Listmania!
African Books
Purple HibiscusPurple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Buy used from: £2.39
Shortlisted for the Orange Prize. A young girl growing up in a violent Nigerian household.
The Famished RoadThe Famished Road by Ben Okri
Buy new: £5.59 / Used from: £0.01
This won a big prize,though I'm afraid I can't remember which... well, nevemind - it was well deserved, anyway! African magic realism.
The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics)The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics) by Naguib Mahfouz
Buy new: £16.16 / Used from: £18.20
This time it's the Nobel Prize! Whoa! Egyptian streetlife brought to spicey life.
Burger's DaughterBurger's Daughter by Nadine Gordimer
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £0.01
Another Nobel Prize... compassionate story-telling from South Africa.
The Madonna of ExcelsiorThe Madonna of Excelsior by Zakes Mda
Buy used from: £6.17
The story of a South-African township told through the life of one woman.
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African ChildhoodDon't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller
Buy new: £5.49 / Used from: £0.01
Autobiography of a white childhood in Zimbabwe.
Nervous ConditionsNervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
Buy used from: £2.86
Zimbabwe in the 60's and 70's
West with the Night (Virago Travellers)West with the Night (Virago Travellers) by Beryl Markham
Buy new: £6.57 / Used from: £0.86
An autobiography by pilot Markham, depicting life in colonial Kenya
A Dry White SeasonA Dry White Season by Andre Brink
Buy new: £5.98 / Used from: £3.00
Another prolific South African, writing about ordinary people under apartheid.
Petals of Blood (Penguin Modern Classics)Petals of Blood (Penguin Modern Classics) by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Buy new: £8.09 / Used from: £5.99
Murder mystery/political satire - an unexpected but successful combo!
DisgraceDisgrace by J.M. Coetzee
Buy new: £3.99 / Used from: £0.01
Sexual harrassment, poetry, the loss of racial privilege... it's all here. Oh, and guess what? It won the Booker. Coetzee is also a Nobel Prize laureate.
Cry, the Beloved Country: A Story of Comfort in DesolationCry, the Beloved Country: A Story of Comfort in Desolation by Alan Paton
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £1.52
A classic novel about apartheid
The Poisonwood BibleThe Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Buy new: £4.49 / Used from: £0.01
A novel set in Belgian Congo in 1959, written by an American author, The Poisonwood Bible tells the story of a despotic missionary and his daughters.
Exterminate All the BrutesExterminate All the Brutes by Sven Lindqvist
Buy used from: £29.98
Another book that isn't strictly African, as it is written by a Swede. A very interesting but also very disturbing account of colonial crimes against humanity.
Ways of Dying (Southern African Writing)Ways of Dying (Southern African Writing) by Zakes Mda
Buy used from: £8.77
It's Mda again... a professional mourners journey from village to city is heartbreaking and tender.