Popular African Short Story Books
Find short story books written by authors from Africa for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (74)
11.
Call and Response by Gothataone Moeng EN
BotswanaDescription:
'A terrific collection' Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane and Love Marriage A Most Anticipated Title for Oprah Daily, Essence, BuzzFeed, The Millions and Brittle Paper Full of heart and humour, Gothataone Moeng's first collection, set between the rural village of Serowe and the thrumming capital city of Gaborone, captures a chorus of voices from a country in flux. Meet a young woman who has worn the same mourning clothes for almost a year, and a teenage girl who shies away from the room where her once vibrant aunt lies dying. Elsewhere, watch as a younger sister hides her romantic exploits from... continue
12.
Catalogue of a Private Life by Najwa Bin Shatwan AR
LibyaDescription:
A collection of short stories by one of the Arab world's most accomplished and acclaimed writers. A grandmother who takes on a thief trying to seduce her daughters. A guard who fantasises about killing his general while locked in battle with a non-existent enemy. A film script about Libya's traffic problems improvised at a workshop. A woman's letter from her old school, which is now a makeshift refugee camp. A cow straying into a field, breaking an age-old truce between warring factions. The eight stories of Catalogue of a Private Life feel like oft-recounted folktales, where the ordinary has ... continue
Rwanda14.
Dark Moons Rising on a Starless Night by Mame Bougouma Diene EN
SenegalDescription:
Fistulas There's a village that lies in the shade of a giant tree. Humanitarian Dr. Salio discovers that the children living there need assistance and to be studied, but is there any cure for when tradition and horror are one and the same? The Whores, The Dealer and The Diamond The most beautiful things are found in the darkest of places, just as hope is found in the darkest of moments. Sometimes darkness overcomes them all. Popobawa You can find everything in Zanzibar. It grows on the side of the road, shinning white baobabs, pineapples, nutmeg, and the essence of Chanel N°5. And demons. Blac... continue
15.
Do You Hear in the Mountains... and Other Stories by Maïssa Bey EN
AlgeriaDescription:
This new translation brings together two of Algerian author Maïssa Bey's important works for the first time in English. "Do You Hear in the Mountains..." is a compelling piece of autofiction in which three destinies meet dramatically on a train moving through France. We meet an Algerian refugee, whom we recognize as Bey herself. She has escaped the civil war and cannot forget her father's commitment to independence nor his death under the torture of the French soldiers. Sitting near her is a retired doctor whose military service in Algeria coincidentally took him to the same area at the time o... continue
16.
Don't Whisper Too Much and Portrait of a Young Artiste from Bona Mbella by Frieda Ekotto EN
CameroonDescription:
Don't Whisper Too Much and Bona Mbella present love stories between African women in a positive light. In presenting the emotional and romantic lives of gay African women, Ekotto addresses how female sexuality is often marked by violence, and yet is also a place for emotional connection, pleasure and agency.
17.
Drinking from Graveyard Wells by Yvette Lisa Ndlovu EN
ZimbabweDescription:
"Even in death, who has ownership over Black women's bodies?" Questions like this lurk between the lines of this stunning collection of stories that engage with African women's histories, both personal and generational. Their history is not just one thing: there is heartbreak and pain, and joy, and flying and magic, so much magic. An avenging spirit takes on the patriarchy from beyond the grave. An immigrant woman undergoes a naturalization ceremony in an imagined American state that demands that immigrants pay a toll of the thing they love the most. A first-generation Zimbabwean-American woma... continue
18.
Dumba Nengue, Run for Your Life : Peasant Tales of Tragedy in Mozambique by Lina Magaia EN
Country: Africa / 
Mozambique
Mozambique
Description:
A personal account of the horrifying effects of life caused by apartheid South African backed MNR rebels in Mozambique
19.
Elsewhere, Home by Leila Aboulela EN
EgyptDescription:
Noveller. From the heat of Khartoum at the height of summer to the wintery streets of London, from the concrete high rises in the Gulf to the blustery coast in Aberdeen, this collection evokes the overlapping worlds of Africa, Britain and the Middle East
20.
Sudan