African Books

Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland.

At Night All Blood is Black portrays a young man’s descent into madness and tells the little-heard story of the Senegalese who fought for France on the Western Front during World War I. After his best friend is mortally wounded in combat, Alfa, the protagonist, is alone amidst the savagery of the trenches, far from all he knows and cherishes. He throws himself into fighting with renewed vigour, but soon begins to frighten even his own comrades.

She's adored by her millions of fans, writes and performs songs that move and inspire, but Beyoncé is truly known by very few. Now highly acclaimed biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli reveals the woman behind the star. In Becoming Beyoncé: The Untold Story he takes us from a childhood spent performing in talent shows to finding worldwide success with her group, Destiny's Child, managed by her father Matthew. Beyoncé's first solo album, Dangerously in Love, went straight to number one and she has to date released a total of five albums which have sold 75 million copies.

Beyoncé prefers to keep her personal life with husband Jay Z and daughter Blue Ivy carefully under lock and key. She may be a top performer, fashion idol and business mogul in her own right, but fame has come at personal sacrifice and with private heartbreak. Based on exhaustive research, including exclusive interviews with those who have played pivotal roles in her life and career, the book reveals the hard-earned lessons 'Queen Bey' has learned about love, life, loyalty and family. Insightful and entertaining, this is the first authoritative biography of the most famous woman in the world today and a must-have for the 'Bey Hive'.

Lewis Hamilton’s explosive arrival on the Formula 1 scene has made front-page headlines. In My Story, for the first time Lewis opens up about his stunning debut season in grand prix racing, as well as his dad Anthony, his home life and his early years. The only book with the real story, as told by Lewis. In his first season in F1, Lewis Hamilton thrilled the world of motor racing by finishing on the podium in his first nine consecutive races – the first driver to do so in the sport's 57-year history – and drove to victories in Canada, America, Hungary and Japan. But bare statistics alone do scant justice to the amazing impact Lewis Hamilton has had on the sporting landscape. My Story gives the real account from Lewis himself, as he sets the record straight about his colourful life on and off the track. Given a grounded upbringing by his dedicated father in unremarkable Stevenage, Lewis tells about how he first tried out go-karting while on a cut-price family holiday in Ibiza. In his book he gives the real version of events at a motor sport dinner where, as a nine-year-old wearing a borrowed suit, he approached McLaren team boss Ron Dennis with the immortal words that were to change his life forever. He rose rapidly through the Junior and Formula ranks, dominating every series with his raw speed and canny race craft. Here Lewis candidly recalls those key moments that shaped his career and went some way towards compensating for the sacrifices made by his father Anthony in getting his son to the top.

Cry, the beloved Country - Alan Paton 

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 contemporaneity, 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.

Disgrace - J.M Coetzee (Winner of the Booker Prize 1999)

Set in post-apartheid South Africa, J. M. Coetzee’s searing novel tells the story of David Lurie, a twice divorced, 52-year-old professor of communications and Romantic Poetry at Cape Technical University. Lurie believes he has created a comfortable, if somewhat passionless, life for himself. He lives within his financial and emotional means. Though his position at the university has been reduced, he teaches his classes dutifully; and while age has diminished his attractiveness, weekly visits to a prostitute satisfy his sexual needs. He considers himself happy. However, when Lurie seduces one of his students, he sets in motion a chain of events that will shatter his complacency and leave him utterly disgraced.

This is Britain as you've never read it. This is Britain as it has never been told. From Newcastle to Cornwall, from the birth of the twentieth century to the teens of the twenty-first, Girl, Woman, Other follows a cast of twelve characters on their personal journeys through this country and the last hundred years. They're each looking for something - a shared past, an unexpected future, a place to call home, somewhere to fit in, a lover, a missed mother, a lost father, even just a touch of hope .

Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—“Scout”—returns home to Maycomb, Alabama from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town, and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past—a journey that can only be guided by one’s own conscience.

In 1976, Dana dreams of being a writer. In 1815, she is assumed a slave. When Dana first meets Rufus on a Maryland plantation, he's drowning. She saves his life - and it will happen again and again. Neither of them understands his power to summon her whenever his life is threatened, nor the significance of the ties that bind them. And each time Dana saves him, the more aware she is that her own life might be over before it's even begun.

