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Season of Migration to the North (by Tayeb Salih)
$14.00
After many years of study in Europe, the young narrator of Season of Migration to the North returns to his village along the Nile in the Sudan, eager to make a contribution to the new postcolonial life of his country. Back home, he discovers a stranger among the familiar faces of childhood—the enigmatic Mustafa Sa’eed. Mustafa takes the young man into his confidence, telling him the story of his own years in London in the early part of the twentieth century, of his brilliant career as an economist, and of the series of fraught and deadly relationships with European women that led to a terrible public reckoning and his return to his native land. But what is the meaning of Mustafa’s shocking confession? Mustafa disappears without explanation, leaving the young man —whom he has asked to look after his wife—in an unsettled and violent no-man’s-land between Europe and Africa, tradition and innovation, holiness and defilement, and man and woman, from which no one will escape unaltered or unharmed. One of the pinnacles of modern Arabic literature, Season of Migration to the North is a work of scorching honesty and incandescent lyricism.
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The Wrestling Match (by Buchi Emecheta)
$9.95
Children in a Nigerian village grow up during the Nigerian Civil War. (suitable for ages 13-17)
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Beneath the Lion's Gaze (by Maaza Mengiste)
$14.95
This memorable, heartbreaking story opens in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,1974, on the eve of a revolution. Yonas kneels in his mother’s prayerroom, pleading to his god for an end to the violence that has wrackedhis family and country. His father, Hailu, a prominent doctor, has beenordered to report to jail after helping a victim of state-sanctionedtorture to die. And Dawit, Hailu’s youngest son, has joined anunderground resistance movement—a choice that will lead to moreupheaval and bloodshed across a ravaged Ethiopia. Beneath the Lion’s Gazetells a gripping story of family, of the bonds of love and friendshipset in a time and place that has rarely been explored in fiction. It isa story about the lengths human beings will go in pursuit of freedomand the human price of a national revolution. Emotionally gripping,poetic, and indelibly tragic, Beneath The Lion’s Gaze is a transcendent and powerful debut.
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Dreams in a Time of War: A Childhood Memoir (by Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo)
from $14.00
Save 16%
Born in 1938 in rural Kenya, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o came of age in the shadow of World War II, amidst the terrible bloodshed in the war between the Mau Mau and the British. The son of a man whose four wives bore him more than a score of children, young Ngũgĩ displayed what was then considered a bizarre thirst for learning, yet it was unimaginable that he would grow up to become a world-renowned novelist, playwright, and critic. In Dreams in a Time of War, Ngũgĩ deftly etches a bygone era, bearing witness to the social and political vicissitudes of life under colonialism and war. Speaking to the human right to dream even in the worst of times, this rich memoir of an African childhood abounds in delicate and powerful subtleties and complexities that are movingly told.
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Mine Boy (by Peter Abrahams)
$15.00
Mine Boy has remained a central influence in South African fiction for over forty years. When Xuma moves to Johannesburg he is a naive country boy, but the impact of harsh city life awakens him to the new ways and values of a radically different world. His vision of a 'man without color', a raceless society, is shattered by the realities of his underprivileged existence. First published in 1946, this novel was one of the first books to expose universally the condition of black South Africans under a white regime. Forceful but restrained images of discrimination in the gold mines and appalling housing contrast with Xuma's simple, humanitarian act of defiance.
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Waiting for an Angel (by Helon Habila)
$12.00
Save 14%
Lomba is a young journalist living under military rule in Lagos, Nigeria, the most dangerous city in the world. His mind is full of soul music and girls and the lyric novel he is writing. But his roommate is brutally attacked by soldiers; his first love is forced to marry a wealthy old man; and his neighbors on Poverty Street are planning a demonstration that is bound to incite riot and arrests. Lomba can no longer bury his head in the sand.Helon Habila's vivid, exciting, and heart-wrenching debut opens a window onto a world in some ways familiar-with its sensuously depicted streets, student life, and vibrant local characters-yet ruled by one of the world's most corrupt and oppressive regimes, a scandal that ultimately drives Lomba to take a risk in the name of something greater than himself. Habila captures the energy, sensitivity, despair, and stubborn hope of a new African generation with a combination of gritty realism and poetic beauty. Winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing 2001.
