Nigerian actress and media personality Nancy Isime has shared her 2025 reading list, showcasing a diverse selection of contemporary African literature that highlights Nigerian voices telling stories of identity, belonging, and transformation. The list reflects a growing trend of African celebrities publicly championing literature from the continent, using their platforms to amplify African writers and stories.
Isime’s completed reads include Chukwuebuka Ibeh’s acclaimed debut Blessings, which follows a young gay man navigating love and identity in conservative Nigeria. She’s also finished Chimeka Garricks’s A Broken People’s Playlist, a novel exploring grief and healing through music and memory in Lagos. Aiwanose Odafen’s Tomorrow I Become a Womanexamines the complexities of womanhood, marriage, and societal expectations across decades of Nigerian history, while Tunde Leye’s Fireflies on the Lagoon offers a gripping thriller set against Lagos’s glittering and dangerous waterfront.
Rounding out her 2025 reads is Umar Turaki’s Every Drop of Blood is Red, a powerful novel set in Plateau State that grapples with communal violence and its aftermath. The book’s unflinching examination of Nigeria’s ethnic and religious tensions demonstrates Isime’s willingness to engage with challenging subject matter beyond feel-good narratives.
On her to-be-read list are Akwaeke Emezi’s Son of the Morning, which promises their characteristic genre-defying storytelling and exploration of power and desire, and Oyin Olugbile’s Sanya, adding another layer to her engagement with contemporary Nigerian fiction. These upcoming reads suggest Isime’s continued commitment to exploring diverse narrative styles and thematic concerns within African literature.
By publicly sharing her reading journey, Isime joins other African public figures who are helping to cultivate robust reading cultures across the continent. Her choices offer followers a curated entry point into conversations about identity, violence, love, and belonging happening in African literature today.
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