Stifled by the torpor of colonial South Africa and trapped in a web of reciprocal oppression, a lonely sheep farmer seeks comfort in the arms of a black concubine. But when his embittered spinster daughter Magda feels shamed, this lurch across the racial divide marks the end of a tenuous feudal peace. As she dreams madly of bloody revenge, Magda's consciousness starts to drift and the line between fact and the workings of her excited imagination becomes blurred. What follows is the fable of a woman's passionate, obsessed and violent response to an Africa that will not heed her.

Long Walk to Freedom is the captivating autobiography of Nelson Mandela, chronicling his early life, fight against apartheid in South Africa, 27 years of imprisonment (including on Robben Island), and eventual rise to become South Africa's first Black president, offering deep personal insights, historical context, and powerful messages of resilience, struggle, and ultimate triumph. The book serves as both a personal memoir and a detailed account of the anti-apartheid movement, detailing his leadership within the ANC and his journey to a democratic nation. 

The book is a photo journal that uses "amazing action photographs" and "powerful and intimate images" accompanied by detailed captions to chart Ali's life from his start as Cassius Clay at the 1960 Olympics to his later life. The photos are sourced, in part, from the Daily Mail archives and include shots of his major bouts and personal moments. 

Pele: His Life and Times - Harry Harris

Pelé remains the best footballer of all time, despite the extraordinary exploits of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar, and legends such as Diego Maradona and Johan Cruyff. With exclusive access to Pelé, award-winning sports writer Harry Harris charts his meteoric rise from humble beginnings in Brazil to his first international at the age of sixteen. Superb athleticism, speed of thought and execution, and astonishing ball control helped him become the only player to have appeared in three World Cup-winning sides, and to have scored more than 1,200 goals in his senior career, a feat that is now unlikely ever to be equalled, let alone surpassed.

Pele: The Autobiography

Even people who don't know football know Pelé. The best of a generation of Brazilian players universally acknowledged as the most accomplished and attractive group of footballers ever to play the game, he won the World Cup three times and is Brazil's all-time record goalscorer. But how did this man -- a sportsman, a mere footballer, like many others -- become a global icon? Was it just by being the best at what he did, or do people respond to some other quality? In this book, the world's greatest footballer gives us the full story of his incredible life and career. Told with his characteristic grace and modesty, but covering all aspects of his playing days and his subsequent careers as politician, international sporting ambassador and cultural icon, PELE: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY is an essential volume for all sports fans, and anyone who admires true rarity of spirit.

In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency-a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.
Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation's highest office. Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune's Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden.

The Fishermen is the debut novel by Nigerian author Chigozie Obioma, published in 2015. The novel follows four brothers in a quiet neighborhood of a Nigerian town, who are given a violent prophecy which shakes their family to the core. It is set in the 1990s, during the rule of Sani Abacha.

Set in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, the novel revolves around James Witherspoon's two families—the public one and the secret one. When the daughters from each family meet and form a friendship, only one of them knows they are sisters. It is a relationship destined to explode. This is the third stunning novel from an author deemed "one of the most important writers of her generation" (the Atlanta Journal Constitution).

Grace Makutsi is promoted to associate detective and handles a case herself. Mma Ramotswe helps the hospital in Mochudi deal with a string of mysterious patient deaths. Her husband wants to try his hand at detection, and with his usual style, he does. Charlie, the apprentice, decides to quit and run a taxi service.

Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community. It could also get her killed.

There's Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son's tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared. Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they'd be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in a search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell...

The Jacksons: Legacy is the first ever official book on the the Royal Family of Pop. This major volume reveals the untold, unseen and utterly unforgettable story behind the legend that is the Jacksons. Four specially commissioned chapters deftly weave together an unprecedented 12 days’ worth of exclusive interviews with the brothers, recounted in their own words, with contributions from key players throughout their careers. The compelling tale unfolds from their childhood days living at 2300 Jackson Street in Gary, Indiana, through the years signed to Motown as the Jackson 5, their radical move to Epic as The Jacksons, the blossoming of their solo careers, the dizzying successes of the Victory tour, and right up to the present day.

In this installment, the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency faces its first taste of competition when a new, male-run "Satisfaction Guaranteed Detective Agency" opens across town, advertising itself with "Ex-CID. Ex-New York. Ex-cellent". This forces Mma Ramotswe to take on several cases at once to retain her clientele. These cases include: 

-       Helping a wealthy, prosperous man, Mr. Molefelo, make amends for past misdeeds from his youth, such as stealing a radio to pay for an illegal abortion for a former girlfriend.

-       Investigating a client's suspicion that her husband is having an affair, only for Mma Ramotswe to discover her assistant, Mma Makutsi, is unknowingly involved with the man.

