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	Sunjata Sunjata is a major African oral epic which details the exploits of its eponymous hero who started life as a gluttonous and slow-witted child and went on to defeat his greatest adversary and establish himself as master of the growing Mali empire. The tale remains central to the culture of the Mande-speaking peoples. This Penguin Classics edition contains two very different renditions of the tale, which have been transcribed and then translated from live performances by African Griots or bards. This edition is fully edited, with an introduction, explanatory notes, maps and chronological trees. Publisher: Penguin Classics ISBN: 0140447369 Published: 1999 Paperback: 160 pages Price: £9.99


	African Short Stories Altogether a pleasure to read. The editors have chosen twenty stories by twenty different writers from all over Africa, grouping them geographically into four different sections: West, East, North and Southern Africa. 'There is indeed wonderful writing in the collection' - New York Literary Supplement Publisher: Heinemann Editors: Chinua Achebe and C. L. Innes ISBN: 0435905368 Published: 1987 Paperback Price: £7.50


	Wole Soyinka - Aké Voted one of Africa's 100 best books of the past century. This vivid, exuberant book is Soyinka's record of his childhood in colonial Nigeria. In rich and evocative prose he tells the tales of his schooldays and adventures in a captivating narrative, sometimes recollecting fears and dangers but always sensitive to the surprises of childhood life. His days were full of discoveries, excitements, the presence of spirits and the tribal rituals of his colourful family. Aké ends with Soyinka about to go to college at the age of eleven and enter a new world of responsibility and wider horizons as his remarkable childhood comes to an end. 'What if V.S. Naipaul were a happy man? What if V. S. Pritchett had loved his parents? What if Vladimir Nabokov had grown up in a small town in Western Nigeria and decided that politics were not unworthy of him? I do not take or drop these names in vain. Wole Soyinka belongs in their company. It is a company of children who grow up without forgetting anything, children who grow up in a garden of too many cultures. Aké locates the lost child in all of us, underneath language, inside sound and smell, wide-eyed, brave and flummoxed. What Waugh made fun of and Proust felt bad about, Mr Soyinka celebrates...Brilliant' - New York Times 'A beautifully drawn picture of childhood...by a writer whose sense of the comic and tragic have combined once more to make a major contribution to contemporary English literature that will surely number among the classics of childhood' - Evening Standard, London Wole Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Publisher: Methuen ISBN: 0413751902 Published: 2000 Paperback Price: £7.99


	Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart Things Fall Apart is one of the modern age's defining books - the book that marked African independence and in one leap created a powerful, vivid Nigerian literature. An incomparable story, told in a way that still seems radical and extraordinary, Things Fall Apart is essential reading. Chinua Achebe (1930-) was educated at the University College of Ibadan, Nigeria. He wrote Things Fall Apart (1958), partly in response to what he saw as inaccurate characterisations of Africa and Africans by British authors. His other works include Anthills of the Savannah and A Man of the People. He is now a professor at Bard College, New York. Voted one of Africa's 100 best books of the past century. Publisher: Penguin Classics ISBN: 0141186887 Published: 2001 Paperback: 176 pages Price: £7.99


	Tsitsi Dangarembga - Nervous Conditions Voted one of Africa's 100 best books of the past century. Tambudzai dreams of education, but her hopes only materialise after her brother's death, when she goes to live with her uncle. At his mission school, her critical faculties develop rapidly, bringing her face to face with a new set of conflicts involving her uncle, his education and his family. Tsitsi Dangarembga's quietly devastating first novel offers a portrait of Zimbabwe, where enlightenment brings its own profound dilemmas. Publisher: Turnaround/Ayebia Clarke ISBN: 0954702336 Published: 2004 Paperback Price: £8.99


	Ngugi wa Thiong'o - A Grain of Wheat Originally published in 1967, Ngugi's third novel is his best known and most ambitious work. A Grain of Wheat portrays several characters in a village whose intertwined lives are transformed by the 1952-1960 Emergency in Kenya. As the action follows the village's arrangements for Uhuru (independence) Day, this is a novel of stories within stories, a narrative interwoven with myth as well as allusions to real-life leaders of the nationalist struggle, including Jomo Kenyatta. At the centre of it all is the reticent Mugo, the village's chosen hero and a man haunted by a terrible secret. As events unfold, compromises are forced, friendships are betrayed and loves are tested. Kenyan novelist and playwright Ngugi wa Thiong'o is the author of Weep Not Child (1964), The River Between (1965), and Petals of Blood (1977). Ngugi was chair of the Department of Literature at the University of Nairobi from 1972 to 1977. He left Kenya in 1982 and taught at various universities in the United States before he became professor of comparative literature and performance studies at New York University in 1992. Voted one of Africa's 100 best books of the past century. Publisher: Penguin Classics ISBN: 0141186992 Published: 2002 Paperback: 272 pages Price: £9.99


