Read Around Africa Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Africa.
Best books from Africa (893)
241.
The Greater Freedom : Life As a Middle Eastern Woman Outside the Stereotypes by Alya Mooro EN
EgyptDescription:
The greater freedom is to be who you actually are; to be able to live your life in the way you deem best, free from any sort of restriction to do that, or fear of repercussions for doing so.
Egyptian-born and London-raised, Alya Mooro grew up between two cultures and felt a pull from both. Where could she turn for advice and inspiration when it seemed there was nobody else like her? Today, Mooro is determined to explore and explode the myth that she must identify either as ‘Western’ or as one of almost 400 million other ‘Arabs’ across the Middle East.
Through coun... continue
242.
The Cairo Trilogy : Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street by Najīb Maḥfūẓ EN
Description:
A series of historical fiction based on the life of a family living in Cairo during the British Colonial period and afterward.
244.
The Coffeehouse by Naguib Mahfouz EN
Description:
Mahfouz's last novel, an evocative depiction of life in Egypt in the twentieth century as told through the lives of a group of friends, is now available in paperback for the first time On a school playground in the stylish Cairo suburb of Abbasiya, five young boys become friends for life, making a nearby café, Qushtumur, their favorite gathering spot forever. One is the narrator, who, looking back in his old age on their seven decades together, makes the other four the heroes of his tale, a Proustian, and classically Mahfouzian, quest in search of lost time and the memory of a much-changed pla... continue
245.
The Dawning of the Day : A Jerusalem Tale by Haim Sabato EN
Description:
Ezra Siman Tov is a simple storyteller who captivates his friends in the Nachlaot neighborhood of Jerusalem. His professor brother-in-law gives him grudging respect, Torah scholars listen to him surreptitiously, and a famous author bases his work on his tales. But Ezra has a secret that overshadows his family life and refuses to leave him. In this colorful novel, Sabato creates a world in which faith provides a framework and a deep source of comfort in life.
246.
From the Four Winds by Hayim Sabato EN
Description:
Haim Sabato draws us into his childhood with this evocative rendering of his experiences as a young boy whose family immigrates to Israel in the 1950's, settling in a Ma'abara - a transit camp. He notices his fellow immigrants' concealment of their pasts. He accepts this secrecy, sensing that everything will reveal itself eventually. And this revelation does come, in the form of Farkash, a mysterious, dynamic man who takes Haim under his wing and gradually divulges to him his sorrowful, uplifting story, one that profoundly impacts Haim for the rest of his life...
247.
Arab Fairy Tale Feasts : A Literary Cookbook by Karim Alrawi EN
Description:
An entertaining, multifaceted, and delicious way to explore Arab culture Arab Fairy Tale Feasts is the latest title in the highly-praised Fairy Tale Feasts Collection, a creative series that folds enchanting folk tales into cookbooks of kid-friendly recipes. Award-winning writer and storyteller, Karim Alrawi, draws on his deep knowledge of Arab culture to create original stories that are a feast for young imaginations. Told with intriguing details, the tales take young readers on a delicious cultural journey and invite them to consider an Arab perspective. Each tale symbolically incorporates f... continue
248.
Palace of Desire : The Cairo Trilogy, Volume 2 by Naguib Mahfouz EN
Description:
Palace of Desire is the second novel in Nobel Prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz’s magnificent Cairo Trilogy, an epic family saga of colonial Egypt that is considered his masterwork. The novels of the Cairo Trilogy trace three generations of the family of tyrannical patriarch al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, who rules his household with a strict hand while living a secret life of self-indulgence. In Palace of Desire, his rebellious children struggle to move beyond his domination, as the world around them opens to the currents of modernity and political and domestic turmoil brought by the 1920s. Translat... continue
249.
Sugar Street by Naguib Mahfouz, Najīb Maḥfūẓ EN
Description:
Sugar Street, the climactic conclusion to Mafhouz's masterpiece trilogy, is the captivating portrait of a family struggling to change with the rise of modern Egypt. As Cairo shrugs off the final vestiges of colonialism, Ahmad Al Jawad has lost his power and surveys the world from a latticed balcony. Unable to control his family's destiny, he watches helplessly as his dynasty and the traditions he holds dear disintegrate before his eyes. But through Ahamd's three grandsons we see how modern Egypt takes shape. One grandson is a communist activist, another a Muslim fundamentalist, both working fo... continue
250.
Zeina by Nawāl Saʻdāwī, Nawal El Saadawi EN
Description:
"More than any other woman, Nawal El Saadawi has come has come to embody the trials of Arab feminism."--San Francisco Chronicle "The leading spokeswoman on the status of women in the Arab World."--Guardian "Saadawi writes with directness and passion."--The New York Times Bodour, a distinguished literary critic and university professor, carries with her a dark secret. As a young university student, she fell in love with a political activist and gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Zeina, whom she abandoned on the streets of Cairo. Zeina grows up to become one of Egypt's most beloved entertai... continue