-       Dealing with minor domestic issues, such as her adopted son being responsible for the death of a hoopoe bird. 

The Nickel Boys is a 2019 novel by American novelist Colson Whitehead. It is based on the historic Dozier School, a reform school in Florida that operated for 111 years and was revealed as highly abusive. A university investigation found numerous unmarked graves for unrecorded deaths and a history into the late 20th century of emotional and physical abuse of students.

In 1880 the continent of Africa was largely unexplored by Europeans. Less than thirty years later, only Liberia and Ethiopia remained unconquered by them. The rest - 10 million square miles with 110 million bewildered new subjects - had been carved up by five European powers (and one extraordinary individual) in the name of Commerce, Christianity, 'Civilization' and Conquest. The Scramble for Africa is the first full-scale study of that extraordinary episode in history.

Obi Okonkwo is an idealistic young man who, thanks to the privileges of an education in Britain, has now returned to Nigeria for a job in the civil service. However in his new role he finds that the way of government seems to be backhanders and corruption. Obi manages to resist the bribes that are offered to him, but when he falls in love with an unsuitable girl - to the disapproval of his parents - he sinks further into emotional and financial turmoil. The lure of easy money becomes harder to refuse, and Obi becomes caught in a trap he cannot escape.

Things Fall Apart is a 1958 novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. It is Achebe's debut novel and was written when he was working at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. The novel was first published in London by Heinemann on 17 June 1958. The story, which is set in British Nigeria, centers on the irrepressible Okonkwo, a traditional influential leader of the fictional Igbo clan Umuofia, who opposes colonialism and early Christianity. 

When a country is plunged into civil war, two brothers on either side of it are divided. They will try to find their way back to each other. Kunle's search for his sibling Tunde becomes a journey of atonement which sees him conscripted into the army to fight a war he hardly understands. Once there, he will forge friendships to last a lifetime, and he will meet a woman who will change his world forever. But will he find his brother?

An Orchestra of Minorities is set in Umuahia, Nigeria and partly in Northern Cyprus. It follows Chinonso, a hardly surviving poultry farmer who stops a woman from taking her own life. The night changes all their lives, especially Ndali, the woman who does not carry out the intended action after much consternation and persuasion by Chinonso. They invariably fall in love after a long and frustrating courting period from the day they met. The protagonist, Chinonso ends up selling all his belongings to pursue higher education abroad to impress Ndali's parents.

The Sellout by Paul Beatty is a satirical novel that won the 2016 Man Booker Prize, becoming the first American novel to do so, and uses outrageous humor to tackle serious themes of race in America, following a Black man in Los Angeles who attempts to reinstate slavery and segregation, landing him in the Supreme Court. 

The Soul of a Butterfly - Muhammad Ali

In this poignant, moving book, Muhammad Ali shares the beliefs he has come to live by and which he has passed on to his children. Some of the wisdom is his own; some comes from the teachings of true Islam, from his spiritual studies, and from people he has met in the course of his extraordinary life. Here, as he recalls his early days as a young warrior in Louisville, Kentucky, and his meteoric rise to fame as Heavyweight Champion of the World, a title he won three times, he tells of the many battles he won and lost, both inside and outside the ring and his conversion to Islam in the 1960s. Now, working tirelessly as a worldwide ambassador for peace, he talks of the damage caused when religion is used to tear people apart, the essential need for unity in this troubled world, and how his faith sustains him on this, the most important journey of his life - the journey to forgiveness and peace. Together with his daughter Hana, in this timely spiritual memoir Ali draws upon his rich reserve of notes, tapes and journals, and writes with compassion, warmth and, of course, humour on how we can liberate mind, body and spirit when we pursue and embrace the one essential truth - love.

Isabel Dalhousie is a philosopher in her early forties and lives alone in a large aging house in the south of Edinburgh. Thanks to a large inheritance left to her by her late mother, she is able to work for a nominal fee as the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. Her closest friends are her niece Cat, a young attractive woman who runs a delicatessen; her housekeeper Grace, an outspoken woman with an interest in spiritualism; Cat's ex-boyfriend Jamie, a bassoonist to whom Isabel has been secretly attracted ever since they met; and Brother Fox, an urban fox who lives in Isabel's garden. During a trip to the theatre, Isabel sees a young man fall to his death from the gods. As the young man falls, she catches his eye, and sees an expression of shock of his face, which suggests to her that the police's verdict of suicide is wrong. She decides to find out what really happened.

