Books from Kenya
25 popular kenyan books
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
The target of the Read Around The World Challenge is to read at least one book written by an author from each and every country in the world.
All books that are listed here as part of the "Read Around Africa Challenge" were written by authors from Kenya.
Find a great book for the next part of your reading journey around the world from this book list. The following popular books have been recommended so far.
21.
Things They Lost by Okwiri Oduor EN
Description:
Named a Most Anticipated Book by Vogue and Vulture “Alternately whimsical, sweet, and dark,” this astonishing debut novel about a lonely girl waiting for her mother “brim[s] with uncompromisingly African magical realism” (The New York Times). Ayosa is a wandering spirit—joyous, exuberant, filled to the brim with longing. Her only companions in her grandmother’s crumbling house are as lonely as Ayosa herself: the ghostly Fatumas, whose eyes are the size of bay windows, who teach her to dance and wail at the death news; the Jolly-Annas, cruel birds who cover their solitude with spiteful laughter... continue
22.
Unbowed: A Memoir by Wangari Maathai EN
Description:
Born in a rural Kenyan village in 1940, Wangari Maathai was already an iconoclast as a child, determined to get an education even though most African girls then were uneducated.
24.
Weep Not, Child by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o EN
Description:
The Nobel Prize–nominated Kenyan writer’s powerful first novel Two brothers, Njoroge and Kamau, stand on a garbage heap and look into their futures: Njoroge is to attend school, while Kamau will train to be a carpenter. But this is Kenya, and the times are against them: In the forests, the Mau Mau is waging war against the white government, and the two brothers and their family need to decide where their loyalties lie. For the practical Kamau, the choice is simple, but for Njoroge the scholar, the dream of progress through learning is a hard one to give up. The first East African novel publish... continue
25.
Wizard of the Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o EN
Description:
Informed by traditional African storytelling, discover Ngugi wa Thiong'o's masterpiece. To honour the Ruler's birthday, the Free Republic of Aburiria set out to build a tower; a modern wonder of the world that will reach the gates of Heaven. But behind this pillar of unity a battle for control of the Aburirian people rages. Among the contenders: the eponymous Wizard, an avatar of folklore and wisdom; the corrupt Christian Ministry; and the nefarious Global Bank. 'Mythological but also cheerfully disenchanted; political and playful; cartoonish but also epical... the African novel may well have ... continue