Fiction is often where we come to read and enjoy interesting stories about life, its ups and downs, its strange turns and unexpected possibilities. But fiction, even at its most imaginative, is often inspired by real life. Authors take people around them, situations they have experienced, places they have lived and things they have seen, and turn them into the fiction we enjoy.

Nonfiction, however, gives us the real thing. Life, bare and unconcealed, right there in front of us. Fiction can allow a writer to hide behind characters and imagined worlds while holding up a mirror to society or saying something about the world. Nonfiction takes away that distance. It gives us people’s actual lives, experiences and perspectives, and somehow, real life can be just as interesting as fiction.

Sometimes, reading nonfiction feels like stepping into someone else’s life, walking in their shoes for a while and seeing the world through their eyes. These books remind us that you don’t always need to invent a story to make life interesting. Sometimes, the lives people have actually lived are enough.

From Patrice Engana’s Skateboy to Zukiswa Wanner’s Flotilla: A Journey of Conscience, here are seven African nonfiction books that make life interesting.