Muhammad Ali was the greatest boxer the world has ever seen, and the most charismatic athlete of all time. Mesmeric both inside the ring and out, Ali has been a role model, a spiritual thinker and a symbol of courage for thousands of people. Davis Miller was a sickly 12-year-old child when he first encountered Ali. From this meeting there developed a powerful personal relationship that has lasted decades. The Tao of Muhammad Ali is a unique portrait of this exceptional fighter, and a compelling story of hero-worship, of fathers and sons, of strength through wisdom.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead is a critically acclaimed 2016 historical fiction novel that reimagines the Underground Railroad as a literal subterranean train system, following escaped slave Cora's harrowing journey through the Antebellum South, winning the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and National Book Award for its powerful blend of realism and allegory.

The plot and characters are loosely based on Lee's observations of her family, her neighbors and an event that occurred near her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, in 1936, when she was ten.  Despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality, the novel is renowned for its warmth and humor. Atticus Finch, the narrator's father, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers.

Tsotsi is an angry young gang leader in the South African township of Sophiatown. A man without a past, he exists only to kill and steal. But one night, in a moonlit grove of bluegum trees, a woman he attempts to rape forces a shoebox into his arms. The box contains a baby, and his life is inexorably changed. He begins to remember his childhood, to rediscover himself and his capacity for love.

The autobiography of the fastest man of all time, eight-time Olympic gold medalist, eleven-time World Champion, and a superstar whose talent and charisma have made him one of the most famous people on the planet. Whether you know Athletics or not, and even whether you know sport or not, chances are you know Usain Bolt. The fastest man on the planet, not just now but ever, Usain has won the hearts of people everywhere with his mind-blowing performances and his infectious charisma – uniting supporters around the world.

In this, his full autobiography, Usain tells his story in his own words: from humble beginnings in Jamaica, to international stardom at Beijing and on to the new heights of superstardom he has reached since lighting up London 2012. Full of the charm and charisma that has made him the most popular sporting figure of our time and a universal celebrity, this is a book that Usain’s millions of fans will love 

Will Smith's transformation from a fearful child in a tense West Philadelphia home to one of the biggest rap stars of his era and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, with a string of box office successes that will likely never be broken, is an epic tale of inner transformation and outer triumph, and Will tells it astonishingly well. But it's only half the story.
Will Smith thought, with good reason, that he had won at life: not only was his own success unparalleled, his whole family was at the pinnacle of the entertainment world. Only they didn't see it that way: they felt more like star performers in his circus, a seven-days-a-week job they hadn't signed up for. It turned out Will Smith's education wasn't nearly over

The novel follows the narrator, a character named John, who is a young white man in the politically charged atmosphere of 1950s South Africa. He views his home country as backwards and oppressive, plotting an escape to London where he hopes to find artistic inspiration and romance. 

Upon arriving in London, however, he is met with disappointment and alienation. Instead of a bohemian life of poetry, he takes a monotonous job as a computer programmer for firms like IBM and International Computers to sustain himself. He drifts through a series of unfulfilling, loveless affairs and academic dead ends, feeling isolated and constantly tested by a world that seems indifferent to his aspirations. 

Throughout this "dark pilgrimage" into adulthood, he remains convinced he is an artist destined for greatness, though he struggles to produce any meaningful poetry. The book ends as he begins to confront the gap between his grand intellectual ideals and the disappointing reality of his life, a journey from delusion to a more self-aware realism.

TWIN AMBITIONS is much more than an autobiography by a great Olympic champion. It's a moving human story of a man who grew up in difficult circumstances, separated from his family at an early age, who struggled to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to become Britain's most decorated Olympic track-and-field athlete ever.

Out of Africa is a memoir by the Danish author Karen Blixen. The book, first published in 1937, recounts events of the eighteen years when Blixen made her home in Kenya, then called British East Africa. The book is a lyrical meditation on Blixen's life on her coffee plantation, as well as a tribute to some of the people who touched her life there. It provides a vivid snapshot of African colonial life in the last decades under the British Empire.

These memoirs, read by Diana Ross herself, concentrate on her stardom, the pain and pleasure of getting - and staying - there and the lessons she has learned along the way.

Why do we fall in love with the people we do? Why do we visit our mistakes on our children? What makes life truly beautiful? Set between New England and London, On Beauty concerns a pair of feuding families - the Belseys and the Kipps - and a clutch of doomed affairs. It puts low morals among high ideals and asks some searching questions about what life does to love. For the Belseys and the Kipps, the confusions - both personal and political - of our uncertain age are about to be brought close to home: right to the heart of family.

