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Exceptional books set in Middle and Southern Africa

Middle & Southern Africa

Recommended books found: 36

Middle & Southern Africa is a members-only category, so your results have been limited to 12 books. If you are a member, please log in. If not, please consider joining today!.

Twist

A Novel

by Colum McCann

Hardcover: Mar 2025 | Paperback: Mar 2026

Critics' Consensus:

A propulsive novel of rupture and repair in the digital age, delving into a hidden world deep under the ocean—from the New York Times bestselling author of Apeirogon and Let the Great World Spin.

Cape Fever

A Novel

by Nadia Davids

Hardcover: Dec 2025

Critics' Consensus:

From award-winning South African author Nadia Davids comes a gothic psychological thriller set in the 1920s, where a young maid finds herself entangled with the spirits of a decaying manor and the secrets of its enigmatic owner.

The Creation of Half-Broken People

A Novel

by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

Paperback: Apr 2025

Critics' Consensus:

Stupendous African Gothic, by the winner of Yale University's Windham–Campbell Prize.

Our Beautiful Darkness

A Graphic Novel

by ‍ Ondjaki, Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Hardcover: Jul 2024

Critics' Consensus:

A blackout leads two teens to discover the intimacy and vulnerability that can only be shared in darkness in Our Beautiful Darkness, a fully illustrated YA novella from celebrated Angolan author Ondjaki and illustrator António Jorge Gonç...

Call and Response

Stories

by Gothataone Moeng

Hardcover: Feb 2023 | Paperback: Feb 2024

Critics' Consensus:

Richly drawn stories about the lives of ordinary families in contemporary Botswana as they navigate relationships, tradition and caretaking in a rapidly changing world.

The Promise

by Damon Galgut

Hardcover: Apr 2021 | Paperback: Mar 2022

Critics' Consensus:

A modern family saga that could only have come from South Africa, written in gorgeous prose by twice Booker Prize-shortlisted author Damon Galgut.

Walking on Cowrie Shells

by Nana Nkweti

Paperback: Jun 2021

Critics' Consensus:

A "boisterous and high-spirited debut" (Kirkus starred review), named one of the Most Anticipated Books for Brittle Paper, The Millions, and The Rumpus, penned by a finalist for the AKO Caine Prize.

When the Plums Are Ripe

by Patrice Nganang

Hardcover: Aug 2019 | Paperback: Aug 2020

Critics' Consensus:

The second volume in a magisterial trilogy, the story of Cameroon caught between empires during World War II.

Recipes for Love and Murder

A Tannie Maria Mystery

by Sally Andrew

Hardcover: Nov 2015 | Paperback: Sep 2016

Critics' Consensus:

A bright new talent makes her fiction debut with this first entry in a delicious crime set in rural South Africa - a flavorful blend of The #1 Ladies Detective Agency and Goldie Schulz series, full of humor, romance, and recipes and featuring a ...

Threatened

by Eliot Schrefer

Hardcover: Feb 2014 | Paperback: Aug 2015

Critics' Consensus:

The story of a boy fleeing his present, a man fleeing his past, and a trio of chimpanzees who are struggling not to flee at all.

The Afrika Reich

by Guy Saville

Hardcover: Feb 2013 | Paperback: Jan 2015

Critics' Consensus:

The explosive new thriller of a world that so nearly existed

The Lion Seeker

by Kenneth Bonert

Hardcover: Oct 2013 | Paperback: Sep 2014

Critics' Consensus:

A thrilling ride through the life of one fumbling young hero, The Lion Seeker is a glorious reinvention of the classic family and coming-of-age sagas.

Middle & Southern Africa is a members-only category, so your results have been limited to 12 books. If you are a member, please log in. If not, please consider joining today!

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