Read Around Africa Challenge
Read at least one book by an author from each country in Africa.
Best books from Africa (1156)
871.
The Promise by Damon Galgut EN
Country: Africa / 
South Africa
South Africa
Description:
WINNER OF THE 2021 BOOKER PRIZE A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE On her deathbed, Rachel Swart makes a promise to Salome, the family's Black maid. This promise will divide the family--especially her children: Anton, the golden boy; Astrid, whose beauty is her power; and the youngest, Amor, whose life is shaped by feelings of guilt. Reunited by four funerals over thirty years, the dwindling Swart family remains haunted by the unmet promise, just as their country is haunted by its own failures. The Promise is an epic South African drama that unfurls against the unrelenting march of history, sure... continue
872.
The Expedition to the Baobab Tree by Wilma Stockenstrom EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
A powerful fable originally published by Faber in 1983, translated by Nobel laureate and two-time Booker prize winner J. M. Coetzee.
873.
Règles douloureuses by Kopano Matlwa FR
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
Nous sommes en 2015, en Afrique du Sud. Des années durant, Masechaba a souffert de douleurs chroniques liées à une endométriose. Le sang a forgé son caractère, non seulement il a fait d'elle une personne solitaire, presque craintive, mais il l'a aussi poussé à devenir médecin. Quand débute le roman, elle est interne dans un hôpital. Dans le flux ininterrompu des patients, elle s'interroge sur sa capacité à les aimer tous, à leur donner toutes ses forces, tout son dévouement. E... continue
874.
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
“The Power of One has everything: suspense, the exotic, violence; mysticism, psychology and magic; schoolboy adventures, drama.” –The New York Times “Unabashedly uplifting . . . asserts forcefully what all of us would like to believe: that the individual, armed with the spirit of independence–‘the power of one’–can prevail.” –Cleveland Plain Dealer In 1939, as Hitler casts his enormous, cruel shadow across the world, the seeds of apartheid take root in South Africa. There, a boy called Peekay is born. His childhood is marked by humiliation and abandonment, yet he vows to survive and conceives ... continue
875.
The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales by Bessie Head EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
Botswana village tales about subjects such as the breakdown of family life and the position of women in this society.
876.
When Rain Clouds Gather & Maru by Bessie Head EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
When Rainclouds Gather: Escaping South Africa and his troubled past, Makehaya crosses the border to Botswana, in the hope of leading a peaceful, purposeful life. In the village of Golema Mmidi he meets Gilbert, a charismatic Englishman who is trying to modernise farming methods to benefit the community. The two outsiders join forces, but their task is fraught with hazards: opposition from the corrupt chief, the pressures of tradition, and the unrelenting climate ever threaten to bring tragedy. Maru: Margaret, an orphan from a despised tribe, has lived her life under the loving protection of a ... continue
877.
A Dry White Season by Andre Brink EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
As startling and powerful as when first published more than two decades ago, André Brink's classic novel, A Dry White Season, is an unflinching and unforgettable look at racial intolerance, the human condition, and the heavy price of morality. Ben Du Toit is a white schoolteacher in suburban Johannesburg in a dark time of intolerance and state-sanctioned apartheid. A simple, apolitical man, he believes in the essential fairness of the South African government and its policies—until the sudden arrest and subsequent "suicide" of a black janitor from Du Toit's school. Haunted by new questions and... continue
878.
Mother to mother by Sindiwe Magona EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
A searing novel, told in letter form, that explores the South African legacy of apartheid through the lens of a woman whose Black son has just murdered a white woman Mother to Mother is a novel with depth, at once an emotional plea for compassion and understanding, and a sharp look at the impacts of colonialism and apartheid on South African families. Inspired by the true story of Fulbright scholar Amy Biehl's murder, the book takes the form of a letter to the victim’s mother. The murderer’s mother, Mandisa, speaks of a life marked by oppression and injustice. Through her writing, Mandisa reve... continue
879.
Devil's Valley by André Brink EN
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
A reporter in South Africa discovers a lost valley whose inhabitants continue to practice apartheid. They are the descendants of an 1880s fundamentalist Christian sect and they have managed to maintain their isolation by murdering visitors. A satire on Afrikaner culture by the author of A Dry White Season.
880.
Country: Africa / South Africa
South Africa
Description:
In Boyhood, J. M. Coetzee revisits the South Africa of half a century ago, to write about his childhood and interior life. Boyhood's young narrator grew up in a small country town. With a father he imitated but could not respect, and a mother he both adored and resented, he picked his way through a world that refused to explain its rules, but whose rules he knew he must obey. Steering between these contradictions, Boyhood evokes the tensions, delights and terrors of childhood with startling, haunting immediacy. Coetzee examines his young self with the dispassionate curiosity of an explorer red... continue