In Lagos, Nigeria, Korede is a nurse in a close relationship with her younger sister, Ayoola. Ayoola is the more beautiful, favored sister, and possibly sociopathic. For the third time in a row, Ayoola has stabbed her boyfriend to death, supposedly in self-defense. Like the previous times, Korede helps dispose of the body and clean away the evidence. Her practicality and concern keep Ayoola from acting suspiciously about her “missing” boyfriend, such as by posting to social media when she should be mourning. Korede feels unappreciated as she constantly dreads that they will be caught and that Ayoola will kill again. She confides in none but a comatose patient in the hospital she works at. She is in love with Tade, a kind, handsome doctor who does not notice her affection. However, upon meeting Ayoola, he is immediately enamored with her and they begin dating. Korede fears that Tade will be Ayoola's next victim and must reckon with what she is willing to do for her sister.

Native Son - Richard Wright

Gripping and furious, Native Son follows Bigger Thomas, a young black man who is trapped in a life of poverty in the slums of Chicago. Unwittingly involved in a wealthy woman's death, he is hunted relentlessly, baited by prejudiced officials, charged with murder and driven to acknowledge a strange pride in his crime. Native Son shocked readers on its first publication in 1940 and went on to make Richard Wright the first bestselling black writer in America.

In We Are All Birds of Uganda Zayyan tells two stories across different timeframes, moving between Sameer in contemporary London and his grandfather Hasan in 1970s Kampala. While Sameer wrestles with his demanding job and contemplates a move to Singapore that will devastate his Muslim parents, Hasan grieves for his dead wife and struggles with his business as Idi Amin seizes power in Uganda. For both of them, the future feels uncertain, and Zayyan uses their dual narratives to expose the fragility of different forms of belonging, national and familial. Citizenship is an unstable experience for Hasan. He knows it can be rescinded. But Sameer too is troubled by the problem of how to belong to a culture that might reject you. When a colleague excludes him from a party since “you lot don’t drink”, Sameer becomes painfully aware of differences unnoticed before.

The Bluest Eye is the first novel written by American author Toni Morrison and published in 1970. It takes place in Lorain, Ohio (Morrison's hometown), and tells the story of a young African-American girl named Pecola who grew up following the Great Depression. She is consistently regarded as "ugly" due to her mannerisms and dark skin. As a result, she develops an inferiority complex, which fuels her desire for the blue eyes she equates with "whiteness".

Set in the period after the American Civil War, the novel tells the story of a dysfunctional family of formerly enslaved people whose Cincinnati home is haunted by a malevolent spirit. The narrative of Beloved derives from the life of Margaret Garner, a slave in the slave state of Kentucky who escaped and fled to the free state of Ohio in 1856.

Garner was subject to capture under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, and when U.S. marshals broke into the cabin where she and her children had barricaded themselves, she was attempting to kill her children—and had already killed her second youngest daughter—in hopes of sparing them from being returned to slavery.

Nelson Mandela has been mythologised as a flawless hero of the liberation struggle. But how exactly did his early life shape the triumphs to come? This book goes behind the myth to find the man who people have forgotten or never knew – Young Mandela, the committed freedom fighter, who left his wife and children behind to go on the run from the police in the early 1960s. But his historic achievements came at a heavy price and David James Smith graphically describes the emotional turmoil Mandela left in his wake.

In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.

The narrator, Azaro, is an abiku, a spirit child, who in the Yoruba tradition of Nigeria exists between life and death. He is born into a world of poverty, ignorance and injustice, but Azaro awakens with a smile on his face. Nearly called back to the land of the dead, he is resurrected. But in their efforts to save their child, Azaro's loving parents are made destitute. The tension between the land of the living, with its violence and political struggles, and the temptations of the carefree kingdom of the spirits propels this latter-day Lazarus's story. Despite belonging to a spirit world made of enchantment, where there is no suffering, Azaro chooses to stay in the land of the Living: to feel it, endure it, know it and love it. This is his story.

The Fortune Men is a non-fiction novel that semi-fictionalises the true story of Mahmood Hussein Mattan, a Somali former merchant seaman who was executed after being wrongfully convicted of the 6 March 1952 murder of Lily Volpert (renamed Violet Volacki in the book) in Cardiff's Tiger Bay. Mattan was posthumously acquitted in 1998 when it was revealed that evidence had been falsified and manipulated by the police. He was the last person to be hanged at HM Prison Cardiff. Mohamed's father, who was also born in Somaliland, met Mattan when the two emigrated to Kingston upon Hull.

