Read Around Africa Challenge

Read at least one book by an author from each country in Africa.

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Best books from Africa (1156)
241.

La divine chanson by Abdourahman A. Waberi FR

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Djibouti flag Djibouti
Description:
La Divine Chanson est un roman, un roman amoureux qui s'empare d'une vie exemplaire, celle d'un chanteur, compositeur, poète afro-américain né à Chicago en 1949, dont nul ne saurait méconnaître l'immense génie et la rude destinée : Gil Scott-Heron, réinventé ici sous le nom de Sammy l'enchanteur. Décidément plus humain que bien des bipèdes, c'est un vieux chat roux recueilli dans une rue de Harlem qui nous entraîne, en groupie de proximité, partout où la Divine Chanson continue de tourner, à travers les ghettos noirs ou sur les scènes internationales du jazz, de New York, Paris ou Berlin - ce ... continue

242.

Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz EN

Rating: 4 (9 votes)
Country: Africa / Egypt flag Egypt
Description:
Palace Walk is the first 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. Palace Walk introduces us to his gentle, oppressed wife, Amina, his cloistered daughters, Aisha and Khadija, and his three sons—the tragic and idealistic Fahmy, the dissolute hedonist Yasin, and the soul-searching in... continue

243.

The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: Africa / Egypt flag Egypt
Description:
In 1900 Lady Anna Winterbourne travels to Egypt where she falls in love with Sharif, and Egyptian Nationalist utterly committed to his country's cause. A hundred years later, Isabel Parkman, an American divorcee and a descendant of Anna and Sharif, goes to Egypt, taking with her an old family trunk, inside which are found notebooks and journals which reveal Anna and Sharif's secret.

244.

The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany EN

Rating: 4 (10 votes)
Country: Africa / Egypt flag Egypt
Description:
Reveals the political corruption, sexual repression, religious extremism, and modern hopes of Egypt today through the lives of several people who live in the Yacoubian building.
Genre

245.

The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz EN

Rating: 4 (3 votes)
Country: Africa / Egypt flag Egypt
Description:
"The Queue ... has drawn comparisons to Western classics like George Orwell’s 1984 and The Trial by Franz Kafka. It represents a new wave of dystopian and surrealist fiction from Middle Eastern writers who are grappling with the chaotic aftermath and stinging disappointments of the Arab Spring." -- The New York Times Winner of the English PEN Translation Award In a surreal, but familiar, vision of modern day Egypt, a centralized authority known as ‘the Gate’ has risen to power in the aftermath of the ‘Disgraceful Events,’ a failed popular uprising. Citizens are required to obtain permission fr... continue

246.

Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi EN

Rating: 5 (10 votes)
Country: Africa / Egypt flag Egypt
Description:
So begins Firdaus' story, leading to her grimy Cairo prison cell, where she welcomes her death sentence as a relief from her pain and suffering. Born to a peasant family in the Egyptian countryside, Firdaus suffers a childhood of cruelty and neglect. Her passion for education is ignored by her family, and on leaving school she is forced to marry a much older man. Following her escapes from violent relationships, she finally meets Sharifa who tells her that 'A man does not know a woman's value ... the higher you price yourself the more he will realise what you are really worth' and leads her in... continue

247.

The Translator by Leila Aboulela EN

0 Ratings
Country: Africa / Egypt flag Egypt
Description:
Although they work in the same department at Aberdeen University, she as a translator, he as a lecturer in Postcolonial Politics, Sammar and Rae live in worlds divided by simple facts

248.

The Hidden Face of Eve : Women in the Arab World by Nawal El Saadawi EN

Rating: 4.5 (3 votes)
Country: Africa / Egypt flag Egypt
Description:
This powerful account of the oppression of women in the Muslim world remains as shocking today as when it was first published, more than a quarter of a century ago. Nawal El Saadawi writes out of a powerful sense of the violence and injustice which permeated her society. Her experiences working as a doctor in villages around Egypt, witnessing prostitution, honour killings and sexual abuse, including female circumcision, drove her to give voice to this suffering. She goes on explore the causes of the situation through a discussion of the historical role of Arab women in religion and literature.... continue

249.

Beer in the Snooker Club by Waguih Ghali EN

Rating: 4 (3 votes)
Country: Africa / Egypt flag Egypt
Description:
Behind the bar at Jameel's in Cairo hang two mugs engraved with the names of Ram and Font. During their years together in London, they drank many a pint of Bass from these mugs. But there is no Bass in Nasser's Egypt, so Ram and Font have to make do with a heady mixture of beer, vodka and whisky. Yearning for Bass they long to be far from a revolution that neither serves the people nor allows their rich aunts to live the life of leisure they are accustomed to. Stranded between two cultures, Ram and Font must choose between dangerous political opposition and reluctant acquiescence. First publis... continue

250.

What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad EN

Rating: 4 (7 votes)
Country: Africa / Egypt flag Egypt
Description:
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the widely acclaimed, bestselling author of American War—a beautifully written, unrelentingly dramatic, and profoundly moving novel that looks at the global refugee crisis through the eyes of a child. "Told from the point of view of two children, on the ground and at sea, the story so astutely unpacks the us-versus-them dynamics of our divided world that it deserves to be an instant classic." —The New York Times Book Review More bodies have washed up on the shores of a small island. Another overfilled, ill-equipped, dilapidated ship has sunk und... continue


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