Books From Around the World (YA): Africa

It’s often interesting to get a different perspective on the world. Here are some books set in some far-flung places – and some places close to home – grouped by continent/large body of water with islands in it. The books on this list are (mostly) written by authors from the countries they are about, and in many cases have been translated into English from their mother tongues (the book we’ve chosen for Madagascar, Return to the enchanted island by Johary Ravaloson, is only the second book to have ever been translated from Malagasy into English!).

Not all of the books are in the Young Adult collection, but we’ve tried to make sure that they all at least feature kids or teens in prominent places in the story. Our eventual goal is to have at least one book for every country in the world! Help us out by sending in recommendations if you’ve found one we’ve missed!

This list contains books written by authors from Africa. Check out our lists for authors from Asia, Europe, North and Central America, Oceania, and South America for even more recommendations!

Updated June 19, 2024
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Harraga
Sansal, Boualem.
Paper Book
An incendiary novel about the lives of women in Algeria, written by one of that country's most important writers.

Algeria | Algerian author

The stranger
Camus, Albert
Paper Book
Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd." First published in 1946; now in a new translation by Matthew Ward.

Algeria | Algerian-French author

General theory of oblivion
Agualusa, Jose? Eduardo
Paper Book
Winner of the 2017 Dublin International Literary Award Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2016 "Who is this solitary young woman on the top floor of a luxury building in Luanda, Angola's capital, and why has she walled off her apartment? Her...

Angola | Angolan author

Angola Janga : kingdom of runaway slaves
Salete, Marcelo D'
Paper Book
An independent kingdom of runaway slaves founded in the late 16th century, Angola Janga was a beacon of freedom in a land plagued with oppression. In stark black ink and chiaroscuro panel compositions, D'Salete brings history to life; the painful stories of fugitive slaves on the run, the brutal...

Angola | Brazilian author writing about communities of escaped Angolan slaves in the 17th century

My friends : a novel
Matar, Hisham
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2024 ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 BOOKER PRIZE A "masterly" (The New York Times), "riveting" (The Atlantic) novel of friendship, family, and the unthinkable realities of exile, from the Booker...

Libya | Libyan-British author

Twenty chickens for a saddle : the story of an African childhood
Scott, Robyn.
Paper Book
A glorious new voice on Africa, Robyn Scott's adventures growing up in Botswana in a loving but eccentric family will be one of the season's most talked-about memoirsRobyn Scott's story of moving at the age of seven to Botswana with her adventure-seeking parents is described by Alexander...

Botswana | Author is a New Zealander who grew up in Botswana

Petit pays : roman
Faye, Gae?l
Paper Book
Already an international sensation and prize-winning bestseller in France, an evocative coming-of-age story of a young boy, a lost childhood and a shattered homeland.   SHORTLISTED FOR THE ALBERTINE PRIZE * NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE<...
Burundi | Burundian author
The impatient : a novel
Amadou Amal, Djai?li
Paper Book
A powerful, heartrending, and insightful novel of a trio of women in Cameroon who dare to rebel against oppressive, long-held cultural traditions--including polygamy and domestic abuse--that define and limit their lives. Three women, three stories, three linked destinies . . . In...
Cameroon | Cameroonian author
Behold the dreamers : a novel
Mbue, Imbolo
Paper Book
A compulsively readable debut novel about marriage, immigration, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream--the unforgettable story of a young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York just as the Great Recession upends the economy New York Times ...

Cameroon | Cameroonian-American author

Aya : life in Yop City
Abouet, Marguerite
Paper Book
Experience the award-winning series about independent young women growing up in 1970s Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, 1978. It's a golden time, and the nation, too-an oasis of affluence and stability in West Africa-seems fueled by something wondrous. Aya is loosely based upon...

Cote d'Ivoire | Ivorian author

Akissi : tales of mischief
Abouet, Marguerite
Paper Book
"utterly unputdownable"--The New York Times A Kirkus Best Book of 2018, Akissi: Tales of Mischief brings together the first volume of the hilarious and heartfelt Akissi comics by Marguerite Abouet, the award winning author of Aya of Yop City.