Queenie Jenkins can't cut a break. Well, apart from the one from her long term boyfriend, Tom. That's definitely just a break though. Definitely not a break up. Then there's her boss who doesn't seem to see her and her Caribbean family who don't seem to listen (if it's not Jesus or water rates, they're not interested). She's trying to fit in two worlds that don't really understand her. It's no wonder she's struggling.

Acclaimed performance poet and novelist Benjamin Zephaniah's honest, wry and poignant story of a young refugee left in London is of even more power and pertinence today than when it was first published. Life is not safe for Alem. His father is Ethopian, his mother Eritrean. Their countries are at war, and Alem is welcome in neither place. So Alem is excited to spend a holiday in London with his father - until he wakes up to find him gone. What seems like a betrayal is in fact an act of love, but now Alem is alone in a strange country, and he must forge his own path...

1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd flees Georgia and settles in Philadelphia, hoping for a better life. When Hattie marries and gives birth to her children, she raises them with grit and mettle, preparing them for a world that will challenge and wound them. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie tells the story of a mother's monumental courage, the resilience of human spirit and the myth of the American dream.

It explores the history of an African-American family in the American South, from the time before the American Civil War and slavery, through the Civil Rights Movement, to the present. Themes include family history, education, and racism, and the prose narrative is interspersed with poetic passages ("love songs") that provide insight into and detail of the protagonist's ancestors, who are people of African, Creek, and Scottish descent.

Hortense Joseph arrives in London from Jamaica in 1948 with her life in her suitcase, her heart broken, her resolve intact. Her husband, Gilbert Joseph, returns from the war expecting to be received as a hero, but finds his status as a black man in Britain to be second class. His white landlady, Queenie, raised as a farmer's daughter, befriends Gilbert, and later Hortense, with innocence and courage, until the unexpected arrival of her husband, Bernard, who returns from combat with issues of his own to resolve.

Slave Girl: The Diary of Clotee, Virginia, USA 1859 is a historical fiction novel by Patricia C. McKissack, part of the Scholastic "My Story" series (also known as Dear America's A Picture of Freedom) about a young enslaved girl named Clotee on a Virginia plantation who secretly learns to read and write, navigating the dangers of literacy and dreaming of freedom before the Civil War. It's a fictional diary based on real experiences, focusing on Clotee's quiet bravery and her crucial decision-making process about escape and preserving her family. 

The memoir details Harris's upbringing as the daughter of immigrants and civil rights activists in Oakland and Berkeley, California. It traces her path from a prosecutor to San Francisco's district attorney, California's attorney general, a U.S. Senator, and ultimately, Vice President of the United States.

Kuki Gallmann’s haunting memoir of bringing up a family in Kenya in the 1970s first with her husband Paulo, and then alone, is part elegaic celebration, part tragedy, and part love letter to the magical spirit of Africa.

The extraordinary biography of two of the world's greatest athletes - Jesse Owens and Joe Louis. Jesse Owens and Joe Louis have been hailed as American icons for the last sixty-five years, yet they were unfailingly human in everything they achieved and endured: as vulnerable as they were courageous; as troubled as they were brilliant; as restless in themselves as they are now rooted in history. IN BLACK AND WHITE will tell, for the first time, the story of the shared political legacy, extraordinary personal links and enduring friendship between 4-times Olympic gold medallist Jesse Owens, and Heavyweight World Boxing Champion Joe Louis, black athletes born in an America demeaned by racism and poverty. Award-winning sports journalist Donald McRae explores these two most revered of sportsmen whose finest achievements cannot be diminished by their later tragedies; their little-known stretches of debt, despair, drug-addiction and mental illness as they struggled to find a life beyond the track and the ring. It is a deeply personal story of two of the greatest athletes the world has ever known.

When Constance was thirteen, her mother simply moved out, leaving her daughter to fend for herself: there was no gas, no electricity and no food. But somehow Constance found the courage to survive her terrible start in life. This is her heartrending - and ultimately triumphant - story.

The Autograph Man follows one Alex-Li Tandem: a twenty-something Chinese-Jewish autograph dealer turned on by sex, drugs and organised religion. From London to New York, love to death, fathers to sons, Alex tries to discover how a piece of paper can bring him closer to his heart's desire. Exposing our misconceptions about our idols - about ourselves - Zadie Smith delivers a brilliant, unforgettable tale about who we are and what we really want to be.

