Read Around Africa Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Africa.
Best books from Africa (893)
Egypt252.
The Open Door by Latifa al-Zayyat EN
Description:
February 1946: Cairo is engulfed by demonstrations against the British. Layla's older brother Mahmud returns, wounded in the clashes, and the events of that fateful day mark a turning point in her life, an awakening to the world around her. Latifa al-Zayyat's acclaimed modern classic follows Layla through her sexual and political coming of age. Her rebellious spirit seeks to free itself from the stifling social codes that dictate a young woman's life, just as Egypt struggles to shake off the yoke of imperialist rule.
254.
American War by Omar El Akkad EN
Description:
"Powerful . . . As haunting a postapocalyptic universe as Cormac McCarthy [created] in The Road, and as devastating a look as the fallout that national events have on an American family as Philip Roth did in The Plot Against America. . . . Omar El Akkad's debut novel, American War, is an unlikely mash-up of unsparing war reporting and plot elements familiar to readers of the recent young-adult dystopian series The Hunger Games and Divergent." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times An audacious and powerful debut novel: a second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught de... continue
255.
Chronicle of a Last Summer : A Novel of Egypt by Yasmine El Rashidi EN
Description:
A young Egyptian woman recounts her personal and political coming of age in this brilliant debut novel. Cairo, 1984. A blisteringly hot summer. A young girl in a sprawling family house. Her days pass quietly: listening to a mother’s phone conversations, looking at the Nile from a bedroom window, watching the three state-sanctioned TV stations with the volume off, daydreaming about other lives. Underlying this claustrophobic routine is mystery and loss. Relatives mutter darkly about the newly-appointed President Mubarak. Everyone talks with melancholy about the past. People disappear overnight.... continue
257.
Les fils de la médina by Naǧīb Maḥfūẓ FR
Description:
Sur les ruines des somptueux palais fatimides a poussé la Gamaliyya, un quartier populaire du vieux Caire. De ce petit monde truculent, qui oscille au fil des rumeurs de la ville ou voltige sur les fumées somnolentes du haschisch, s'élève parfois la voix du poète populaire disant l'évasion, proférant l'illusion, tandis que se succèdent des protagonistes qui mobilisent les ferveurs du peuple et suggèrent les trois révélations. Toujours interdit par la censure égyptienne, qui l'identifia comme une scandaleuse transposition de l'histoire sainte dans la chronique familière des hommes, ce fastueux ... continue
258.
The Essential Nawal El Saadawi : A Reader by Nawal El Saadawi EN
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
259.
Bird Summons by Leila Aboulela EN
Description:
'BIRD SUMMONS is a magic carpet ride into the forest of history and the lives of women. Deep and wild' Lucy Ellmann, author of SWEET DESSERTS and MIMI Salma, happily married, tries every day to fit into life in Britain. When her first love contacts her, she is tempted to risk it all and return to Egypt. Moni gave up a career in banking to care for her disabled son, but now her husband wants to move to Saudi Arabia - where she fears her son's condition will worsen. Iman feels burdened by her beauty. In her twenties and already in her third marriage, she is treated like a pet and longs for freed... continue
260.
By Night the Mountain Burns by Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel EN
Country: Africa / 
Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea
Description:
Exiled Equatorial Guinean writer shows the life of the native people of his west African island destroyed by distant rulers.