Cote d'Ivoire | Ivorian author

Alpha : Abidjan to Gare du Nord
Bessora
Paper Book
Doctors Without Borders Prize PEN Promotes Award GLLI (Global Literature in Libraries Initiative) Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal Longlist Library Journal "Best Book of the Year" selection School Library Journal "Best Adult...

Cote d'Ivoire | Gabonese-Belgian author writing about an Ivorian man migrating to find his family in France

Allah is not obliged
Kourouma, Ahmadou.
Paper Book
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...

Cote d'Ivoire | Ivorian author

City of saints & thieves
Anderson, Natalie C
Paper Book
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets Gone Girl in this enthralling murder mystery set in Kenya.   In the shadows of Sangui City, there lives a girl who doesn't exist. After fleeing the Congo as refugees, Tina and her mother arrived in Kenya looking for the...

Democratic Republic of the Congo | American author writing a story with a Congolese protagonist based on extensive work with Congolese refugees in Nairobi, Kenya. Read more about the author's approach on the Invisible Children blog.

The republic of false truths
Aswa?ni?, ?Ala??
Paper Book
A "glorious, humane novel" (The Observer) about the Egyptian revolution, taking us inside the battle raging between those in power and those prepared to lay down their lives in the defense of freedom--this globally-acclaimed narrative from one of the foremost writers in the Arab...
Egypt | Egyptian author
What strange paradise
El Akkad, Omar
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR * From the widely acclaimed, bestselling author of American War--a beautifully written, unrelentingly dramatic, and profoundly moving novel that looks at the global refugee crisis through the eyes of a child. "Told from...

Egypt | Egyptian-Canadian author

Palace walk
Mah?fu?z?, Naji?b
Paper Book
Volume I of the masterful Cairo Trilogy. A national best-seller in both hardcover and paperback, it introduces the engrossing saga of a Muslim family in Cairo during Egypt's occupation by British forces in the early 1900s.

Egypt | Egyptian author

Shubeik lubeik
Muh?ammad, Di?na?
Paper Book
* Winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation *Eisner Award Nominee * Hugo Award Nominee A brilliantly original debut graphic novel that imagines a fantastical alternate Cairo where wishes really do come true. Shubeik Lubeik--a fairy tale rhyme that means...

Egypt | Egyptian author

The Moor's account : a novel
Lalami, Laila
Paper Book
"From the Pulitzer Prize finalist, author of The Moor's Account--a timely and powerful new novel about the suspicious death of a Moroccan immigrant that is at once a family saga, a murder mystery, and a love story, all of it informed by the treacherous fault lines of American culture. Nora Guerraoui...

Morocco | Moroccan-American author

When the ground is hard
Nunn, Malla
Paper Book
Edgar Award nominee stuns in this heartrending tale set in a Swaziland boarding school where two girls of different castes bond over a shared copy of Jane Eyre. Adele Joubert loves being one of the popular girls at Keziah Christian Academy. She knows the upcoming semester...

Eswatini | Swazi-Australian author

The shadow king
Mengiste, Maaza
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020 A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE NEW YORK TIMES, GUARDIAN, ELLE, TIME, SPECTATOR 'DEVASTATING' Marlon James, 'BRILLIANT' Salman Rushdie, 'MAGNIFICENT' Aminatta Forna, 'WONDERFUL' Laila Lalami, 'UNFORGETTABLE' The Times<...
Ethiopia | Ethiopian-American author
All our names
Mengestu, Dinaw
Paper Book
From Dinaw Mengestu, a recipient of the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 Award, the New Yorker's 20 Under 40 Award, and a 2012 MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant, comes a novel about exile, about the loneliness and fragmentation of lives that straddle countries and histories.  ...

Ethiopia | Ethiopian-American author

The Arab of the future : a graphic memoir : a childhood in the Middle East (1978-1984)
Sattouf, Riad
Paper Book
The Arab of the Future, the #1 French best-seller, tells the unforgettable story of Riad Sattouf's childhood, spent in the shadows of 3 dictators--Muammar Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad, and his father In striking, virtuoso graphic style that captures both the immediacy of...

