Read Around Africa Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Africa.
Best books from Africa (894)
441.
Desdemona by Toni Morrison, Rokia Traoré EN
MaliDescription:
The story of Desdemona from Shakespeare's Othello is re-imagined by Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison, Malian singer and songwriter Rokia Traoré, and acclaimed stage director Peter Sellars. Morrison's response to Othello is an intimate dialogue of words and music between Desdemona and her African nurse Barbary. Morrison gives voice and depth to the female characters, letting them speak and sing in the fullness of their hearts. Desdemona is an extraordinary narrative of words, music and song about Shakespeares doomed heroine, who speaks from the grave about the traumas of race, class, gender, ... continue
442.
The Desert and the Drum by Mbarek Ould Beyrouk EN
Country: Africa / 
Mauritania
Mauritania
Description:
"The Desert and the Drum reveals a hidden Bedouin world and what happens when its values clash with those of contemporary urban life. It was awarded the Ahmadou-Kourouma Prize in 2016 and is the first novel from Mauritania to be translated into English. Everything changes for Rayhana when foreigners with strange machines arrive to mine for metal near her Bedouin camp. One of them is the enigmatic Yahya. Her association with him leads to Rayhana to abandon all that she has ever known and flee alone to the city. But when her tribe discover she has stolen their sacred drum, they pursue her to exa... continue
443.
Estoy solo by Beyrouk ES
Country: Africa / Mauritania
Mauritania
Description:
Está encerrado, su vida corre peligro. Y piensa, narra. Narra sus pensamientos, sus miedos, sus tímidos deseos. Sus recuerdos, sus ideas, sus opiniones.
Trata de mantener la esperanza, de no flaquear; no es un hombre valiente, ni tampoco un hombre virtuoso, salvo con las palabras. Y espera.
La religiosidad y sencillez de su madre, criada en el nomadismo del Sahara; el antepasado, campeón de la Fe. Los celosos celadores de la Fe y el deber. El amor y el placer, el dinero, a veces tan escaso, y otras tan accesible y tentador.
"...yo, madre, soy un tipo de lo m&... continue
444.
Rabia est arrivée : chroniques du Trarza : récit by Aichetou FR
Country: Africa / Mauritania
Mauritania
Description:
La mère de Rabia, sa fille ou leurs autres compagnes avaient-elles été capturées, achetées ou volées? Dieu seul sait. Au cours des veillées, quand Rabia se faisait conteuse, jamais elle ne s'était hasardée à parler de ce passé-là, l'ayant enseveli dans un autre Moi, trop lointain et peut-être inconnu d'ailleurs d'elle-même. Comment avait-elle pu se trouver dans ce campement nomade, avec ces Bédouins?
445.
The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah EN
MauritiusDescription:
Raj is oblivious to the Second World War being fought beyond his tiny exotic island. His mother is his sole company while his father works as a prison guard, so the boy thinks only of making friends. One day, from the far-away world, a ship brings to the island Jewish exiles who have been refused entry to Israel. David, a recently orphaned boy of his own age from Prague, becomes the friend that he has longed for, and Raj takes it upon himself to help David to escape from the prison. As they flee through sub-tropical forests and devastating storms, the boys battle hunger and malaria - and forge... continue
447.
Blue Bay Palace by Nathacha Appanah-Mouriquand EN
Description:
Exposing the extremes of life in a developing country, this novel of doomed love shows how poverty, class divisions, and ramshackle housing become even harder to bear when luxurious resorts and rich tourists arrive on the scene. Growing up on the island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, lonely young Maya hopes that someday she might escape her poverty and find happiness in the desirable housing developments near the new hotels. When she falls in love with a man from a well-to-do family, she believes that her dream is within reach, but her hopes are shattered when her lover is too weak to defy... continue
448.
449.
Riambel by Priya Hein EN
Description:
Fifteen-year-old Noemi has no choice but to leave school and work in the house of the wealthy De Grandbourg family. Just across the road from the slums where she grew up, she encounters a world that is starkly different from her own - yet one which would have been all too familiar to her ancestors. Bewitched by a pair of green eyes and haunted by echoes, her life begins to mirror those of girls who have gone before her. Within Noemi's lament is also the herstory of Mauritius; the story of women who have resisted arrest, of teachers who care for their poorest pupils and encourage them to challe... continue
450.
Black Spartacus : The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture by Sudhir Hazareesingh EN
Description:
A biography of the Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture.