So many books.
So many opinions.
Reviews, picks, and takes on African and diaspora fiction.
Ten African Novels You Need to Have Read
Ten essential modern African novels—from Adichie and Gyasi to Mariama Bâ and Serpell—these are the books that define what African fiction is and what it can do.
The Wahala of Writing & Teenage Love: A Quickfire Q&A with Erhu Kome
Before the awards and the "Gold Standard" selections, we talked to Erhu Kome about the raw nostalgia of teenage love and the "wahala" of the writing process.
The Making of David Mogo: Revisiting the Godhunter’s Lagos Beginnings
From Gbagada traffic to global epic fantasy. Suyi Davies Okungbowa on the unapologetic Nigerian roots of David Mogo, Godhunter and the mantra to "stay the course.
How to Handle a Reading Slump
Nine years in the workforce changes how you handle a reading slump. Here is my personal toolkit for protecting your "reading buzz" when life gets in the way.
The Origin of a Scion: Revisiting Our Debut Interview with Deborah Falaye
Ten years in the making. Revisit our debut conversation with Deborah Falaye on the validity of rage and the Yoruba mythology behind Blood Scion.
Inside Eloghosa Osunde's Queer Fever Dream Called Necessary Fiction
Eloghosa Osunde writes queer Lagos like she's conjuring it from memory and fever dream at the same time. These stories are strange and gorgeous and unlike anything else I've read.
When red flags feel familiar and silence feels like home, you get No Perfect Love by Adesuwa O’man Nwokedi
This book made me uncomfortable in the best way. Nwokedi writes a romance that doesn't soften the red flags or pretend love is enough on its own. Messy, honest, and very real.
Self-Discovery, Friendship, and Growth in the Raybearer Duology
I didn't expect to feel this much. Jordan Ifueko's Raybearer duology wrecked me in the best way — found family, impossible loyalty, and a protagonist who has to choose between love and everything else.
Finding Beauty in the Messiness of Friendship, Love, and Life in The Brevity of Beautiful Things
Nnamdi Ehirim writes friendship, faith, and fracture with a poet's precision. Lives that intersect across Lagos and beyond — quietly, beautifully, and then all at once.
Book Review: Men Don't Cry by Faïza Guène, Translated by Sarah Ardizzone
A French-Algerian family trying to hold together after loss. Faïza Guène writes grief and immigrant longing with a wry tenderness that makes it land twice as hard.
Book Review: Queen of the Fields by Tomilola Coco Adeyemo
A Yoruba romance rooted in community and harvest season. Tomilola Coco Adeyemo writes love that feels lived-in — not just between the leads, but between people and place.
Book Review: Paradise by Rosemary Okafor
Rosemary Okafor writes with the kind of quiet that gets under your skin. A novel about love and what we owe the people who shaped us — and what happens when those debts go unpaid.
Book Review: Haven by Timi Waters
I was rooting for these two from the first chapter and anxious the whole way through. A slow-burn Nigerian romance about two people who are very good at protecting themselves from exactly what they need.
Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé aka An epic queer book featuring black characters about deep-seated racism and betrayal.
Two Black students at an elite school are being systematically destroyed by someone who knows all their secrets. Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé writes rage and survival and it crackles on every page.
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi, A book that feels like a warm hug.
In a city that believes it has defeated monsters, Jam finds one hiding in plain sight. Akwaeke Emezi at their most precise — a book that holds you accountable while it holds your hand.
In 'The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna' girls rise as demons and destroy patriarchy!
Girls who bleed gold are declared demons — and Deka has to decide what that means for her. Namina Forna's debut is fierce, mythic, and the kind of fantasy that actually has something to say.
Book Review: Brimstones & Rainbow by Ololade Akintoye
Told through the memory of a child bride, this is the kind of book that makes you sit quietly afterwards. Akintoye writes violence and survival without flinching and without exploiting either.
I felt all the feels possible while reading Ties That Tether by Jane Igharo
You know that feeling when a book understands something you've never been able to say out loud? That's this one. A Nigerian-Canadian romance about loving someone when your families aren't on the same page.
I found a family in Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi's debut novel.
Six generations of a Ugandan family carrying one ancestor's curse. Makumbi's debut is immense — the kind of novel that makes you feel the weight of history as something living.
I shed beautiful tears while reading Court of Lions by Somaiya Daud + A Giveaway
The conclusion to the Mirage duology, and Somaiya Daud sticks the landing. Empire, resistance, identity and performance — all of it lands exactly as hard as it should.
A dying woman shares her tale in Colours of Hatred by Obinna Udenwe
A dying woman dictates her story — love, violence, memory, reckoning — to a scribe who is not prepared for what he hears. Obinna Udenwe writes darkness with control.