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Death and the King's Horseman (by Wole Soyinka)
$18.25
This Norton Critical Edition of Death and the King's Horseman is the only student edition available in the United States. Based on events that took place in 1946 in the ancient Yoruban city of Oyo, Soyinka's acclaimed and powerful play addresses classic issues of cultural conflict, tragic decision-making, and the psychological mindsets of individuals and groups. The text of the play is accompanied by an introduction and explanatory annotations for the many allusions to traditional Nigerian myth and culture.
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Akimbo and the Lions (by Alexander McCall Smith)
$9.95
Ten-year-old Akimbo lives on a game preserve in Africa. His father is the head ranger, and Akimbo is eager to help him whenever he can--even if it means getting into some pretty dangerous situations. In "Akimbo and the Lions," Akimbo helps his father set a trap for a lioness that has been attacking cattle on nearby farms. But when the lion they catch turns out to be a cub, Akimbo must find a way to care for the young lion until it's old enough to be released in the wild.
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Diamonds in the Dust (by Shirley Mowat Tucker)
$14.95
Straight out of South Africa comes the poignant tale of Ida Morgan: her husband murdered, abandoned by God, and alone in the world. Ida's road to healing and wholeness is paved by diamonds in the dust. Author Shirley Mowat Tucker is a native South African who, through the eyes of Ida Morgan, leads the reader into her country's secret places... places where there are still wicked men doing wicked things... places where the innocent and defenseless are preyed upon... places drenched in the same bitterness and grief that Ida Morgan now understands first hand.
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Cry, The Beloved Country (by Alan Paton)
$15.00
Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much." The most famous and important novel in South Africa's history, and an immediate worldwide bestseller when it was published in 1948, Alan Paton's impassioned novel about a black man's country under white man's law is a work of searing beauty. The eminent literary critic Lewis Gannett wrote, "We have had many novels from statesmen and reformers, almost all bad; many novels from poets, almost all thin. In Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country the statesman, the poet and the novelist meet in a unique harmony." Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.
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The Great Cake Mystery: Precious Ramotswe's Very First Case: A Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Book for Young Readers
$6.99
Have you ever said to yourself, "Wouldn't it be nice to be a detective?" This is the story of an African girl who says just that. Her name is Precious. When a piece of cake goes missing from her classroom, a traditionally built young boy is tagged as the culprit. Precious, however, is not convinced. She sets out to find the real thief. Along the way she learns that your first guess isn't always right. She also learns how to be a detective. (recommended for ages 7to 9)
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Darfur: A New History of a Long War (by Julie Flint& Alex De Waal)
$18.00
The humanitarian tragedy in Darfur has stirred politicians, Hollywood celebrities and students to appeal for a peaceful resolution to the crisis. Beyond the horrific pictures of sprawling refugee camps and lurid accounts of rape and murder lies a complex history steeped in religion, politics, and decades of internal unrest. Darfur traces the origins, organization and ideology of the infamous Janjawiid and other rebel groups, including the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement. It also analyzes the confused responses of the Sudanese government and African Union. This thoroughly updated edition also features a powerful analysis of how the conflict has been received in the international community and the varied attempts at peacekeeping.
