impudence which leads to believe that, despite the prevailing fundamentalism in some countries, the new generation of Muslim women will not be silently crushed and humiliated as were its predecessors. Norah’s undaunted strength and hope for a brighter future are characteristics which somehow prevail in those whose destinies are held captive by perpetrators who use religion and sacred scriptures as an excuse to torment their victims at will. This book recalls some events found in Samia Shariff’s notorious Veil of Fear, published in 20... continue
307.
North of Dawn : A Novel by Nuruddin Farah EN
SomaliaDescription:
A couple's tranquil life abroad is irrevocably transformed by the arrival of their son's widow and children, in the latest from Somalia's most celebrated novelist. For decades, Gacalo and Mugdi have lived in Oslo, where they've led a peaceful, largely assimilated life and raised two children. Their beloved son, Dhaqaneh, however, is driven by feelings of alienation to jihadism in Somalia, where he kills himself in a suicide attack. The couple reluctantly offers a haven to his family. But on arrival in Oslo, their daughter-in-law cloaks herself even more deeply in religion, while her children h... continue
308.
North to Paradise : A Memoir by Ousman Umar EN
Description:
The inspiring true story of one man's treacherous boyhood journey from a rural village in Ghana to the streets of Barcelona--and the path that led him home. Ousman Umar is a shaman's son born in a small village in Ghana. Though his mother died giving birth, he spent a contented childhood working the fields, setting traps in the jungle, and living off the land. Still, as strange and wondrous flying machines crisscrossed the skies overhead, Ousman dreamed of a different life. And so, when he was only twelve years old, he left his village and began what would be a five-year journey to Europe. Eve... continue
309.
Notes from the Hyena's Belly : An Ethiopian Boyhood by Nega Mezlekia EN
EthiopiaDescription:
The author recalls his childhood in Ethiopia interspersed with information about the customs and everyday life in his hometown of Jijiga.
310.
Obligations to the Wounded : Stories by Mubanga Kalimamukwento EN
ZambiaDescription:
In formally adventurous stories rooted in Zambian literary tradition, Obligations to the Wounded explores the expectations and burdens of womanhood in Zambia and for Zambian women living abroad. The collection converses with global social problems through the depiction of games, social media feuds, letters, and folklore to illustrate how girls and women manage religious expectation, migration, loss of language, death, intimate partner violence, and racial discrimination. Although the women and girls inhabiting these pages are separated geographically and by life stage, their shared burdens, cu... continue