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Original poster

Books set in Africa?

58 replies

gastrognome · 15/04/2011 12:59

Hello,

Can anybody recommend any good books set in Africa? Could be fiction, travel writing or biographical/memoir, set anywhere on the continent.

Have read various Alexander McCall Smith, Wilbur Smith (but getting a bit tired of the whole "great white hunter" thing), JM Coetzee, Paul Theroux (Dark Star Safari)...

I particularly like books with a wildlife theme. Read and enjoyed a book a few years ago about a couple setting up a wildlife reserve in Zambia, but can't remember who it was by.

TIA for any and all recommendations!

OP posts:
MsScarlett · 15/04/2011 21:27

Roald Dahl's autobiography -Going Solo. Loved reading it as a teenager. He was posted in Kenya for a time when in the RAF if I remember rightly...

Ponders · 15/04/2011 21:23

oooh yes, forgot Graham Greene! there is The Heart of the Matter as well & I think another, but I read them 30-odd years ago & can't remember now...

2to3 · 15/04/2011 21:14

poisonwood Bible and half of a yellow sun, deffo.

backjustforaminute · 15/04/2011 21:07

The Yacoubian building - Alaa al Aswany. Set in Cairo.

PotPourri · 15/04/2011 21:06

Yes, and Out of Africa. Makes lovely reading that one - gorgeous prose

PotPourri · 15/04/2011 21:05

A woman of cairo, Danielle Steele- not just set in Africa, but is during the second world war. Good for giving a different perspective to the history

BikeRunSki · 15/04/2011 21:03

Travels with My Aunt - Graham Greene
Out of Africa - Karen Blixen

lemonpoppyseed · 15/04/2011 20:59

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller is one of my all-time favourite books. A great memoir, set in Zimbabwe/Zambia.

Ponders · 15/04/2011 20:29

Things Fall Apart is a GCSE text, which the average Y11 finds grindingly boring
(bit sad really Grin)

Himalaya · 15/04/2011 19:52

Another vote for Things Fall Appart
also Masaai Dreaming by Justin Cartright

Original poster
gastrognome · 15/04/2011 19:41

Thanks for all these suggestions, they're great!

I now have a nice long list of books to check out on Amazon (live in Belgium so local library doesn't have many English books and I hate reading in French!).

Thanks for the Laos suggestion ficklefreckle - it's a country I would love to visit so will definitely investigate that.

OP posts:
laInfanta · 15/04/2011 17:25

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver is absolutely amazing. I've been meaning to re-read it.

expatbaby · 15/04/2011 17:24

I second 'I dreamed of Africa' by Kiki Galllmann. Can't believe so much tragedy happens in one person's life, if it was fiction you'd think they were laying it on a bit thick yet the book is incredibly touching. I wanted to be back in Kenya reading they way she describes the land and peoples' connection to it.

MyLittleOwls · 15/04/2011 16:27

Mukiwa: A white boy in Africa by Peter Godwin, fab!

Shall I stop now!? Wink

MyLittleOwls · 15/04/2011 14:45

Spud - John van de Ruit, fantastic
Rainbows End - Lauren St John, growing up in Rhodesia, have read it over and over
I dreamed of Africa - Kiki Galllmann
Don't run whatever you do - Peter Allison
Twenty Chickens for a Saddle - Robyn Scott
Blood River - Tim Butcher
A Durable Fire - Barbara and Stephanie Keating
House of Stone - Christina Lamb
Goodbye Rhodesia - Chris Mears
Stealing Water - Tim Ecott, I found it quite disturbing and unsettling
Do not take this road to El-Karama - Chris Harvie

.......will think of more, books on Africa are a slight obsession Blush

meditrina · 15/04/2011 14:28

Scoop, by Evelyn Waugh

various books by Gerald Durrell

The Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters

FickleFreckle · 15/04/2011 14:12

I've just finished "I Do Not Come To You By Chance" by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani and couldn't put it down. It explores the murky world of email scamming in Nigeria and the mixture of motives and circumstances that draw people into it. It mixes comedy with sadness and poignancy and asks important questions about morality and loyalties. I got it from our local library, yours might have it too.

Rather sad at the end but Robert Sapolsky's A Primate Memoir (about the author's work with baboons as a young primatologist) is absolutely fascinating, and again, thought-provoking.

Not about Africa, about Laos, but someone told me since I liked Alexander McCall Smith I would probably like Colin Cotterill's "Thirty-three Teeth" and I thought it was absolutely brilliant, so thought I would drop that into the mix. :)

C0smos · 15/04/2011 13:59

I live in South Africa, Spud is a really popular book here written by a South African author, it's about a boarding school, very funny, just been made into a film with John Cleese

ChristinedePizan · 15/04/2011 13:51

Brazzaville Beach and A Good Man in Africa - both William Boyd (not about wildlife but v good)

DirtyMartini · 15/04/2011 13:48

Poisonwood Bible again

fivegomadinthelambingshed · 15/04/2011 13:48

this may help aswell

Itsjustafleshwound · 15/04/2011 13:47

Twenty Chickens for a Saddle

fivegomadinthelambingshed · 15/04/2011 13:47

Maya Angelou - some of her amazing autobiography books are set in egypt and Liberia.
An Ice Cream War - William Boyd

KateF · 15/04/2011 13:46

Doris Lessing or Nadine Gordimer for fiction
Dervla Murphy for travel

Recently read Blood River which was good and I believe he has a new one out

Itsjustafleshwound · 15/04/2011 13:45

Tim Butcher
Deon Meyer