Popular African Short Story Books

Find short story books written by authors from Africa for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (49)

31.

Secret Lives and Other Stories by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o EN

0 Ratings
Country: Africa / Kenya flag Kenya
Description:
'One of the greatest writers of our time' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Ngugi wa Thiong'o is renowned for his political novels and plays, yet he honed his craft as a short story writer. First published in 1975, Secret Lives and Other Stories brings together a range of Ngugi's political short stories. From tales of the meeting between magic and superstition, to stories about the modernising forces of colonialism, and the pervasive threat of nature, this collection celebrates the storytelling might of one of Africa's best-loved writers.

32.

Shut Up You're Pretty by Ta Mutonji, Tea Mutonji EN

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Description:
A high-wire collection of darkly humorous stories about a young woman floating in and out of her skin, trying on identities imposed on her by others.

33.

Sit Down and Listen: Stories from South Africa by Ellen Kuzwayo EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Description:
'For so many years now,' writes the author of this delightful collection, 'we have owned our stories while owning so little else.' Ellen Kuzwayo's autobiography Call Me Woman was an international bestseller. At last we hear her extraordinarily distinct voice again, this time in a series of stories culled from her rich personal experience as community leader, social worker, teacher and black woman in South Africa. These tales explore the complex life of contemporary black South Africa through the traditional form of story-telling. But the stories themselves are no... continue

34.

Soweto, Under the Apricot Tree by Nicholas Mhlongo EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Description:
Imbued with a sense of place, this short story collection captures the vibrancy of Soweto and surrounds. Told with satirical flair, life and death intertwine in these tales where funerals and the ancestors feature strongly. Take a seat under the apricot tree and let a born storyteller enthral you with tales both entertaining and thought-provoking. -- Publisher's description.


36.

The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales by Bessie Head EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Description:
Botswana village tales about subjects such as the breakdown of family life and the position of women in this society.

37.

The Essential Nawal El Saadawi : A Reader by Nawal El Saadawi EN

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Country: Africa / Egypt flag Egypt
Description:
The writings of Nawal El Saadawi are essential to anyone wishing to understand the contemporary Arab world. Her dissident voice has stayed as consistent in its critique of neo.imperialist international politics as it has in its denunciation of women's oppression, both in her native Egypt and in the wider world. Saadawi is a figure of international significance, and her work has a central place in Arabic history and culture of the last half century. Featuring work never before translated into English, The Essential Nawal El Saadawi gathers together a wide range of Saadawi's writing. From novell... continue

38.

The Quarter by Naguib Mahfouz EN

0 Ratings
Country: Africa / Egypt flag Egypt
Description:
Meet the people of Cairo's Gamaliya quarter. There is Nabqa, son of Adam the waterseller who can only speak truths; the beautiful and talented Tawhida who does not age with time; Ali Zaidan, the gambler, late to love; and Boss Saqr who stashes his money above the bath. A neighbourhood of demons, dancing and sweet halva, the quarter keeps quiet vigil over the secrets of all who live there. This collection by pre-eminent Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz was recently discovered among his old papers. Found with a slip of paper titled 'for publishing 1994', they are published here for the first time.... continue

39.

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie EN

Rating: 5 (4 votes)
Country: Africa / Nigeria flag Nigeria
Description:
A collection of twelve stories includes the tale of a medical student in hiding with a poor Muslim woman, and a woman who discovers a devastating secret about her brother's death.

40.

The Wedding of Zein by Tayeb Salih EN

0 Ratings
Country: Africa / Sudan flag Sudan
Description:
“The Wedding of Zein” unfolds in the same village on the upper Nile where Tayeb Salih’s tragic masterpiece Season of Migration to the North is set. Here, however, the story that emerges through the overlapping, sometimes contradictory voices of the villagers is comic. Zein is the village idiot, and everyone in the village is dumbfounded when the news goes around that he will be getting married—Zein the freak, Zein who burst into laughter the moment he was born and has kept women and children laughing ever since, Zein who lost all his teeth at six and whose face is completely hairless, Zein mar... continue