10 African Books Your Book Club Might Be Sleeping On

Tamarin

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Tamarin Bay, Mauritius, is a travel agent’s paradise: a tropical ocean, fishermen unloading their daily catch, children building sandcastles, surfers riding giant waves. But just along the shoreline is the beach of La Preneuse, known as the taker of souls. The island is haunted with tragedy and the remnants of colonial rule. But it is also home, where Anita Ram longs to be following the collapse of her marriage. After enduring a shocking betrayal and the sexism and racism of a cold Britain in the early twenty-first century, she finds comfort in simple things; her mother’s cooking, her childhood bedroom, and a handsome architect. Will these be enough for Anita to find happiness again, or will the ghosts of her past consume her? Following the international success of her debut Riambel, Hein’s heart-wrenching new novel reveals the violence and beauty inherent in her native Mauritius.

Flying Cows and Other Traumas

176 pages

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This collection of short stories explores the breadth of magical realism, speculative fiction and fantasy. Twijnstra portrays women succeeding in the face of brutality. The protagonists – black women – are thrust into magical, terrifying, spellbinding worlds., with stories set in the past, present and future. (Jacana Media)

Boys Will Be Boys

416 pages

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When Chisom transfers to Bethlehem Glorious High School, she hopes for a fresh start. Instead, she crosses paths with the notorious Five, whose cruel games hide darker secrets. When the boys begin dying one by one, Chisom becomes entangled in a dangerous mystery where suspicion, silence, and betrayal collide.

The Comfort of Distant Stars

319 pages

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Ezeani is no ordinary child—he sees things others cannot. His visions accompany him into adulthood, where his genius leads him to study physics at Cornell. But his persistent vision of Anyanwu, the Sun God, grows increasingly sinister. As Ezeani adjusts to America, the boundary between reality and madness begins to unravel.

Somebody Should Hold Farida

218 pages

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Explores modern and traditional Northern Nigerian life, tackling topics like adoption, reproductive choice, refugee crises, and environmental myth. (Flame Tree Writers Workshop)

The Free Verse Society

333 pages

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No one in Delray knows Jae Afenyo's story—that she's a teen mom who placed her baby for adoption—and she intends to keep it that way. After moving in with her uncle, Jae is looking for a fresh start. But an accidental run-in with the school's delinquent, Derek Patel, is not exactly what she had in mind. She soon finds a haven in the poetry club—at least, until Derek joins. (Peachtree Teen)

Kiss Marry Kill

272 pages

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It's Ife's dream wedding – until her new husband Ade is arrested for murder. His missing ex, Cynthia, has been found dead on the Dorset coast. Case closed: it's always the ex, right? But did Ade kiss, marry - and kill? One person hopes the truth never comes out. (Faber/2026)

A Season of Light

304 pages

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Fidelis Ewerike, a Florida-based barrister, poet, and former POW of the Nigerian Civil War, begins to go mad, consumed by memories of his younger sister Ugochi, who went missing during that conflict. Fourteen-year-old Chuk, beset by his own war with the neighborhood boys, receives a painful education on force, masculinity, and his tenuous position within his family. Before long, the two have concocted a plan to run away from the trappings of their familial traumas. (Algonquin 2025)

The Creation of Half-Broken People

352 pages

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The Creation of Half-Broken People is the extraordinary tale of a nameless woman plagued by visions. She works for the Good Foundation and its museum filled with artifacts from the family’s exploits in Africa, the Good family members all being descendants of Captain John Good, of King Solomon’s Mines fame. (House of Anansi 2025)

The Chaos Precinct: Johannesburg as a port city

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The Chaos Precinct presents a compelling, brave – at times, lyrical – narrative of how migrant Ethiopians have shaped a trading post in Johannesburg’s inner city. (Jacana Media/2025)