While we at the Riot take some time off to rest and catch up on our reading, we’re re-running some of our favorite posts from the last several months. Enjoy our highlight reel, and we’ll be back with new stuff on Monday, January 5th.

This post originally ran September 24, 2014.

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If you’re like me and are trying to diversify your reading, then you know that discoverability is an issue. I want to start reading more books by non-U.S. and UK authors, but where do I start? Well, if you’re interested in African authors, here’s what I’ve got.

Through extensive Googling and suggestions from fellow Rioters, I’ve compiled the following list. These are fiction books by African authors, sorted by country. Not every African country is represented here, though I did my best. All of these books are available for purchase in the U.S. If an author has written multiple books (such as Achebe or Adichie), I listed just one so you’d have the author’s name. I also did not have any sort of genre/format restriction, so though most of these are adult literary fiction, not all of them are.

I can’t necessarily recommend these books one way or another because many of them I haven’t read (though I have read a good number), but hopefully this list will get you started. I absolutely know I missed books on this list, so please feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments, as well as provide recommendations if you have read some of these books.

Algeria

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The Attack – Yasmina Khadra



Angola

Good Morning Comrades – Ondjaki

Botswana

The Screaming of the Innocent – Unity Dow

Cameroon

Houseboy – Ferdinand Oyono

Democratic Republic of Congo

Johnny Mad Dog – Emmanuel Dongala Emmanuel Dongala

Broken Glass – Alain Mabanckou

The Witch Doctor’s Wife – Tamar Myers

Life and a Half – Sony Lanou Tansi

Djibouti

In the United States of Africa – Abdourahman A. Waberi

Egypt

The Yacubian Building – Alaa Al Aswany

The Cairo Trilogy – Naguib Mahfouz

The Map of Love – Ahdaf Soueif

Ethiopia

All Our Names – Dinaw Mengestu

Beneath the Lion’s Gaze – Maaza Mengiste

Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese

Ghana

Our Sister Killjoy – Ama Ata Aidoo

The Seasons of Beento Blackbird – Akosua Busia

Faceless – Amma Darko

Wife of the Gods – Kwei Quartay

Ghana Must Go – Taiye Selasi

Ivory Coast

Aya: Life in Yop City – Marguerite Abouet, Clement Oubrerie, Helge Dascher

Allah is Not Obliged – Ahamdou Kourouma

Kenya

The Cockroach Dance – Meja Mwangi

Nairobi Heat – Mukoma Wa Ngugi

A Grain of Wheat – Ngugi wa Thiong’o

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall – M.G. Vassanji

Lesotho

Chaka – Thomas Mofolo

Liberia

Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile – Won-Ldy Paye

Libya

Gold Dust – Ibrahim al-Koni

In the Country of Men – Hisham Matar

Malawi

The Last of the Sweet Bananas: New and Selected Poems – Jack Mapanje

Mali

The Fortunes of Wangrin – Amadou Hampate Ba

Mauritius

The Last Brother – Nathacha Appanah

Morocco

The Lovers of Algeria – Anouar Benmalek

Horses of God – Mahi Binebine

The Moor’s Account – Laila Lalami

Mozambique

Under the Frangipani – Mia Couto

Namibia

The Purple Violet of Oshaantu – Neshami Andreas

Nigeria

No Longer at Ease – Chinua Achebe [edited for misspelling] Say You’re One of Them – Uwem Akpan

Everything Good Will Come – Sefi Atta

Purple Hibiscus – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Open City – Teju Cole

Oil on Water – Helon Habila

Daughters Who Walk This Path – Yejide Kilanko

Foreign Gods, Inc – Okey Ndibe

I Do Not Come to You by Chance – Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

Akata Witch – Nnedi Okorafor

The Famished Road – Ben Okri

The Secret Lives of the Four Wives – Lola Shoneyin

Senegal

So Long a Letter – Mariama Ba

Sierra Leone

Radiance of Tomorrow – Ishmael Beah

The Memory of Love – Aminatta Forna

Somalia

Crossbones – Nuruddin Farah

The Orchard of Lost Souls – Nadifa Mohamed

South Africa

Broken Monsters – Lauren Beukes

Disgrace – J. M. Coetzee

The October Killings – Wessel Ebersohn

In a Strange Room – Damon Galgut

The Conservationist – Nadine Gordimer

The Three – Sarah Lotz

Ways of Dying – Zakes Mda

Sudan

Minaret – Leila Aboulela

Tanzania

Paradise – Abdulrazak Gurnah

Uganda

Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe – Doreen Baingana

Abyssinain Chronicles – Moses Isegawa

Zambia

Patchwork – Ellen Banda-Aaku

Baking Cakes in Kigali – Gaile Parkin

Zimbabwe

We Need New Names – NoViolet Bulawayo

Nervous Conditions – Tsitsi Dangarembga

The Hairdresser of Harare – Tendai Huchu

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency – Alexander McCall Smith

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