Summer Reading List

 

African authors have been busy.  Here are 3 books that have to make your summer reading list.

 

 

Nigerian author Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani  puts her own spin on the world wide known Nigerian e-mail scams in her debut novel, I Do Not Come To You By Chance:

Kingsley learns the hardest lesson of all: education may be the language of success in Nigeria, but it’s money that does the talking.

Unconditional family support may be the way in Nigeria, but when Kingsley turns to his Uncle Boniface for help, he learns that charity may come with strings attached. Boniface–aka Cash Daddy–is an exuberant character who suffers from elephantiasis of the pocket. He’s also rumored to run a successful empire of email scams. But he can help. With Cash Daddy’s intervention, Kingsley and his family can be as safe as a tortoise in its shell. It’s up to Kingsley now to reconcile his passion for knowledge with his hunger for money, and to fully assume his role of first son. But can he do it without being drawn into this outlandish mileu?

 

 

Kwei Quartey was raised in Ghana by his Ghanaian father and African-American mother.   Both were University lecturers.  Kwei is a trained physician.  His love of writing produced his debut novel, Wife of Gods. 

 

A small West African town …
A dark secret …
A chilling murder …

Set in Ghana, the action moves compellingly back and forth between the capital city of Accra and a town in the Volta Region. Wife of the Gods brings the culture and beauty of its setting brilliantly to life. For fans of Alexander McCall Smith comes a debut mystery novel that introduces a marvelously intuitive detective and a rich cast of characters.

 

 

 

 

 This is a one-of-a-kind collection showcasing the energy of new African literature.  Coming at a time when Africa and African writers are in the midst of a remarkable renaissance, Gods and Soldiers captures the vitality and urgency of African writing today. With stories from northern Arabic-speaking to southern Zulu-speaking writers, this collection conveys thirty different ways of approaching what it means to be African. Whether about life in the new urban melting pots of Cape Town and Luanda, or amid the battlefield chaos of Zimbabwe and Somalia, or set in the imaginary surreal landscapes born out of the oral storytelling tradition, these stories represent a striking cross section of extraordinary writing. Including works by J. M. Coetzee, Chimamanda Adichie, Nuruddin Farah, Binyavanga Wainaina, and Chinua Achebe, and edited by Rob Spillman of Tin House magazine, Gods and Soldiers features many pieces never before published, making it a vibrant and essential glimpse of Africa as it enters the twenty-first century.