	Naguib Mahfouz - Cairo Trilogy 1: Palace Walk 'It is Mahfouz's wonderful ability to delineate human beings from their outer appearances which gives Palace Walk its universal appeal. I shall read it again and again' - The Guardian, UK 'His masterpiece' - The Sunday Times Palace Walk is the first volume of the celebrated Cairo Trilogy, the story of twentieth century Egypt told through the eyes of the Al Jawad family. A sweeping family saga crossing three generations, the trilogy is set in the old quarter of Cairo, and spans the decades from the early part of the century to Nasser's historic overthrowal of the old regime in 1952. Palace Walk opens during the First World War. Ahmad, a prosperous shopkeeper, is a tyrant at home, who terrorises his devoted wife Amina and keeps her in strict seclusion behind the house's latticed windows. One day, however, Amina is persuaded to venture outside by her young son, but is discovered by Ahamd, who consequently banishes her from his home. As the story unfolds, we discover the sleazier side of Cairo and begin to see Ahmad's behaviour is not quite as moral as he would have his family believe... Naguib Mahfouz was born in Cairo in 1911 and began writing when he was seventeen. A student of philosophy and an avid reader, Mr Mahfouz was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988. He lives in the Cairo suburb of Agouza with his wife and two daughters. Voted one of Africa's 100 best books of the past century. Publisher: Black Swan ISBN: 0552995800 Published: 1994 Paperback: 512 pages, 198 x 127 mm Price: £9.99


	Chinua Achebe - Arrow of God Ezeulu, the chief priest of Ulu, has rivals at close quarters, in the white government, and even in his own family. Surrounded by trouble, he adopts an increasingly cosmic view of events: surely, in the battle of the deities, he is merely an arrow in the bow of his god? Armed with such ideas, Ezeulu is prepared to lead his people on, if necessary, to destruction and annihilation... '...immensely rich in its portrayal of village society and its religious customs...Especially interesting is the relationship of Ezelu the priest with his god, which raises fascinating questions of the validating power of belief. Some think Arrow of God is Achebe's best book' - The English Magazine Voted one of Africa's 100 best books of the past century. Publisher: Heinemann ISBN: 0435905309 Published: 1986 Paperback Price: £8.75


	Buchi Emecheta - Joys of Motherhood Voted one of Africa's 100 best books of the past century. Nnu Ego is devoted to her children, giving them all her energy, all her worldly possessions, indeed, all her life - with the result that she finds herself friendless and alone in middle age. A powerful commentary on polygamy, patriarchy and women's changing roles in urban Nigeria. Publisher: Heinemann ISBN: 043590972X Published: 1994 Paperback Price: £7.40


	André Brink - A Dry White Season Ben du Toit is an ordinary, decent, harmless man, unremarkable in every way - until his sense of justice is outraged by the death of a man he has known. His friend died at the hands of the police. In the beginning it appears a straightforward matter, an unfortunate error that can be explained and put right. But as Ben investigates further he finds that his curiosity becomes labelled rebellion - and for a rebel there is no way back. André Brink is the author of fifteen novels in English, including A Dry White Season. He has won South Africa's most important literary prize three times and has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He is Professor of English at the University of Cape Town. A Dry White Season was voted one of Africa's 100 best books of the past century. Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0749399899 Published: 1992 Paperback: 320 pages, 198 x 130 mm Price: £6.99


	Tayeb Salih - Season of Migration to the North 'An Arabian Nights in reverse - Powerfully and poetically written' - The Observer, London When a young man returns to his village in the Sudan after many years studying in Europe, he finds that among the familiar faces there is now a stranger - the enigmatic Mustafa Sa'eed. As the two become friends, Mustafa tells the younger man the disturbing story of his own life in London after the First World War. Lionized by society and desired by women as an exotic novelty, Mustafa was driven to take brutal revenge on the decadent West and was, in turn, destroyed by it. Now the terrible legacy of his actions has come to haunt the small village at the bend of the Nile. The story of a man undone by a culture that in part created him, Season of Migration to the North is a powerful and evocative examination of colonization in two vastly different worlds. Voted one of Africa's 100 best books of the past century. Publisher: Penguin Classics ISBN: 0141187204 Published: 2003 Paperback: 192 pages Price: £7.99