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Black Star Nairobi (by Mukoma Wa Ngugi)
$15.95
When a bomb explodes in a downtown Nairobi hotel, private detectives Ishmael and Odhiambo quickly make the connection to a murder case they’re investigating. It’s the first big break for their new detective agency, Black Star, formed after they were teamed together as policemen and they tracked down a Rwandan war criminal through the violent Kenyan underworld. But then the CIA and the local police claim the bombing was the work of Al Qaeda, though it’s clear to Ishmael and O. that something else is going on. They’re under pressure to back off from the investigation, until a startling act of violence tips the scales—and the detectives take off on a round-the-globe pursuit of the shadowy forces that appear to be behind it all. With Kenya riven by ethnic violence, following the disputed elections of 2007, and Obama on the campaign trail in the United States, Ishmael, an American cop who’d made a new life for himself in Africa, confronts a changed world, where everything he thought he knew gets thrown into doubt—and the only way to find the answers is to go to extremes. A thrilling, hard-hitting sequel to Nairobi Heat, from a major new crime talent. (Release Date: June 11, 2013)
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The Book of War (by James Whyle)
$21.95
James Whyle takes on the war genre with an eloquent narrative and a command of language and style that captures the fragility and bleakness of the time. There is no doubt that Whyle is a masterful storyteller. The Book of War tells the story of a boy who comes to manhood in a war. William Kentridge has called it, “a rare feast”, and Rian Malan, “a very good book, possibly great.” An illiterate European child is stranded on the southern tip of Africa. The British and the Xhosa have been spilling each other’s blood for eighty years and the kid signs up for the conflict in the hope of steady meals and a few shillings a month. The kid’s new commander, The Captain, is hardly more than a boy himself, but he has money and education behind him. His goal is to prove that the revolutionary Minié Rifle is the most effective killing machine available to the British Empire. His instruments are an assortment of convicts, sailors and drunkards culled from the port at the Cape of Good Hope; his adversary, a strategically brilliant Xhosa general with little left to lose. The Captain and the irregulars depart on a journey towards a grotesque dénouement around a copper vat on the slopes of Mount Misery. They move through a landscape prowled by wild beasts, a landscape so savage that the mountains themselves are like “ancient artefacts whose listed purpose is slaughter”. As they travel, the distinction between man and animal becomes increasingly blurred. Although it is based closely on first-hand accounts of the 8th Xhosa War, the book creates the effect of an intense defamiliarisation of a history educated South Africans will believe themselves to be au fait with. It converts the bare facts of times past into something terrible and strange. Anyone who has asked themselves why South Africa is a violent country will find a disturbing answer in The Book of War.
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Say You're One Of Them (by Uwem Akpan)
$9.99
Save 29%
Each story in this jubilantly acclaimed collection pays testament to the wisdom and resilience of children, even in the face of the most agonizing circumstances. A family living in a makeshift shanty in urban Kenya scurries to find gifts of any kind for the impending Christmas holiday. A Rwandan girl relates her family’s struggles to maintain a facade of normalcy amid unspeakable acts. A young brother and sister cope with their uncle’s attempt to sell them into slavery. Aboard a bus filled with refugees—a microcosm of today’s Africa—a Muslim boy summons his faith to bear a treacherous ride across Nigeria. Through the eyes of childhood friends the emotional toll of religious conflict in Ethiopia becomes viscerally clear. Uwem Akpan’s debut signals the arrival of a breathtakingly talented writer who gives a matter-of-fact reality to the most extreme circumstances in stories that are nothing short of transcendent.
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The Day the Leader Was Killed (by Naguib Mahfouz)
$11.15
Save 20%
From the Nobel Prize laureate and author of the acclaimed Cairo Trilogy, a beguiling and artfully compact novel set in Sadat's Egypt. The time is 1981, Anwar al-Sadat is president, and Egypt is lurching into the modern world. Set against this backdrop, The Day the Leader Was Killed relates the tale of a middle-class Cairene family. Rich with irony and infused with political undertones, the story is narrated alternately by the pious and mischievous family patriarch Muhtashimi Zayed, his hapless grandson Elwan, and Elwan's headstrong and beautiful fiancee Randa. The novel reaches its climax with the assassination of Sadat on October 6, 1981, an event around which the fictional plot is skillfully woven. The Day the Leader Was Killed brings us the essence of Mahfouz's genius and is further proof that he has, in the words of the Nobel citation, "formed an Arabic narrative art that applies to all mankind."
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Kabu Kabu (by Nnedi Okorafor)
$15.95
Kabu Kabu - unregistered, illegal Nigerian taxis - generally get you where you need to go, but Nnedi Okorafor's Kabu Kabu takes the reader to exciting, fantastic, magical, occasionally dangerous, and always imaginative locations. This debut short story collection by award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor includes notable previously-published short work, a new novella co-written with New York Times bestselling author Alan Dean Foster, and a brief forward by Whoopi Goldberg. Release Date: October 2, 2013 -- Available for Pre-Order.
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The Family (by Buchi Emecheta)
$10.95
The story of a young Jamaican girl, Gwendolen Brillianton, who is born into poverty and deserted by her parents when they emigrate to London. Being reunited with her parents and the siblings she has never met does not end her problems, and she realizes she must must fight her family and take control of her own life in order to recover from abuse and take pride in her self. Originally published as Gwendolen.
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