Subscribe

Book Report

March 2, 2021

In The House of Rust, Khadija Abdalla Bajaber Spins a Mombasan Fairytale

“Everywhere else gets romanticised, what about Mombasa?” she said of her debut novel, forthcoming from Graywolf Press in October 2021.
Ernest Ogunyemi
Khadija Abdalla Bajaber's The House of Rust.

February 17, 2021

Safia Elhillo’s Home Is Not a Country Is a Tale of a Young Muslim Girl Finding Herself

The novel in verse is the Sudanese poet’s first work of fiction.
Paula Willie-Okafor
Safia Elhillo's Home Is Not a Country. From @mafiasafia.

February 11, 2021

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Next Book Is About Her Late Father

Notes on Grief will explore collective mourning through the late James Nwoye Adichie’s life as a Biafran War survivor and statistics professor.
Otosirieze
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Notes on Grief.

February 6, 2021

In Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Open Water, It’s Black Love & Art

The British Ghanaian writer and photographer’s debut novel is one of the year’s most anticipated new books.
Paula Willie-Okafor
Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water. From @caleb_anelson on Instagram.

February 4, 2021

Hafsa Zayyan’s We Are All Birds of Uganda Revisits Idi Amin’s Expulsion of Asians

The Nigerian Pakistani lawyer’s debut novel, written in six months, moves between ’70s Uganda and present-day London.
Ernest Ogunyemi
Hafsa Zayyan's We Are All Birds of Uganda by Stuart Simpson/Penguin.

February 4, 2021

Femi Kayode’s Debut, Lightseekers, Is a Murder Mystery on a Nigerian Campus

The book, which won the Little, Brown/UEA Crime Fiction Award in 2019, is the first in an investigative series focused on Dr Philip K. Taiwo.
Uzoma Ihejirika
Femi Kayode's Lightseekers. From @holly_watt on Twitter.

January 24, 2021

Akwaeke Emezi’s Debut Memoir, Dear Senthuran, Chronicles the Self & Black Spirituality

The Nigerian novelist’s debut book of nonfiction “weaves through transformative decisions about their gender and body, and the turmoil of relationships.”
Ernest Ogunyemi
Akwaeke Emezi. From @azemezi on Instagram.

January 21, 2021

In Biracial Britain, Remi Adekoya Explores His Mixed-Race Identity

“Your difference is communicated to you very early,” says the Nigerian Polish academic. “It is a mixed experience with good sides and bad sides.”
Ernest Ogunyemi
Remi Adekoya by Little, Brown.

January 14, 2021

Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Afterlives Is a Story of War & Love in Colonized Tanzania

It is the 10th novel by the Tanzanian author, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1996.
Uzoma Ihejirika
Abdulrazak Gurnah's Afterlives by Bloomsbury Books.

January 12, 2021

Saddiq Dzukogi’s Poetry Collection Your Crib, My Qibla Explores Fatherhood & Loss

The book, praised by Kwame Dawes, Ilya Kaminsky, and Matthew Shenoda, is a “dialogue between the father and his deceased daughter.”
Ernest Ogunyemi
Your Crib, My Qibla by Saddiq Dzukogi.

January 11, 2021

Hafizah Geter’s Poems in Un-American Explore What It Means to Belong

She “charts the history of a black family of mixed citizenships through poems imbued by migration, racism, queerness, loss, and heartbreak.”
Paula Willie-Okafor
Hafizah Geter's Un-American. From @kellyforsythe_.

December 26, 2020

Dambudzo Marechera’s Biographer Is Publishing a Memoir About Their Love Relationship

Flora Veit-Wild’s account, They Called You Dambudzo: A Memoir, arrives 33 years after the iconic Zimbabwean writer’s passing.
Uzoma Ihejirika
Flora Veit-Wild's They Called You Dambudzo: A Memoir.

December 26, 2020

African Cosmologies Collects Photography by 33 Artists of African Origin

The book includes work by Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Zanele Muholi, Wilfred Ukpong, Eric Gyamfi, and Zina Saro-Wiwa.
Ernest Ogunyemi
African Cosmologies: Photography, Time and Other. From HvADesign.com.

March 2, 2021

Khadija Abdalla Bajaber's The House of Rust.

