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".
471.
The House at Sugar Beach : In Search of a Lost African Childhood by Helene Cooper EN
LiberiaDescription:
The author traces her childhood in war-torn Liberia and her reunion with a foster sister who had been left behind when her family fled the region.
472.
The House of Rust : A Novel by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber EN
KenyaDescription:
The first Graywolf Press Africa Prize winner, a story of a girl’s fantastical sea voyage to rescue her father The House of Rust is an enchanting novel about a Hadrami girl in Mombasa. When her fisherman father goes missing, Aisha takes to the sea on a magical boat made of a skeleton to rescue him. She is guided by a talking scholar’s cat (and soon crows, goats, and other animals all have their say, too). On this journey Aisha meets three terrifying sea monsters. After she survives a final confrontation with Baba wa Papa, the father of all sharks, she rescues her own father, and hopes that life... continue
473.
The Hundred Wells of Salaga by Ayesha Harruna Attah EN
GhanaDescription:
Aminah lives an idyllic life until she is brutally separated from her home and forced on a journey that turns her from a daydreamer into a resilient woman. Wurche, the willful daughter of a chief, is desperate to play an important role in her father's court. These two women's lives converge as infighting among Wurche's people threatens the region, during the height of the slave trade at the end of the 19th century.Set in pre-colonial Ghana, The Hundred Wells of Salaga is a story of courage, forgiveness, love and freedom. Through the experiences of Aminah and Wurche, it offers a remarkable view... continue
474.
The Impatient by Djaïli Amadou Amal EN
CameroonDescription:
A powerful, heartrending, and insightful novel of a trio of women in Cameroon who dare to rebel against oppressive, long-held cultural traditions—including polygamy and domestic abuse—that define and limit their lives. Three women, three stories, three linked destinies . . . In North Cameroon, well-to-do young Ramla is torn from her true love and wed to a manipulative older man. Safira, her co-wife, juggles envy and empathy for this new bride with disappointment in the husband she desperately loves. Like her older sister, Ramla, Hindou is married off to a man she does not know or want, a dista... continue
475.
The Jive Talker : An Artist's Genesis by Samson Kambalu EN
MalawiDescription:
What do you do when it looks like the odds were stacked against you before you were even born, when you're having trouble feeding a family that just keeps growing, when you've got a little too much of an affection for Carlsberg Brown and when the life president of your country, Malawi, keeps shuffling around the public health system that employs you, forcing you and your family into perpetual nomadism? You catch up on your reading, adding I'm OK, You're OK and Nietzsche to the bathroom library. Holding on to your dignity, you keep dressing up in threadbare three-piece suits you ordered from Lo... continue
476.
The Journey by Abdul Musa Adam EN
SudanDescription:
Abdul is just 7 years old when his parents are killed before his eyes.
As a brutal war sweeps Sudan, Abdul and his 3-year-old brother are forced to flee.
Their gruelling journey across the Sahara to a refugee camp in Chad is fraught with danger, and every day is a struggle against hunger and disease.
Until one day Abdul is offered a chance to escape. A chance that could save him, but will force him to make the most heartbreaking decision of his life.
Abdul's death-defying flight leaves deep scars. But his affinity with animals provides a lifeline, when he is offered the chance... continue
477.
The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta EN
NigeriaDescription:
...a graceful, touching, ironically titled tale. - John Updike A new edition of her classic novel to coincide with the publication of her other works in the African Writers Series. Nnu Ego is a woman devoted to her children, giving them all her energy, all her worldly possessions, indeed, all her life to them -- with the result that she finds herself friendless and alone in middle age. This story of a young mother's struggles in 1950s Lagos is a powerful commentary on polygamy, patriarchy, and women's changing roles in urban Nigeria.
478.
The Kaffir of Karthala by Mohamed A. Toihiri EN
ComorosDescription:
Though Mazamba knows he only has a few days left to extract most out of the world, and though he is married, Mazamba "embarks on an affair with a French woman, Aubéri, and comes to look at the world around him with new eyes." He is met with a society of racism, a nation of corruption and a globe of preconceived notions. But he still undertakes the quest to "challenge the status quo while he still can." Toihiri is a courageous and fearless writer. He looks and writes about the world with a different eye; an eye more clear and vivid an eye more brave. From the descriptions of 'a neighborhood whe... continue
479.
The Kaya Girl by Mamle Wolo EN
Description:
Writing with effortlessly engaging prose, Wolo showcases the interweaving layers of Ghanaian culture to create a prismatic, multifaceted world in which two young girls, against all odds, are able to find each other.
When Faiza, a Muslim migrant girl from northern Ghana, and Abena, a wealthy doctor’s daughter from the south, meet by chance in Accra’s largest market, where Faiza works as a porter or kaya girl, they strike up an unlikely and powerful friendship that transcends their social inequities and opens up new worlds to them both.
Set against a backdrop of class dispari... continue
480.
The Kindness of Enemies by Leila Aboulela EN
EgyptDescription:
While researching the life of Imam Shamil, a nineteenth-century Muslim leader who led a resistance against Russia during the Caucasian War, a history professor discovers that one of her students is descended from the historical figure and also possesses his priceless sword.