Read Around Africa Challenge

Read at least one book by an author from each country in Africa.

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Best books from Africa (893)
291.

Addis Ababa Noir by ed. Maaza Mengiste EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Ethiopia flag Ethiopia
Description:
Addis Ababa is a sprawling melting pot of cultures where rich and poor live side by side in relative harmony--until they don't.

292.

El Rey En La Sombra by Maaza Mengiste ES

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Ethiopia flag Ethiopia
Description:
En esta novela monumental Maaza Mengiste indaga en las vidas casi borradas de las mujeres de su Etiopía natal que participaron en la guerra de resistencia ante la invasión italiana fascista que comenzó en 1935. A través de los personajes de "El rey en la sombra" -complejos y llenos de aristas, con sus luces y sus sombras- Mengiste nos desvela las graves consecuencias de una violencia omnipresente que deja profundas cicatrices.

293.

Hijos del ancho mundo by Abraham Verghese ES

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Ethiopia flag Ethiopia
Description:
Mientras la India celebra su flamante independencia, la abadesa de un convento de carmelitas en Madrás hace realidad uno de sus sueños más audaces: enviar a África dos jóvenes monjas enfermeras con la noble misión de transmitir el amor de Cristo ayudando a mitigar el dolor de los que sufren. Siete años más tarde, en el modesto hospital Missing de Adis Abeba nacen dos varones gemelos, Marion y Shiva Stone. El hecho no tendría nada de particular si no fuera porque su madre es una monja que muere en el parto y su padre un cirujano británico que desaparece sin dejar rastro. Así, los primeros años ... continue

294.

The History of a Difficult Child by Mihret Sibhat EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Country: Africa / Ethiopia flag Ethiopia
Description:
"A tragicomic family saga set in a small Ethiopian town following the 1974 socialist revolution, told from the perspective of the youngest daughter of a large, formerly land-owning family, who contends with bullies, poverty, and a dictatorship with humor and a refusal to be silenced"--

295.

Things Are Good Now by Djamila Ibrahim EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Ethiopia flag Ethiopia
Description:
Explores the scars of violence and the weight of love and guilt on the soul. Women, men, and children cross continents in search of a better life to find themselves struggling with the chaos of displacement and the religious and cultural clashes they face in their new homelands.

296.

Mema by Daniel M. Mengara EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Country: Africa / Gabon flag Gabon
Description:
Mema engages the reader with its dramatic tale of a woman struggling against the constraints of her community, yet proves to be a multi-layered novel exploring a culture in transition.
Genre

297.

The Fury and Cries of Women by Angèle Rawiri EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Country: Africa / Gabon flag Gabon
Description:
Gabon’s first female novelist, Angèle Rawiri probed deeper into the issues that writers a generation before her—Mariama Bâ and Aminata Sow Fall—had begun to address. Translated by Sara Hanaburgh, this third novel of the three Rawiri published is considered the richest of her fictional prose. It offers a gripping account of a modern woman, Emilienne, who questions traditional values and seeks emancipation from them. Emilienne’s active search for feminism on her own terms is tangled up with cultural expectations and taboos of motherhood, marriage, polygamy, divorce, and passion. She completes he... continue
Genre

298.

Awu's Story : A Novel by Justine Mintsa EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Country: Africa / Gabon flag Gabon
Description:
At the dawn of the twenty-first century, villages in the Fang region of northern Gabon must grapple with the clash of tradition and the evolution of customs throughout modern Africa. With this tension in the background, the passionate, deft, and creative seamstress Awu marries Obame, after he and his beloved wife, Bella, have been unable to conceive. Because all three are reluctant participants in this arrangement, theirs is an emotionally fraught existence. Through heartbreaking and disastrous events, Awu grapples with long-standing Fang customs that counter her desire to take full control of... continue

299.

N'être by Charline Effah FR

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Gabon flag Gabon
Description:
"Naître et ne pas être" pourrait résumer ce roman de l'exclusion familiale. Née d'un adultère, une jeune femme noire lutte contre le rejet de sa famille blanche. Le ressentiment changé en haine de sa mère lui fait vivre le pire dans ses relations intimes, particulièrement avec les hommes. La violence contenue dans le début du récit se mue peu à peu en une quête de sérénité où il s'agit de contourner le destin pour retrouver une mère, presque aimante.

300.

Reading the Ceiling by Dayo Forster EN

Rating: 3 (5 votes)
Country: Africa / Gambia flag Gambia
Description:
Destiny can be decided in a moment. Reading the Ceiling is a remarkable achievement: fresh, funny and wholly authentic, it paints a compelling portrait of the modern African experience for women, and introduces a stunning new voice to contemporary fiction. Ayodele has just turned 18. It's definitely a milestone, but it isn't the only one: she's also decided -- having now reached womanhood -- that the time is right to lose her virginity. It's an understandable decision, but what she doesn't yet know is that her choice of suitor will have a drastic effect on the rest of her life... Three men. Th... continue
Genre