Last year, we published a list of books we were excited to read and absolutely enjoyed. It featured Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Theft, Tochi Eze’s This Kind of Trouble, Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel, and also Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo’s The Tiny Things are Heavier, which has now been longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize.
We are back with another list!
These 20 books, compiled by our editor-in-chief, include exciting new titles by the National Book Award finalist ‘Pemi Aguda, the Nigeria Prize for Literature winner Chika Unigwe, the Minnesota Book Award winner Mubanga Kalimamukwento, and many others.
Meet them:
Grace
Author: Chika Unigwe
Publisher’s description: “Grace is a story about motherhood, finding meaning for yourself and fighting for the people that you love.”
One Leg on Earth
Author: ‘Pemi Aguda
Publisher’s description: “A vibrant and atmospheric evocation of modern Lagos, the promises of progress and the mysterious lure of the abyss, One Leg on Earth is a haunting, eerie and arresting story from an unmissable new voice in literature.”
The Comfort of Distant Stars
Author: I.O. Echeruo
Publisher’s description: “A bold coming-of-age tale blending physics, philosophy and Igbo cosmology, examining how we understand our place in the universe. It ponders the big questions we all ask ourselves about the nature of time and of being – ultimately revealing the startling vulnerability of the human mind.”
Love by the Book
Author: Jessica George
Publisher’s description: “In Jessica George’s heartwarming, funny, and soulful second novel, she explores the restorative nature of female friendship and the life-changing power of platonic love.”
The Shipikisha Club
Author: Mubanga Kalimamukwento
Publisher’s description: “Told through the rotating perspectives of Sali, Ntashé, and Sali’s mother Peggy, The Shipikisha Club is a riveting story of gender politics in Zambia and the world at large—a must-read for fans of Peace Adzo Medie, Abi Daré, and Tayari P. Jones.”
Season of the Serpent
Author: Suyi Davie Okungbowa
Publisher’s description: “Okungbowa returns in the final installment of the Nameless Republic trilogy with a tale of villains, allies, and a world on the brink of destruction, perfect for fans of Tasha Suri, Evan Winter, and James Islington.”
Dancing With Jinns: Black Women Write on Taboo
Editors: Ellah Wakatama and Momtaza Mehri
Publisher’s description: “A bold and compelling collection of 11 essays that brings together powerful voices to confront how the concept of taboo shapes diverse cultures across the continent. Through eloquent and candid prose, the essays explore subjects often kept in the shadows, such as AIDS, menstruation, mental health, grief, sexuality, and patriarchy.”
Boys Will Be Boys
Author: Miracle Emeka-Nkwor
Publisher’s description: “Set against the vivid backdrop of Port Harcourt, this suspenseful literary thriller explores power, complicity, and what it means to stand your ground when no one else will.”
It Comes in Waves
Author: Rukky Brume
Publisher’s description: “An unforgettable debut, It Comes in Waves is both an honest exploration of grief and a captivating story of the lives we lead and leave behind.”
The Black Beauty Model Agency
Author: Desta Haile
Publisher’s description: “More than just a history, The Black Beauty Model Agency takes readers behind the doors of the eponymous agency to showcase the stories of the people that brought it to life, from their many multi-hyphenate talents, knowledge and power, to their communities and families. Haile skillfully uncovers this hidden corner of African American history to reveal how its impact reverberates to this day, an impact that has crossed continents and generations, rooted in feminism, allyship, memory, heritage, resistance, survival and of course, beauty.”
Stages: Poems
Author: Tramaine Suubi
Publisher’s description: “In this breathtaking companion poetry collection, inspired by the evolution of our brightest star, Tramaine Suubi offers poems alluding to the history of how it came to be and its effects on each human life. Readers will discover poems exploring everything from the gimmicks of capitalism to the false promises of tranquility. This is another brilliant collection that will only reinforce Suubi as a rising star of her generation.”
Forest Imaginaries: How African Novels Think
Author: Ainehi Edoro
Publisher’s description: “This book rethinks African literary history by showing how African writers draw on the forest—and the wealth of Indigenous ideas about time, space, and storytelling it conjures—to transform the novel’s aesthetic, political, and philosophical horizons.”
Whyteface
Author: A. Igoni Barrett
Publisher’s description: “Hilarious, sharp-witted, and moving, each in turn and often all at once, A. Igoni Barrett’s Whyteface confronts the absurdities of Europe and the West’s ideas about the global south—both its xenophobic fear as well as its supposedly beneficent charity. It is a heady and absorbing new novel by the writer Teju Cole called “a major talent.”
Freedom: Essays
Author: Zinzi Clemmons
Publisher’s description: “In a deft mix of memoir, family history, criticism, and reportage, drawing on a vast range of material from Joan Didion to James Baldwin, political analysis and history to Clemmons’s own experiences across the globe, Freedom is an incendiary exploration of race, sex, class, and inheritance. In elegiac prose, Clemmons trains her discerning eye on American institutions and mythologies, probing the bounds of liberation and autonomy to interrogate our most enduring quest—the relentless pursuit of freedom for all..”
At Sea
Author: Y. M. Abdel-Magied
Publisher’s description: “Haunting, original, and as poetic as it is gripping, At Sea is a thrilling and distinctly modern novel that meditates on science and faith and reckons with ethics, prejudice, and the capitalist endeavors that overlook our humanity—and of Mother Nature herself.”
Ará’lúèbó: The Immigrant Monologues
Author: KÁNYIN Olorunnisola
Publisher’s description: “Mixing Yoruba, Nigerian Pidgin, and English, Ará’lúèbó: The Immigrant Monologues is a blend of linguistic influences, with debts to visual art and rap music. At the center of its expression is formal experimentation; poems are structured like movie screenplays, diary entries, flowcharts, pie charts, and dictionary entries.”
The Finest Things
Author: Deborah Kira
Publisher’s description: “As Adunni begins to confront the cracks in her picture-perfect life and Rotimi unearths long-buried family secrets, both must face the painful legacies they’ve inherited and the choices that could set them free. The Finest Things is a sharp, stirring novel about love that upends expectations, and family ties that refuse to loosen.”
The Comedian’s Diary
Author: Obase-sam Ikoi
Publisher’s description: “The Comedian’s Diary is a heartfelt exploration of struggle, survival, and the enduring power of human connection. This story will resonate long after the final page is turned.”
The Witch
Author: Marie NDiaye (translated by Jordan Stump)
Publisher’s description: “Equal parts dreamlike and disquieting, The Witch tells a tale as old as time, with a dark twist: Without looking back, children fly the nest, laying bare the tenuous threads of family that have long threatened to snap. With simmering tension and increasing panic, NDiaye’s latest novel in English captures the terror and precarity of motherhood and marriage, and the uncertainty of slowly realizing that your progeny are more dangerous—to the world and to your heart—and freer than you ever could have dreamed.”
Three is a Crowd
Author: Chinasa Anaele
Publisher’s description: “What begins as an innocent connection spirals into something far more dangerous—an intense attraction that forces Cheta to confront the weight of her choices and the expectations of those around her. Torn between loyalty, guilt, and the stirrings of something dangerously real, she must decide whether to protect the life she’s built or risk everything for the truth. Sexy, sharp, and completely addictive, Three Is a Crowd is a poignant exploration of desire, forbidden attraction, duty, and the grey spaces in between.”
Isele Magazine 