Read Around Africa Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Africa.
Best books from Africa (603)
191.
Addis Ababa Noir by ed. Maaza Mengiste EN
EthiopiaDescription:
Addis Ababa is a sprawling melting pot of cultures where rich and poor live side by side in relative harmony--until they don't.
192.
El Rey En La Sombra by Maaza Mengiste ES
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.
193.
Hijos del ancho mundo by Abraham Verghese ES
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
194.
The History of a Difficult Child by Mihret Sibhat EN
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"--
195.
GabonDescription:
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.
196.
The Fury and Cries of Women by Angèle Rawiri EN
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
197.
Awu's Story : A Novel by Justine Mintsa EN
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
198.
Reading the Ceiling by Dayo Forster EN
GambiaDescription:
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
199.
The Graveyard Cannot Pray : One Man's Battle to Save His Daughter from Female Circumcision by Baba Galleh Jallow EN
Description:
This book is an autobiographical account of one man's struggle to save his daughter from being taken to the bush; a struggle that defies a harmful traditional practice and defective constructions of normality. Perhaps the first to articulate the battle against Female Genital Mutilation from an African male perspective, The Grave Yard Cannot Pray throws into sharp relief three interconnected phenomena: the communal nature of conflict and conflict resolution among the Futa Fulani, the Fulani notion of son-hood, and the potential complications that arise when the sanctity of tradition is stood in... continue
200.
The Sun Will Soon Shine by Sally Singhateh EN
Description:
For an intelligent, ambitious girl growing up in a Gambian village, life holds few tempting prospects. Marriage and motherhood, often forced, are the paths assigned to most. Nyima, too, is subject to this fate, as well as having to endure the health-endangering ongoing practice of genital mutilation.But ours is a heroine of immense courage, able to see beyond her situation, despite the bleakness of life. She makes it through her darkest hours, and emerges stronger on the other side, though permanently scarred by her ordeals.It is in education and work that Nyima finds her salvation, and begins... continue