Read Around Africa Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Africa.
Best books from Africa (619)
161.
River Spirit by Leila Aboulela EN
EgyptDescription:
The spellbinding new novel from New York Times Notable Author and Caine Prize winner Leila Aboulela about an embattled young woman’s coming of age during the Mahdist War in 19th century Sudan. Leila Aboulela, hailed as “a versatile prose stylist” (New York Times) has also been praised by J.M. Coetzee, Ali Smith, and Ben Okri, among others, for her rich and nuanced novels depicting Islamic spiritual and political life. Her new novel is an enchanting narrative of the years leading up to the British conquest of Sudan in 1898, and a deeply human look at the tensions between Britain and Sudan, Chri... continue
162.
Call Me by Your Name : A Novel by André Aciman EN
Description:
The sudden and powerful attraction between a teenage boy and a summer guest at his parents' house on the Italian Riviera has a profound and lasting influence that will mark them both for a lifetime.
163.
Elsewhere, Home by Leila Aboulela EN
Description:
Noveller. From the heat of Khartoum at the height of summer to the wintery streets of London, from the concrete high rises in the Gulf to the blustery coast in Aberdeen, this collection evokes the overlapping worlds of Africa, Britain and the Middle East
164.
Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz EN
Description:
Widely acclaimed as Naguib Mahfouz's best novel, Midaq Alley brings to life one of the hustling, teeming back alleys of Cairo in the 1940s. From Zaita the cripple-maker to Kirsha the hedonistic cafe owner, from Abbas the barber who mistakes greed for love to Hamida who sells her soul to escape the alley, from waiters and widows to politicians, pimps, and poets, the inhabitants of Midaq Alley vividly evoke Egypt's largest city as it teeters on the brink of change. Never has Nobel Prize-winner Mahfouz's talent for rich and luxurious storytelling been more evident than here, in his portrait of on... continue
165.
The Quarter by Naguib Mahfouz EN
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
166.
Homo Irrealis : The Would-Be Man Who Might Have Been: Essays by André Aciman EN
Description:
"A new collection of essays on literary and cinematic themes"--
167.
Description:
Radwa and Shagar are two women born on the same day. Spectres alternates between their childhoods, their days at work, their married and unmarried lives, and the two books they are writing.
168.
Metro: A Story of Cairo by Magdy El Shafee EN
Description:
Depicting the financial and social insecurity afflicting young people in modern Cairo, Metro was the first adult graphic novel published (and subsequently banned) in Egypt, just three years before the Arab Spring. In art as pulsing and immediate as Cairo itself, Magdy El Shafee delivers a prescient portrait of a crumbling society and Egypt's coming eruption. A powerful story of young men with nothing left to lose, Metro sounds the cry for a better, freer future. When Shehab, a young software designer, runs afoul of a loan shark, all avenues of escape in Mubarak's corrupt, chaotic Egypt seem to... continue
169.
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.
170.
La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono EN
Country: Africa / Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea
Description:
This coming-of-age story from Equatorial Guinea chronicles a teenage girl's quest to find out who she is.