Fiction / African literature

We Need New Names: A Novel

by Noviolet Bulawayo

Darling is only 10 years old, and yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world. In Zimbabwe, Darling and her friends steal guavas, try to get the baby out of young Chipo's belly, and grasp at memories of...

Americanah

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

From the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun, a dazzling new novel: a story of love and race centered around a young man and woman from Nigeria who face difficult choices and challenges in the countries...

A Dry White Season

by Andre Brink

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,...

Pale Horses

Jade de Jong #4

by Jassy Mackenzie

Book 4 in the PI Jade de Jong thriller series set in South Africa

At first, the case appears to be one of simple misadventure. Sonet van Rensburg, a base jumper, falls to her death while attempting to parachute...

The Magic of Saida

by M.G. Vassanji

Giller Prize–winner M. G. Vassanji gives us a powerfully emotional novel of love and loss, of an African/Indian man who returns to the town of his birth in search of the girl he once loved—and the sense...

Bundu

by Chris Barnard & Michiel Heyns

A classic Afrikaans novel full of romance, adventure, and compassion, translated for the first time into English

In a place near Mozambique, drought is causing devastation. Hosts of desperate natives seek refuge...

Philida

by Andre Brink

This is what it is to be a slave: that everything is decided for you from out there. You just got to listen and do as they tell you. You don’t say no. You don’t ask questions. You just do what they tell...

Purple Hibiscus: A Novel

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a privileged life in Enugu, Nigeria. They live in beautiful house, with a caring family, and attend an exclusive missionary school. They're completely...

A Blade of Grass

by Lewis DeSoto

Märit Laurens is a young woman of British descent who comes to live with her husband, Ben, on their newly purchased farm along the border of South Africa. Shortly after her arrival, violence strikes at the...

Seven Days

by Deon Meyer

A police officer is shot dead. The next day, one of his colleagues is as well. Then the South African police receive an email threatening an additional cop killed each day until a cold case is solved. Inspector...

Blessing

by Florence Ndiyah

Fatti Ashi died. Startling her family and community, she comes back to life just a few hours after dying. Blessing chronicles the life of this Fatti Ashi, a young village girl who from the moment she rejoins...

The Top Prisoner of C-Max

by Wessel Ebersohn

The far reach of evil from inside a maximum-security jail

The Fallen

Jade de Jong #3

by Jassy Mackenzie

When P.I. Jade de Jong invites Superintendent David Patel on a scuba diving holiday in St. Lucia, she hopes the time away will rebuild their conflicted relationship. Jade’s dreams are soon shattered when David...

Ambiguous Adventure

by Cheikh Hamidou Kane & Katherine Woods

The celebrated classic by a groundbreaking figure in African literature addresses a critical contemporary issue—the collision of Islamic African values and Western culture.

Hailed by Chinua Achebe as one of...

Heart of the Hunter

by Deon Meyer

Six-foot five-inch Thobela "Tiny" Mpayipheli was once a feared assassin and freedom fighter, trained by the Stasi and KGB. In post-apartheid South Africa, he's happily working in a garage. But Tiny’s quiet...

Anthills of the Savannah

by Chinua Achebe

In the fictional West African nation Kangan, newly independent of British rule, the hopes and dreams of democracy have been quashed by a fierce military dictatorship. Chris Oriko is a member of the cabinet of...

Those Who Love Night

by Wessel Ebersohn

When Abigail Bukula, a young lawyer in the South African Justice Department, learns that the secret son of her aunt, who died in a massacre years ago, has been arrested by the Zimbabwean government, she races...

No Longer at Ease

by Chinua Achebe

The second book in Achebe's "African trilogy": A classic story of personal and moral struggle as well as turbulent social conflict.

When Obi Okonkwo—grandson of Okonkwo, the main character in Things Fall Apart...

Nairobi Heat

by Mukoma Wa Ngugi

A cop from Wisconsin pursues a killer through the terrifying slums of Nairobi and the memories of genocide

IN MADISON, WISCONSIN, it’s a big deal when African peace activist Joshua Hakizimana—who saved hundreds...

Crossbones: A Novel

by Nuruddin Farah

A gripping new novel from today's "most important African novelist" (The New York Times Book Review)

A dozen years after his last visit, Jeebleh returns to his beloved Mogadiscio to see old friends. He is accompanied...