In The House of Rust, Khadija Abdalla Bajaber Spins a Mombasan Fairytale

“Everywhere else gets romanticised, what about Mombasa?” she said of her debut novel, forthcoming from Graywolf Press in October 2021.
Ernest Ogunyemi

February 17, 2021

Safia Elhillo's Home Is Not a Country. From @mafiasafia.

Safia Elhillo’s Home Is Not a Country Is a Tale of a Young Muslim Girl Finding Herself

The novel in verse is the Sudanese poet’s first work of fiction.
Paula Willie-Okafor

February 11, 2021

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Notes on Grief.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Next Book Is About Her Late Father

Notes on Grief will explore collective mourning through the late James Nwoye Adichie’s life as a Biafran War survivor and statistics professor.
Otosirieze

February 6, 2021

Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water. From @caleb_anelson on Instagram.

In Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Open Water, It’s Black Love & Art

The British Ghanaian writer and photographer’s debut novel is one of the year’s most anticipated new books.
Paula Willie-Okafor

February 4, 2021

Hafsa Zayyan's We Are All Birds of Uganda by Stuart Simpson/Penguin.

Hafsa Zayyan’s We Are All Birds of Uganda Revisits Idi Amin’s Expulsion of Asians

The Nigerian Pakistani lawyer’s debut novel, written in six months, moves between ’70s Uganda and present-day London.
Ernest Ogunyemi

February 4, 2021

Femi Kayode's Lightseekers. From @holly_watt on Twitter.

Femi Kayode’s Debut, Lightseekers, Is a Murder Mystery on a Nigerian Campus

The book, which won the Little, Brown/UEA Crime Fiction Award in 2019, is the first in an investigative series focused on Dr Philip K. Taiwo.
Uzoma Ihejirika

January 24, 2021

Akwaeke Emezi. From @azemezi on Instagram.

Akwaeke Emezi’s Debut Memoir, Dear Senthuran, Chronicles the Self & Black Spirituality

The Nigerian novelist’s debut book of nonfiction “weaves through transformative decisions about their gender and body, and the turmoil of relationships.”
Ernest Ogunyemi

January 21, 2021

Remi Adekoya by Little, Brown.

In Biracial Britain, Remi Adekoya Explores His Mixed-Race Identity

“Your difference is communicated to you very early,” says the Nigerian Polish academic. “It is a mixed experience with good sides and bad sides.”
Ernest Ogunyemi

January 14, 2021

Abdulrazak Gurnah's Afterlives by Bloomsbury Books.

Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Afterlives Is a Story of War & Love in Colonized Tanzania

It is the 10th novel by the Tanzanian author, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1996.
Uzoma Ihejirika

January 12, 2021

Your Crib, My Qibla by Saddiq Dzukogi.

Saddiq Dzukogi’s Poetry Collection Your Crib, My Qibla Explores Fatherhood & Loss

The book, praised by Kwame Dawes, Ilya Kaminsky, and Matthew Shenoda, is a “dialogue between the father and his deceased daughter.”
Ernest Ogunyemi

January 11, 2021

Hafizah Geter's Un-American. From @kellyforsythe_.

Hafizah Geter’s Poems in Un-American Explore What It Means to Belong

She “charts the history of a black family of mixed citizenships through poems imbued by migration, racism, queerness, loss, and heartbreak.”
Paula Willie-Okafor

December 26, 2020

Flora Veit-Wild's They Called You Dambudzo: A Memoir.

Dambudzo Marechera’s Biographer Is Publishing a Memoir About Their Love Relationship

Flora Veit-Wild’s account, They Called You Dambudzo: A Memoir, arrives 33 years after the iconic Zimbabwean writer’s passing.
Uzoma Ihejirika

December 26, 2020

African Cosmologies: Photography, Time and Other. From HvADesign.com.

African Cosmologies Collects Photography by 33 Artists of African Origin

The book includes work by Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Zanele Muholi, Wilfred Ukpong, Eric Gyamfi, and Zina Saro-Wiwa.
Ernest Ogunyemi

“An ambitious new magazine committed to African literature”

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Join 25,000+ subscribers to essential, in-depth stories in African literature, Nigerian film, & culture: inspiring Profiles, incisive reviews, thought-provoking features & conversations that happen nowhere else. It's premium access to the visions of changemakers, from icons to emerging voices. Plus key industry stories from Folio Nigeria by CNN.

We respect your privacy and will never send you Spam or sell your email.

NO, I DON'T CARE ABOUT AFRICAN WHATEVER.

Top