Grooving while reading A Broken People’s Playlist by Chimeka Garricks
Short stories that read like songs. Chimeka Garricks captures Port Harcourt life with so much warmth and so much grief, sometimes in the same sentence.
Divulging my feelings on Daughters of Nri by Reni K. Amayo
Twin sisters raised apart, raised to be enemies, in a world that erased the goddess who created them both. Reni K. Amayo writes myth and fury and I could not put it down.
I was completely captivated by She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore.
Three extraordinary outsiders converge in colonial Liberia in a novel that is part myth, part history, entirely its own thing. Wayétu Moore's debut is one I keep thinking about.
Buried Beneath the Baobab by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, is a book everyone should read.
Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani writes about the Chibok girls and the families who kept waiting. This is one of those books you finish and just sit with. Essential reading.
Dive into this Nigerian Paranormal Romance, Dawsk by Erhu Kome Yellow!
A Nigerian paranormal romance with actual bite. Erhu Kome Yellow builds folklore into a love story that doesn't behave — and I mean that as the highest compliment.
5 Books by Nigerians You Need to Read in 2020
Five Nigerian books I wanted everyone to read in 2020. A few are now widely known. A couple still aren't, and that's a problem I'm trying to fix.
Book Review: Manchester Happened by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi watches Ugandans navigate the contradictions of life in England — the longing, the absurdity, the grief of distance. A story collection that knows exactly what it's doing.
Book Review: ‘La Bastarda’ An Unapologetic African Queer Tale by Trifonia Melibea Obono
Trifonia Melibea Obono writes a young woman in Equatorial Guinea searching for her father and her place in a world that has no easy category for her. Bold, specific, and necessary.
Book Review: Yoruba Gods Are Running Lagos even more Amok in 'David Mogo, Godhunter' by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
Yoruba gods have crashed into Lagos and somebody has to deal with them. Suyi Davies Okungbowa writes a city I recognise and a mythology I want to live inside.
10 Nigerian Women Authors You Should Know. (According to my Bookshelf)
Ten women writing out of Nigeria, each one doing something different and doing it well. A list built from years of reading and a lot of love.
Book Review: A Sackful of Wishes by Azizah Idris M.
A story about wishes and the weight of wanting. Azizah Idris M. writes with a fabulist's touch and a realist's eye for consequence.
Book Review: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
Binti leaves everything to study at the galaxy's most prestigious university. Nnedi Okorafor packs more into this novella than most writers manage in 400 pages.
Book Review: Son of Man by Amara Nicole Okolo
A university graduate. A farmer seeking vengeance. A justice system that grinds everyone it touches. Son of Man is devastating and precise — Nigerian fiction at its most urgent.
Book Review: Makwala by E.E. Sule
Set in Northern Nigeria, this novel traces women's lives across generations with a patience and precision that's rare. E.E. Sule doesn't rush anything — and doesn't need to.
Book Review: My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite + Author Q&A Session
Darkly funny and completely unhinged in the best way. Oyinkan Braithwaite writes about a woman whose little sister keeps killing her boyfriends — and who keeps helping her clean it up.
Book Review: A Wedding One Christmas by Therese Beharrie
A holiday romance that earns its feelings. Therese Beharrie doesn't take shortcuts — warm, messy, and genuinely moving by the end.
Book Review: Smile, my Beloved Country by Emeka Onwusorom
Onwusorom's debut is a love letter that knows exactly what it's loving and why it hurts. A book about Nigeria that doesn't romanticise or condemn — just looks, steady and clear.
Book Review: In Tune by JN Welsh [A Contemporary Black Romance Novel]
A contemporary Black romance with actual depth. JN Welsh writes two musicians who shouldn't work together and absolutely do — this one has stayed with me.
Blog Tour: Mirage by Somaiya Daud | Book Review & A Giveaway!
A girl from a conquered moon is taken to impersonate a cruel princess. Somaiya Daud's debut is lush and political and the romance is exactly as complicated as it should be.
Book Review: The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
Marlon James writes Lilith's life in Jamaican slavery with language that is ferocious and exact. This is not an easy book. It is a necessary one.
Book Review: Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann
Alice is asexual, biromantic, and done with being someone's project. Claire Kann's debut puts a Black protagonist at the centre of a romance that refuses to erase who she is.
Book Review: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
The magic is real, the stakes are personal, and Tomi Adeyemi does not let you rest. This is the kind of debut that reminds you why you started reading fantasy in the first place.
Nigerian Books I Recommend
A shelf of Nigerian fiction that deserves far more readers than it has. Some of these I've been recommending since the beginning — they still hold up.
Book Review: Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi
Taj eats sin for a living in the walled city of Kos — until one job pulls him into something much larger than himself. Tochi Onyebuchi builds a world you can smell and feel.