Libya | Libyan-French author

Nightbloom : a novel
Medie, Peace Adzo
Paper Book
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction Inseparable when they were girls but now estranged, cousins Akorfa and Selasi have to repair the silences between them or lose each other forever in this moving novel set in Ghana and America from the author of Reese's Book...

Ghana | Ghanaian author

Dust
Owuor, Yvonne Adhiambo.
Paper Book
From a breathtaking new voice, a novel about a splintered family in Kenya--a story of power and deceit, unrequited love, survival and sacrifice. Odidi Oganda, running for his life, is gunned down in the streets of Nairobi. His grief-stricken sister, Ajany, just returned from Brazil, and...

Kenya | Kenyan author

The perfect nine : the epic of Gi?ku?yu? and Mu?mbi
Ngu?gi? wa Thiong?o
Paper Book
A dazzling, genre-defying novel in verse from the author Delia Owens says "tackles the absurdities, injustices, and corruption of a continent" Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's novels and memoirs have received glowing praise from the likes of President Barack Obama, the New Yorker, the New...

Kenya | Kenyan author

How to write about Africa
Wainaina, Binyavanga
Paper Book
From one of Africa's most influential and eloquent essayists, a posthumous collection that highlights his biting satire and subversive wisdom on topics from travel to cultural identity to sexuality "A fierce literary talent . . . [Wainaina] shines a light on his continent...

Kenya | Kenyan author

And still peace did not come : a memoir of reconciliation
Kamara-Umunna, Agnes
Paper Book
When bullets hit Agnes Kamara-Umunna's home in Monrovia, Liberia, she and her father hastily piled whatever they could carry into their car and drove toward the border, along with thousands of others. An army of children was approaching, under the leadership of Charles Taylor. It seemed like the end...

Liberia | Liberian author

She would be king : a novel
Moore, Waye?tu
Paper Book
A novel of exhilarating range, magical realism, and history--a dazzling retelling of Liberia's formation Wayétu Moore's powerful debut novel,She Would Be King, reimagines the dramatic story of Liberia's early years through three unforgettable characters who share an uncommon...

Liberia | Liberian author

In the country of men
Matar, Hisham
Paper Book
In the Country of Men is a stunning depiction of a child confronted with the private fallout of a public nightmare. But above all, it is a debut of rare insight and literary grace. Unabridged.

Libya | Libyan author

Return to the enchanted island
Ravaloson, Johary
Paper Book
In this exhilarating prize-winning novel--only the second to be published in English from Madagascar--a young man comes of age amidst the enchanted origin myths of his island country. Named after the first man at the creation of the world in Malagasy mythology, Ietsy Razak was...

Madagascar | Malagasy author

The boy who harnessed the wind : creating currents of electricity and hope
Kamkwamba, William
Paper Book
Soon to be a Netflix film William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, a country where magic ruled and modern science was mystery. It was also a land withered by drought and hunger. But William had read about windmills, and he dreamed of building one that would bring to his small village a set of...

Malawi | Malawian author

Guanta?namo diary
Slahi, Mohamedou Ould
Paper Book
An unprecedented international publishing event: the first and only diary written by a still-imprisoned Guantv°namo detainee. Since 2002, Mohamedou Slahi has been imprisoned at the detainee camp at Guantv°namo Bay, Cuba. In all these years, the United States has never...

Mauritania | Mauritanian author writing about his experiences in Guantanamo, Cuba.

The prospector
Le Cle?zio, J.-M. G.
Paper Book
From master storyteller J. M. G. Le Clézio: winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. "A novel of intense beauty."--Review of Contemporary Fiction The Prospector is the crowning achievement from one of France's preeminent novelists and a work rich with...

Mauritius | Mauritian author

This blinding absence of light
Ben Jelloun, Tahar
Paper Book
An immediate and critically acclaimed bestseller in France and winner of the 2004 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, This Blinding Absence of Light is the latest work by Tahar Ben Jelloun, the first North African winner of the Prix Goncourt and winner of the 1994 Prix Mahgreb. Ben...

