Books set in Africa?

[gastrognome]

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!

One Half on a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie is brilliant

Out of Africa
Flame Trees of Thika

purple hibiscus by the same woman as Half on a Yellow Sun (Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie) agree both wonderful

Poisonwood Bible

The African Child and Return of the King, both by Camara Laye.
A Woman in her Prime by Samuel Asare Konadu
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

If you enjoyed Wilbur Smith it might be worth seeing if Neville Shute wrote any Africa-based books.

Zanzibar Chest - Aiden Hartley
Peter Godwin
Malachite - A Journey Through Africa
Theroux - Dark Star Safari
Tick Bite Fever
Andre Brink - Dry White Season

White Mischief, all about the Happy Valley in Kenya in 1940's.
The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay
I have just read The Fear - non fiction about life in Zimbabwe under Mugabe's regime.

Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart? Although not really in the wildlife mode en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe

Agree that Poisonwood Bible is amazing.

Tim Butcher
Deon Meyer

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

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

Twenty Chickens for a Saddle

this may help aswell

Poisonwood Bible again

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

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

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. :)

Scoop, by Evelyn Waugh

various books by Gerald Durrell

The Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters

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

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

Shall I stop now!?

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.

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

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.

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

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