Oprah Winfrey: The Real Story is a 1994 biography by journalist George Mair, chronicling Oprah Winfrey's difficult childhood, rise from poverty in the Deep South, and transformation into a global media powerhouse, detailing her personal struggles (like weight), career, and influence, offering an in-depth look at her success through interviews with those close to her. 

Tracing his ancestry through six generations – slaves and freedmen, farmers and blacksmiths, lawyers and architects – back to Africa, Alex Haley discovered a sixteen-year-old youth, Kunta Kinte. It was this young man, who had been torn from his homeland and in torment and anguish brought to the slave markets of the New World, who held the key to Haley's deep and distant past.

Here is a shattering chronicle of the life of Nelson Mandela--his arrival in Johannesburg in 1952, his imprisonment, and his wife Winnie's harassment by the South African government. 

Ray Charles: Man and Music is a complete biography of this seminal singer/pianist who has been active on the American music scene since the mid-'50s. Originally published in 1995 by Penguin Books, and universally hailed as the definitive biography, this new edition will bring Charles's life up to date, covering the last 7 years of his life.There are only a few legendary singers who have developed mass audiences while pursuing their own artistic visions: Sinatra is one; Ella Fitzgerald another. Ray Charles undoubtedly belongs in this pantheon of major musical stars. Ray Charles: Man and Music begins with Charles's impoverished childhood in Greenville, Florida, where tragedy struck early when the young Charles went blind at age 6 and was orphaned at age 14. Driven by his enormous talent and determination, Charles landed work playing some of the toughest juke joints in the state, fought heroin addiction, and finally landed a recording contract with Atlantic Records. Unlike other R&B singers, Charles took control of his career from its earliest days, moving on from his gospel-soul stylings of the mid-'50s to break through musical barriers, recording two country albums in the late '50s (at a time when the black presence in country music was barely felt), pure jazz, and then the powerful pop hits of the '60s. Famed music journalist Michael Lydon - a founding editor of RollingStone - is uniquely qualified to document Charles's career, having interviewed Charles and followed the star's performances since the 1960s. Originally published in 1995, and universally hailed as the definitive biography.

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman. Stowe, a Connecticut-born teacher at the Hartford Female Seminary and an active abolitionist, featured the character of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories of other characters revolve. The sentimental novel depicts the reality of slavery while also asserting that Christian love can overcome something as destructive as enslavement of fellow human beings. Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible. It is credited with helping fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold in the United States; one million copies in Great Britain. In 1855, three years after it was published, it was called "the most popular novel of our day." The impact attributed to the book is great, reinforced by a story that when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe at the start of the Civil War, Lincoln declared, "So this is the little lady who started this great war." The quote is apocryphal; it did not appear in print until 1896, and it has been argued that "The long-term durability of Lincoln's greeting as an anecdote in literary studies and Stowe scholarship can perhaps be explained in part by the desire among many contemporary intellectuals ... to affirm the role of literature as an agent of social change."

An extraordinary, passionate and personal journey into Africa’s past. Meshing together Africa’s colonial history and the personalities of that time with his own memories of the turbulent twentieth century and its characters, Stephen Taylor will travel from Lake Victoria to the Cape of Good Hope – from the place that represents the peak of colonial exploration in Africa to the first settling place of his own family. His description and re-evaluation of the colonial period shows it in all its drama, glamour and disreputableness – a wilder version of the Raj.Through this present-day journey, Taylor will trace the legacy of Africa’s history and, in particular, of the place in it of the Whites. The journey will be a quest for understanding: of the colonial impulse, of his own curious ambivalence towards the great continent in which he grew up, and of the southern African countries’ – in particular South Africa’s – future. It will be a wonderfully evocative, lyrical description of some of the most dramatic lands in the world – thoughtful, historical, philosophical travel writing of the best kind.

Yellowface is a 2023 satirical novel written by R. F. Kuang. The book was described as a satire of racial diversity in the publishing industry as well as a metafiction about social media, particularly Twitter.

Sir Trevor McDonald is an extraordinary man - and he has led an improbable life. Now in his 80th year, he is known and loved by people the world over for his humility, charm and natural ease. As a natural storyteller and communicator, he has few equals. In An Improbable Life, Sir Trevor recounts his personal experience of world events and interviews with globally famous - or notorious - figures. He has witnessed war and death and risked his own life to meet and talk with despots and liberators. We read about his first trip to South Africa, and obtaining the first British television interview with Nelson Mandela; his reflections on the Windrush generation; and experiencing Barack Obama's momentous inauguration as President of the USA. We are also present at his dramatic meetings with Saddam Hussein (the first and only one by a British television correspondent) and Muammar Gaddafi.

