African writing - and stories set in Africa

Achebe, Chinua [Nigeria]

Anthills of the Savannah

Penguin, 2001

Things fall apart

Penguin, 2001

Ebony Reads top 25 title

Things Fall Apart tells the story of Okonkwo, an important man in the Igbo tribe in the days when white men were first on the scene. Okonkwo becomes exiled from his tribe, as a result of his pride and his fears, with tragic consequences.

Achebe, Chinua & Innes, C.L (ed)

The Heinemann book of contemporary African short stories [SS]

Heinemann, 1992

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi [Nigeria]

Purple hibiscus

Fourth Estate, 2004

Orange Prize 2004 shortlisted

Booker Prize 2004 longlisted

Synopsis

When Nigeria begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili's father, involved in mysterious ways with the unfolding political crisis, sends Kambili and her brother away to their aunt's. Here she discovers love and a life - dangerous and heathen - beyond the confines of her father's authority.

Half of a yellow sun

Fourth Estate, 2006

Synopsis

Set in Nigeria during the 1960s, this novel contains three main characters who get swept up in the violence during these turbulent years. It is about Africa, about the end of colonialism, about class and race, and the ways in which love can complicate these things.

Afolabi, Segun

A life elsewhere (stories)

Jonathan Cape, 2006/Vintage 2007

Synopsis

A collection of 17 short stories from the winner of the 2005 Caine Prize for African writing, this title includes tales of Diaspora, of people making their lives in new lands, some for the first time, others in the second or third generations.

Atta, Sefi [Nigeria]

Everything good will come

Arris, 2005

Synopsis

Written against the backdrop of tragedy and family strife in war-torn Nigeria, this is the story of Enitan, a young girl coming of age in a culture which still insists on feminine submission.

Diome, Fatou [Senegal]

The belly of the Atlantic

Serpent's Tail, 2006

Synopsis

Salie lives in France. Back home on the Senegal island of Niodior, her football-crazy brother, Madicke, counts on her to bring him over to join her. He sees France as the promised land, where foreign footballers become world famous. How can Salie explain to him the grim realities of life as an immigrant?

Emecheta, Buchi [Nigeria]

Second class citizen

Heinemann, 1994

Adah, a woman from the Ibo tribe, moves to England to live with her Nigerian student husband. Rejected by British society and thwarted by her husband she is forced to face up to life as a second-class citizen in 1960s London.

Forna, Aminatta [Sierra Leone/UK]

Ancestor Stones

Bloomsbury, 2006

Synopsis

Stretching across generations and set against the backdrop of a country's descent into freefall, 'Ancestor Stones' is about understanding the past and how stories ancient and new shape who we become. Forna offers a different way of seeing the world we share.

Gray, Stephen (ed.)

The Picador book of African stories [SS]

Picador, 2000

Habila, Helon [Nigeria]

Measuring time

Hamish Hamilton, 2007

Synopsis

Mamo and LaMamo are twin brothers living in the small Nigerian village of Keti, where their domineering father controls their lives. Both boys attempt to flee from home, by only LaMamo escapes to live his dream as a soldier. Mamo is doomed to remain in the village with his father, but he gradually gains local fame as a historian.

Waiting for an angel

Penguin, 2003

Synopsis

Lomba is a young journalist living under military regime in Lagos, one of the most dangerous cities in the world. His mind is full of soul music and girls. When his room-mate is beaten up by soldiers, Lomba can no longer bury his head in the sand.

Kourouma, Ahmadou

Allah is not obliged

Heinemann, 2006 / Vintage, 2007

Synopsis

When Birahima's mother dies, he leaves his native village to search for his aunt Mahan. Crossing the border into Liberia, he is seized by a rebel force and press-ganged into military service. Fighting in a chaotic civil war, he sees death, torture, amputation and madness, but somehow manages to retain his own sanity.

Mills, Marilyn Heward [Switzerland/Ghana]

The Association of Foreign Spouses

Sphere, 2007

Synopsis

Eva has tried and so far succeeded at making a good life for herself in Ghana, in spite of the hardship and unrest. She believes this is because she has nowhere else to go. Rejected by her parents when she married a black man, she still longs to go home and be accepted by her mother again.

Cloth girl

Time Warner, 2006/Sphere 2007

Synopsis

Matilda Lamptey is 14-years-old when black Gold Coast lawyer, Robert Bannerman, resolves to take her as his second wife. For his first wife, this is a colossal slap in the face. For Matilda, it is an abrupt end to childhood. This tale is set in British West Africa, in the 1940s, during the ten years leading up to Independence.

Ngugi Wa Thiong'o [Kenya]

Petals of blood

Penguin, 2002 {previously published 1977}

Wizard of the crow

Vintage, 2007

Synopsis

Commencing in 'our times' and set in the 'Free Republic of Aburiria', the novel dramatises a battle for control of the souls of the Aburirian people. Fashioning the stories of the powerful and the ordinary into a dazzling mosaic, Ngugi reveals humanity in all its ceaselessley surprising complexity.

Okri, Ben [Nigeria]

Astonishing the gods

Phoenix House, 1995/1996

The famished road

Cape 1991/1992

Booker Prize winner 1991

Ebony Reads top 25 title

Synopsis

This is the story of Azaro, a spirit child who is born only to live for a short while before returning to the idyllic world of his spirit companions. Now he has chosen to stay in the world of the living.

In Arcadia

Weidenfeld, 2002 / Phoenix, 2003

Incidents at the shrine (short stories)

Heinemann, 1986/Vintage, 1993

Infinite riches

Phoenix House, 1998/Phoenix 1999

Songs of enchantment

Cape, 1993/Vintage, 1994

Starbook

Rider, 2007

Synopsis

At one level, 'Starbook' tells the delicate story of a prince and a maiden who are both tested by trials in a mythical land where art, initiation and dynamic stillness are supremely important. At another level, this novel opens up the nature of reality, where the essence of life is revealed, and the source of enchantment can be ours.

Stars of the new curfew [stories]

Vintage, 1999

Oyeyemi, Helen [UK/Nigeria]

The Icarus girl

Bloomsbury, 2005

Synopsis

Lyrical, poetic and compelling, 'The Icarus Girl' is a novel of twins, doubles and ghosts, of a little girl growing up between cultures and colours.

The opposite house

Bloomsbury, 2007

Synopsis

Maja Carmen Carrera was only five years old when her black Cuban family emigrated to London. Now the 20-year-old jazz singer is caught between cultures, struggling to negotiate her history.

Saro-Wiwa, Ken [Nigeria]

Sozaboy

Longman, 1994