Booklist
- Out of Africa
ANCESTOR STONES│ Aminatta Forna │ FIC Forn
Each chapter of this novel is a story by itself. Told from the points of view of four wives of the same man from Sierra Leone, the reader will gain understanding about how life for people there changed during one generation through colonialism and civil war. This is a beautiful tale of a struggling nation and its people.
THE CAMEL BOOKMOBILE│Masha Hamilton│ FIC Ham
A New York librarian travels to Kenya to “make a difference” and help run a bookmobile in the bush. Members of a semi-nomadic tribe are divided between welcoming the outside world that the books represent or honoring their oral traditions and customs. The story is told from the points of view of an array of characters, each one of whom is somewhat changed by the bookmobile.
DON’T LETS GO TO THE DOGS TONIGHT: AN AFRICAN CHILDHOOD│Alexandra Fuller│NF, CD, CASS 916.891 Full
A memoir of a white girl’s childhood growing up in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) during its civil war in the 1970s. Fuller’s family moved from London to farm in rural Africa and faced life with natives who were trying to free themselves from oppression. Her love of Africa shines through in this tale of bigotry, segregation and deprivation.
HALF OF A YELLOW SUN│Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie│FIC Adic
This is an absorbing tale depicting the struggles of the Nigerian people during the tumultuous 1960s. Nigeria’s three-year civil war is portrayed primarily through the stories of two wealthy Nigerian sisters and a 13-year-old houseboy, showing us how the conflict was felt by both peasants and intellecturals, men and women, and the different tribes living through the Biafran secession.
IN THE COUNTRY OF MEN│ Hisham Matar│ FIC, Q, CD MataTold through the eyes of Suleiman, a bewildered nine-year old Libyan boy living under Khadafy during 1979, readers will gain insight into the complicated nature of love for one’s country and the psychological damages forced upon children living through adult conflicts of family and politics.
A LONG WAY GONE: MEMOIRS OF A BOY SOLDIER│ Ishmael Beah│ NF, Q, CD 966.404 Beah
This author saw his village and family destroyed as a young child during civil war in Sierra Leone. Forced to become a child soldier along with thousands of other boys, he tells his story without self-pity or apology in a way no outsider could ever do.
MEASURING TIME│ Helon Habila│ FIC Habi
A story of twin Nigerian brothers who have chosen very different paths. One joins west African rebel groups and the other chronicles the lives of ordinary individuals living in their village.
MOTHER TO MOTHER│Sindiwe Magona│ YA Mago
An American girl is killed by South African blacks during the struggles to start a democracy. This novel is written in the form of a letter to that girl’s mother from the mother of one of the murderers, illustrating how apartheid affected her son.
SKINNER’S DRIFT│Lisa Fugard│ FIC, Q Fuga
This is a story of race and class in South Africa and of a white family’s secrets. Living along the border of Botswana during apartheid, this dramatic tale of guilt and anger manages to beautifully portray life on the veld.
A SUNDAY AT THE POOLIN KIGALI│ Gil Courtemanche│ FIC Cour A fictional account by the main character, a Canadian journalist, this book gives an intimate “eyewitness report” of the Rwandan Genocide. International aid workers gathered at a hotel in Rwanda watch from the sidelines as the horrors unfolded in 1994. This story of Tutsis being massacred by Hutus is juxtaposed against an interracial love story.
UNCONFESSED│ Yvette Christianse│ FIC Chri
A work of historical fiction told in first-person and present-tense by a black female slave from Mozambique imprisoned in South Africa. Inspired by actual court records from the 1800s, the sad story of Sila, a murderess condemned to serving a lengthy term on the notorious robbins Island, is addressed primarily to her deceased son.
WHAT IS THE WHAT│ Dave Eggers│ FIC, CD EggeRecreating the trials of real-life “Lost Boy”, Valentino Achak Deng, the author created this work of fiction based on thousands of hours of interviews. Deng survived fifteen harrowing years of civil war in Sudan, leaving his destroyed village at the age of seven and trekking hundreds of miles to live in a refugee camp in Kenya. His troubles continue even after coming to America and depict the modern search for self in a world of upheaval.
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