These books set in Africa carry a powerful tone, setting up the incredibly diverse talent in each country on the continent. From new debut authors to classic ones, from comedic takes on the student gap year to CSI-style investigations in rural Ghanaian villages, this booklist (something impossible to make definitive or exhaustive) showcases some of the best fiction from the African continent.
Books set in Africa
These books set in Africa carry a powerful tone, setting up the incredibly diverse talent in each country on the continent. From new debut authors to classic ones, from comedic takes on the student gap year to CSI-style investigations in rural Ghanaian villages, this booklist (something impossible to make definitive or exhaustive) showcases some of the best fiction from the African continent.
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Things Fall Apart
Penguin ClassicsOkonowo is the greatest warrior alive. His fame has spread like a bushfire in West Africa and he is one of the most powerful men of his clan. But he also has a fiery temper. -
Half of a Yellow Sun
Harper PerennialHalf of a Yellow Sun is set in Nigeria during the 1960s, at the time of the vicious Nigeria- Biafra war in which more than a million people died and thousands were massacred in cold blood -
The Sheltering Sky
Penguin ClassicsThe Sheltering Sky is a book about people on the edge of an alien space; somewhere where, curiously, 'they are never alone'. -
Disgrace
VintageThis examination into the sexual and politcal lawlines of modern South Africa as it tries desperately to start a fresh page in its history is chilling, uncompromising and unforgettable. -
Assassinating Shakespeare
Saqi BooksIn 1976, Thomas Goltz, then a naive twenty-one-year-old on the trail of his errant brother, worked his way around Africa putting on one-man Shakespeare performances. -
Broken Glass
Serpent's TailAlain Mabanckou's darkly glittering novel is an astringent portrait of post-colonial ennui and contemporary African social collapse, as well as a brilliantly witty homage to the written word. -
Musungu Jim and the Great Chief Tuloko
PenguinZambawi, a banana republic in sub-Saharan Africa, is on the verge of revolution. President Adini, dictator and eunuch, clings to power whilst his soldiers switch sides so often they don't know which uniform to wear. -
The Famished Road
VintageThe Famished Road is the story of a spirit child Azaro. Azaro meaning 'born to die' has been born to his parents many a times only to die shortly after birth. -
Tail of the Blue Bird
VintageNii Ayikwei Parkes' debut novel is a poetic, dreamy story about the influx of technology and modernity into rural Ghana, and the uneasy relationship between science and spirit. -
Ake: The Years of Childhood
Methuen PublishingThe first volume of Wole Soyinka's acclaimed series of autobiographical works. This vivid, exuberant book is the author's account of his childhood in colonial Nigeria.
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