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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Wellington City LibrariesYouth team at Wellington City Libraries
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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

My friends
Matar, Hisham
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE A "masterly" (The New York Times), "riveting" (The Atlantic) novel of friendship, family, and the...

Libya | Libyan-British author

Petit pays : roman
Faye, Gae?l
Paper Book
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

Refugee : a memoir
Mbolela, Emmanuel
Paper Book
Persecuted for his political activism, Emmanuel Mbolela left the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2002. His search for a new home would take six years. In that time, Mbolela endured corrupt customs officials, duplicitous smugglers, Saharan ambushes, and untenable living...
Democratic Republic of the Congo | Congolese author
What strange paradise.
El Akkad, Omar, 1982-
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2021 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD NATIONAL BESTSELLER   From the widely acclaimed author of American War: a new novel--beautifully written, unrelentingly dramatic, and profoundly moving--that...

Egypt | Egyptian-Canadian 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.
Lalami, Laila, 1968-
Paper Book
In this sweeping historical saga of a young man's journey from successful merchant to slave to triumphant survivor, Laila Lalami has crafted "brilliantly imagined fiction...rewritten to give us something that feels very like the truth" (Salman Rushdie). In 1527, the conquistador Pánfilo...

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
A beautifully written and utterly captivating novel about female strength and the power of belief, set during Mussolini's 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, The Shadow King casts a light on the women soldiers who were written out of history.
Ethiopia | Ethiopian-American author
All our names.
Mengestu, Dinaw, 1978-
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

In the country of men.
Matar, Hisham, 1970-
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

The boy who harnessed the wind : [online electronic book] creating currents of e
Kamkwamba, William, 1987-
Ebook
Now a Netflix Film, Starring and Directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor of 12 Years a Slave 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...

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.

Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354
Ibn Batuta
Paper Book

Morocco | Moroccan 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.
Obioma, Chigozie, 1986-
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. Perfect for fans of Children of Blood and Bone! Sunny Nwazue lives in Nigeria, but she was born in New York...

Nigeria | Nigerian-American author

Things fall apart.
Achebe, Chinua
Paper Book

Nigeria | Nigerian author (Igbo)

Black Moses.
Mabanckou, Alain, 1966-
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 : [large print] memoirs of a boy soldier /
Beah, Ishmael, 1980-
Paper Book
This absorbing account by a young man who, as a boy of 12, gets swept up in Sierra Leone's civil war, goes beyond even the best journalistic efforts in revealing the life and mind of a child abducted into the horrors of warfare.

Sierra Leone | Sierra Leonean author

Radiance of tomorrow.
Beah, Ishmael, 1980-
Paper Book
A haunting, beautiful first novel by the bestselling author of A Long Way Gone. "Every story begins and ends with a woman, a mother, a grandmother, a girl, a child. Every story is a birth..." So begins Radiance of Tomorrow, Ishmael Beah's first novel, one dogged by memories of horror but...

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

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)

Lyrics Alley.
Aboulela, Leila, 1964-
Paper Book
In 1950s Sudan, the powerful Abuzeid dynasty has amasseda fortune through their trading firm with Mahmoud Bey atits helm. But when Mahmoud’s son, Nur, suffers a debilitatingaccident, the family is suddenly divided in the face of anuncertain future. As British rule nears its end,...

Sudan | Sudanese author

Home is not a country
Elhillo, Safia
Paper Book
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD   "Nothing short of magic." --Elizabeth Acevedo, New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X   From the  acclaimed poet featured on Forbes Africa's "30 Under 30" list, this...

Sudan | Sudanese-American author

Gravel heart.
Gurnah, Abdulrazak. 1948-
Paper Book
From the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, a powerful story of exile, migration, and betrayal. 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

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


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