Chris, Ikem and Beatrice are like-minded friends working under the military regime of His Excellency, the Sandhurst-educated President of Kangan. In the pressurized atmosphere of oppression and intimidation they are simply trying to live and love - and remain friends. But in a world where each day brings a new betrayal, hope is hard to cling on to. Anthills of the Savannah (1987), Achebe's candid vision of contemporary African politics, is a powerful fusion of angry voices. It continues the journey that Achebe began with his earlier novels, tracing the history of modern Africa through colonialism and beyond, and is a work ultimately filled with hope.

Ian Wright, Arsenal legend, England striker and TV pundit extraordinaire, is one of the most interesting and relevant figures in modern football. His journey from a South London council estate to national treasure is everybody's dream. From Sunday morning football directly to Crystal Palace; from 'boring, boring Arsenal' to inside the Wenger Revolution; from Saturday afternoons on the pitch to Saturday evenings on primetime television; from a week in prison to inspiring youth offenders, Ian will reveal all about his extraordinary life and career. Ian will also frankly discuss how retirement affects footballers, why George Graham deserves a statue, social media, why music matters, breaking Arsenal's goal-scoring record, racism, the unadulterated joy of playing alongside Dennis Bergkamp and, of course, what he thinks of Tottenham.

The swimming pool of the Mille-Collines hotel is a magnet for a privileged group of Kigali residents: aid-workers, Rwandan bourgeoisie, soldiers, prostitutes and assorted expatriates. Among these patrons is the waitress Gentille, a beautiful Hutu often mistaken for a Tutsi, long admired by Valcourt, a Canadian journalist and film-maker. As the two test the water with a love affair, civil unrest in Rwanda makes insidious, inevitable progress. An immensely powerful, cathartic denunciation of poverty, ignorance, global apathy and media blindness. A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali is both a poignant love story and a stirring hymn to humanity - an essential read for anyone interested in exceptional literature of lasting value.

As a five-year-old, George Alagiah emigrated with his family to Ghana - the first African country to attain independence from the British Empire. This is Alagiah's shattering catalogue of atrocities crafted into a portrait of Africa that is infused with hope, insight and outrage. His viewpoint is spiked with the freshness of his younger self on his arrival in Ghana, the wonder inspired by his first impressions of Africa and the affection with which he still regards stories of his early family life. A sense of possibility lingers, even though the book is full of uncomfortable truths and the author tempers his personal insights with his integrity and sense of obligation in his role as a writer and reporter. He regards Africa not only as a group of nations or a vast continent, but as the site of an epic of individual pride and suffering.

When Patsy gets her long-coveted visa to America, it's the culmination of years of yearning to be reunited with Cicely, her oldest friend and secret love, who left home years before for the "land of opportunity." Patsy's plans do not include her religious mother or even her young daughter, Tru, both of whom she leaves behind in a bittersweet trail of sadness and relief. But Brooklyn is not at all what Cicely described in her letters, and to survive as an undocumented immigrant, Patsy is forced to work as a bathroom attendant, and ironically, as a nanny. Meanwhile, back in Jamaica, Tru struggles with her own questions of identity and sexuality, grappling every day with what it means to be abandoned by a mother who has no intention of returning. Passionate, moving, and fiercely urgent, Patsy is a haunting depiction of immigration and womanhood, and the silent threads of love stretching across years and oceans.

Feyi Adekola wants to learn how to be alive again. It’s been five years since the accident that killed the love of her life and she’s almost a new person now—an artist with her own studio, and sharing a brownstone apartment with her ride-or-die best friend, Joy, who insists it’s time for Feyi to ease back into the dating scene. Feyi isn’t ready for anything serious, but a steamy encounter at a rooftop party cascades into a whirlwind summer she could have never imagined: a luxury trip to a tropical island, decadent meals in the glamorous home of a celebrity chef, and a major curator who wants to launch her art career. She’s even started dating the perfect guy, but their new relationship might be sabotaged before it has a chance by the dangerous thrill Feyi feels every time she locks eyes with the one person in the house who is most definitely off-limits. This new life she asked for just got a lot more complicated, and Feyi must begin her search for real answers. Who is she ready to become? Can she release her past and honor her grief while still embracing her future? And, of course, there’s the biggest question of all—how far is she willing to go for a second chance at love?