Morocco | Moroccan author

Horses of God
Binebine, Mahi
Paper Book
On May 16, 2003, fourteen suicide bombers launched a series of attacks throughout Casablanca. It was the deadliest attack in Morocco's history. The bombers came from the shantytowns of Sidi Moumen, a poor suburb on the edge of a dump whose impoverished residents rarely if ever set foot in the...

Morocco | Moroccan author

Woman of the ashes
Couto, Mia
Paper Book
The first in a trilogy about the last emperor of southern Mozambique by one of Africa's most important writers Southern Mozambique, 1894. Sergeant Germano de Melo is posted to the village of Nkokolani to oversee the Portuguese conquest of territory claimed by Ngungunyane, the...

Mozambique | Mozambican author

Neighbours : the story of a murder
Momple?, Lilia
Paper Book
On the eve of the Muslim festival of Eid, Narguiss, who ‘never wanted anything to do with politics’, is more preoccupied with family problems than with the radio news of kidnappings and murders. Nearby, Leia, Januário and their young daughter are caught up in the pleasure and security of...

Mozambique | Mozambican author

Say you're one of them
Akpan, Uwem.
Paper Book
Uwem Akpan's stunning stories humanize the perils of poverty and violence so piercingly that few readers will feel they've ever encountered Africa so immediately. The eight-year-old narrator of An Ex-Mas Feast needs only enough money to buy books and pay fees in order to attend school. Even when his...

Nigeria | Nigerian author (Annang)

An orchestra of minorities : a novel
Obioma, Chigozie
Paper Book
A heartbreaking story about a Nigerian poultry farmer who sacrifices everything to win the woman he loves, by Man Booker Finalist and author of The Fishermen, Chigozie Obioma. "It is more than a superb and tragic novel; it's a historical treasure."-Boston Globe

Nigeria | Nigerian author (Igbo)

Akata witch
Okorafor, Nnedi.
Paper Book
Affectionately dubbed "the Nigerian Harry Potter," Akata Witch weaves together a heart-pounding tale of magic, mystery, and finding one's place in the world. Twelve-year-old Sunny lives in Nigeria, but she was born American. Her features are African, but she's albino. She's a...

Nigeria | Nigerian-American author

Oil on water : a novel
Habila, Helon
Paper Book
From the desks of Nigeria's newsrooms, two journalists are recruited to find the kidnapped wife of a British oil engineer. Zaq, an infamous media hack, knows what's in store, but Rufus, a keen young journalist eager to get himself noticed, has no idea what he's let himself in for. ...
Things fall apart
Achebe, Chinua.
Paper Book
"A true classic of world literature . . . A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world." --Barack Obama  "African literature is incomplete and unthinkable without the works of Chinua Achebe." --Toni...

Nigeria | Nigerian author (Igbo)

Black Moses
Mabanckou, Alain
Paper Book
The "heart-breaking" (New York Times Book Review), rollicking, award-winning novel that has been described as "Oliver Twist in 1970s Africa" (Les Inrockuptibles) "One of the most compelling books you'll read in any language this year." --Rolling Stone Winner of the Hurston-Wright...

Republic of the Congo | Congolese author

A long way gone : memoirs of a boy soldier
Beah, Ishmael
Paper Book
In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of...

Sierra Leone | Sierra Leonean author

Radiance of tomorrow
Beah, Ishmael
Paper Book
A haunting, beautiful first novel by the bestselling author of A Long Way Gone When Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone was published in 2007, it soared to the top of bestseller lists, becoming an instant classic: a harrowing account of Sierra Leone's...

Sierra Leone | Sierra Leonean author

Crossbones
Farah, Nuruddin
Paper Book
A gripping new novel from today's "most important African novelist". (The New York Times Review of Books), the internationally acclaimed author of North of Dawn   A dozen years after his last visit, Jeebleh returns to his beloved Mogadiscio to see old friends. He...

Somalia | Somali author

Black mamba boy
Mohamed, Nadifa
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE BETTY TRASK AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE GRANTA BEST OF YOUNG BRITISH NOVELISTS 2013 For fans of Half of a Yellow Sun, a stunning novel set in 1930s Somalia spanning a decade of war and upheaval, all seen through the eyes of a small boy alone in the...

