English books from Africa

Recommended English books (826)
Travel the world without leaving your chair. If you speak English here are some English books from Africa for the next part of the "Read Around The World Challenge".
601.

The Kaffir of Karthala by Mohamed A. Toihiri EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Comoros flag Comoros
Description:
Though Mazamba knows he only has a few days left to extract most out of the world, and though he is married, Mazamba "embarks on an affair with a French woman, Aubéri, and comes to look at the world around him with new eyes." He is met with a society of racism, a nation of corruption and a globe of preconceived notions. But he still undertakes the quest to "challenge the status quo while he still can." Toihiri is a courageous and fearless writer. He looks and writes about the world with a different eye; an eye more clear and vivid an eye more brave. From the descriptions of 'a neighborhood whe... continue
Genre

602.

The Kaya Girl by Mamle Wolo EN

Rating: 5 (3 votes)
Country: Africa / Ghana flag Ghana
Description:
Writing with effortlessly engaging prose, Wolo showcases the interweaving layers of Ghanaian culture to create a prismatic, multifaceted world in which two young girls, against all odds, are able to find each other. When Faiza, a Muslim migrant girl from northern Ghana, and Abena, a wealthy doctor’s daughter from the south, meet by chance in Accra’s largest market, where Faiza works as a porter or kaya girl, they strike up an unlikely and powerful friendship that transcends their social inequities and opens up new worlds to them both. Set against a backdrop of class dispari... continue

603.

The Kindness of Enemies by Leila Aboulela EN

0 Ratings
Country: Africa / Egypt flag Egypt
Description:
While researching the life of Imam Shamil, a nineteenth-century Muslim leader who led a resistance against Russia during the Caucasian War, a history professor discovers that one of her students is descended from the historical figure and also possesses his priceless sword.

604.

The King of Kahel by Tierno Monénembo, Nicholas Elliott EN

0 Ratings
Country: Africa / Guinea flag Guinea
Description:
The story is loosely inspired by the life of Olivier de Sanderval, who, intent on becoming an explorer for most of his life, finally set sale for Africa in 1879 after turning 40. As Monenembo tells it, once there he recruits a crew of Senegalese infantrymen and travels to Fouta Djallon, a land he desperately wants to rule. He learns local customs that will aid him in his quest to govern. During the following years of conquests and re-conquests, Sanderval never loses his taste for European luxury and moves between Africa and France, where he publishes books on his experience and struggles to co... continue

605.

The Land Without Shadows by Abdourahman A. Waberi EN

Rating: 2 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Djibouti flag Djibouti
Description:
Originally published in France in 1994, this newly translated collection presents stories about the precolonial and colonial past of Djibouti alongside those set in the postcolonial era. With irony and humor, these short stories portray madmen, poets, artists, French colonists, pseudointellectuals, young women, aspiring politicians, famished refugees, khat chewers, nomads struggling to survive in Djibouti's ruthless natural environment, or tramps living (and dying) in Balbala, the shantytown that stretches to the south of the capital--Cover.

606.

The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah EN

Rating: 4 (2 votes)
Country: Africa / Mauritius flag Mauritius
Description:
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

607.

The Last Flight of the Flamingo by Mia Couto EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Country: Africa / Mozambique flag Mozambique
Description:
An extraordinary portrait of an Africa country after a civil war.

608.

The Last Gift by Abdulrazak Gunrah EN

0 Ratings
Country: Africa / Tanzania flag Tanzania
Description:
By the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature Abbas has never told anyone about his past; about what happened before he was a sailor on the high seas, before he met his wife Maryam outside a Boots in Exeter, before they settled into a quiet life in Norwich with their children, Jamal and Hanna. Now, at the age of sixty-three, he suffers a collapse that renders him bedbound and unable to speak about things he thought he would one day have to. Jamal and Hanna have grown up and gone out into the world. They were both born in England but cannot shake a sense of apartness. Hanna calls herself ... continue

609.

The Last Nomad: Coming of Age in the Somali Desert by Shugri Said Salh EN

Rating: 4 (3 votes)
Country: Africa / Somalia flag Somalia
Description:
A remarkable and inspiring true story that "stuns with raw beauty" about one woman's resilience, her courageous journey to America, and her family's lost way of life. Born in Somalia, a spare daughter in a large family, Shugri Said Salh was sent at age six to live with her nomadic grandmother in the desert. The last of her family to learn this once-common way of life, Salh found herself chasing warthogs, climbing termite hills, herding goats, and moving constantly in search of water and grazing lands with her nomadic family. For Salh, though the desert was a harsh place threatened by drought, ... continue

610.

The Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Djaout EN

Rating: 5 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Algeria flag Algeria
Description:
This elegant, haunting novel takes us deep into the world of bookstore owner Boualem Yekker. He lives in a country being overtaken by the Vigilant Brothers, a radically conservative party that seeks to control every element of life according to the laws of their stringent moral theology: no work of beauty created by human hands should rival the wonders of their god. Once-treasured art and literature are now despised. ø Silently holding his ground, Boualem withstands the new regime, using the shop and his personal history as weapons against puritanical forces. Readers are taken into the lush de... continue
Genre


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