Somalia | Somali-British author

The power of one
Courtenay, Bryce
Paper Book
In 1939, hatred took root in South Africa, where the seeds of apartheid were newly sown. There a boy called Peekay was born. He spoke the wrong language-English. He was nursed by a woman of the wrong color-black. His childhood was marked by humiliation and abandonment. Yet he vowed to survive-he...

South Africa | South African author (Afrikaner)

Born a crime : stories from a South African childhood
Noah, Trevor
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * More than one million copies sold! A "brilliant" (Lupita Nyong'o, Time), "poignant" (Entertainment Weekly), "soul-nourishing" (USA Today) memoir about coming of age during the twilight of apartheid  

South Africa | South African author (Coloured, Xhosa)

The reactive : a novel
Ntshanga, Masande
Paper Book
*Winner of The Betty Trask Award (2018) *Sunday Times Barry Ronge Fiction Prize Finalist *Etisalat Prize for Literature Longlist *One of the Best Books of the Year 2016 --City Press, The Sunday Times, The Star, This is Africa, Africa's a Country, Sunday World Heralded in...

South Africa | South African author (Xhosa)

Spud
Van de Ruit, John.
Paper Book
It’s 1990. Apartheid is crumbling. Nelson Mandela has just been released from prison. And Spud Milton—thirteen-year-old, prepubescent choirboy extraordinaire—is about to start his first year at an elite boys-only boarding school in South Africa. Cursed with embarrassingly dysfunctional parents, a...

South Africa | South African author (Afrikaner)

Nate plus one
Van Whye, Kevin
Paper Book
Boy plus boy. Two weeks in Johannesburg. A summer of music, adventure, self-discovery . . . and definitely not love. What could go wrong?   Nate needs a date to his cousin's wedding. Jai is Nate's best friend and secret crush. Could Jai be Nate's plus-one--and only?<...

South Africa | South African author (Afrikaner)

Beneath the darkening sky
Tulba, Majok.
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD YOUNG NOVELIST'S AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE, THE COMMONWEALTH WRITERS' PRIZE AND NEW SOUTH WALES' PREMIER LITERARY AWARDS On the day that Obinna's village is savagely attacked by the rebel army and his father murdered, he...

South Sudan | South Sudanese author

Lyrics alley
Aboulela, Leila
Paper Book
Lyrics Alley is the evocative story of an affluent Sudanese family shaken by the shifting powers in their country and the near-tragedy that threatens the legacy they've built for decades. In 1950's Sudan, the powerful Abuzeid dynasty has amassed a fortune through their...

Sudan | Sudanese author

Gravel heart
Gurnah, Abdulrazak
Paper Book
A powerful story of exile, migration, and betrayal, from the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of Paradise. Salim has always known that his father does not want him. Living with his parents and his adored Uncle Amir in a house full of secrets, he is a bookish child, a...

Tanzania | Tanzanian author

After the spring : a story of Tunisian youth
Aldeguer, He?le?ne
Paper Book
In 2011 one of the biggest political events in the world, the Arab Spring, swept across North Africa. But what came next? As the world moves on, four young Tunisians must cope with the reality of an uncertain future in this original graphic novel. Winner of the Raymond Leblanc...

Tunisia | French author

Kintu
Makumbi, Jennifer Nansubuga
Paper Book
Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2017 Winner of the Windham-Campbell Prize Winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize "A soaring and sublime epic. One of those great stories that was just waiting to be told."--Marlon James, Man...

Uganda | Ugandan author

The Old Drift : a novel
Serpell, Namwali
Paper Book
"A dazzling debut, establishing Namwali Serpell as a writer on the world stage."--Salman Rushdie, The New York Times Book Review   NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Dwight Garner, The New York Times * The New York Times Book Review *...

Zambia | Zambian-American author

Hope is our only wing
Tavengerwei, Rutendo
Paper Book
Set in Zimbabwe, Rutendo Tavengerwei's unforgettable novel offers a beautiful and honest look at adolescence, friendship, and the capacity for courage.   For fifteen-year-old Shamiso, hope is nothing but a leap into darkness. Grief-stricken and confused after her father's...

Zimbabwe | Zimbabwean author


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