	Ayi Kwei Armah - The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born Set in Ghana, the central story is vividly conveyed - of an upright man resisting the temptations of easy bribes and easy satisfactions and winning for his honesty nothing but scorn even from those he loves. Ayi Kwei Armah was born in 1939 at Takoradi, Ghana. He has lived and worked in east, west, north and southern Africa. Educated at Achimota, Groton, Harvard and Columbia, he has been a translator in Algeria and French, a teacher of Expository Prose, Creative Writing and Literature at Teachers' College, Dar es Salaam and the Universities of Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Lesotho. Voted one of Africa's 100 best books of the past century. Publisher: Heinemann ISBN: 0435905406 Published: 1989 Paperback Price: £7.50


	Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness Conrad's brilliant depiction of Marlow's journey into the heart of the Belgian Congo is one of the most influential novels of the twentieth century. In this haunting tale, Marlow, a seaman and wanderer, recounts his experiences in Africa when he led an expedition into the impenetrable and mysterious core of the jungle. The darkness he encounters is both moral and physical: Mr Kurtz, the agent dealing in ivory that he is to meet, is the embodiment of corruption, decay and exploitation. As an outsider, Marlow finds himself drawn to the charismatic Kurtz, but after witnessing the malevolence and tyranny that emanate from him, Marlow is forced to look into his soul and reassess his own values. Publisher: Penguin Classic ISBN: 0141182431 Published: 2000 Paperback: 224 pages, 129 x 198 mm Price: £5.99


	Nadine Gordimer - Burger's Daughter Voted one of Africa's 100 best books of the past century. In this work, Nadine Gordimer unfolds the story of a young woman's slowly evolving identity in the turbulent political environment of post-apartheid South Africa. Her father's death in prison leaves Rosa Burger alone to explore the intricacies of what it actually means to be Burger's daughter. 'a beautifully manipulated work of art' - The Observer, UK Publisher: Bloomsbury ISBN: 0747549796 Published: 2000 Paperback: 374 pages, 197 x 128 mm Price: £6.99


	Doris Lessing - The Grass is Singing This, Doris Lessing's first novel, received wide acclaim on its original publication in 1950. 'The newspaper didn't say much. People all over the country must have glanced at the paragraph with its sensational heading and felt a little spurt of anger mingled with what was almost satisfaction, as if some belief had been confirmed, as if something had happened which could only have been expected. When natives steal, murder, or rape, that is the feeling white people have.' Publisher: Heinemann ISBN: 0435901311 Published: 1973 Paperback Price: £7.80


	Alan Paton - Cry, the Beloved Country 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. 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. Voted one of Africa's 100 best books of the past century. Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0099766817 Published: 2002 Paperback: 256 pages, 198 x 129 mm Price: £7.99


	J. M. Coetzee - Disgrace After years teaching Romantic poetry at the Technical University of Cape Town, David Lurie, middle-aged and twice divorced has an impulsive affair with a student. The affair sours; he is denounced and summoned before a committee of inquiry. Willing to admit his guilt, but refusing to yield to pressure to repent publicly, he resigns and retreats to daughter Lucy's isolated smallholding. For a time, his daughter's influence and the natural rhythms of the farm promise to harmonise his discordant life. But the balance of power in the country is shifting. He and Lucy become victims of a savage and disturbing attack which brings into relief all the faultlines in their relationship. J. M. Coetzee won the Booker Prize for Disgrace and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003. Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0099289520 Published: 2000 Paperback: 144 pages Price: £6.99


	Ben Okri - The Famished Road This novel, winner of the 1991 Booker Prize, is set in a poor people's compound during the Nigerian civil war, and reflects the changes in Africa since 1960. It tells how a young boy's failure to subdue his spiritual powers has disturbing consequences for him and his parents. Ben Okri's books have won several awards including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Africa, the Paris Review Aga Khan Prize for Fiction and the prestigious International Literary Prize Chianti Rufino-Antico Fattore 1993. Ben Okriwas born in Minna, Nigeria. Voted one of Africa's 100 best books of the past century. Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0099929309 Published: 1992 Paperback: 592 pages, 197 x 129 mm Price: £7.99


	Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) - Out of Africa From the moment Karen Blixen arrived in Kenya in 1914 to manage a coffee plantation, her heart belonged to Africa. Drawn to the intense colours and ravishing landscapes, Karen Blixen spent her happiest years on the farm and her experiences and friendships with the people around her are vividly recalled in these memoirs. Out of Africa is the story of a remarkable and unconventional woman and of a way of life that has vanished for ever. Isak Dinesen was the pen-name of Karen Blixen, who was born in Rungsted, Denmark in 1885. After studying art in Copenhagen, Paris and Rome, she married her cousin, Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke, in 1914. Together they went to Kenya to manage the coffee plantation. After their divorce in 1921, she continued to run the plantation until a collapse in the coffee market forced her back to Denmark in 1931. Publisher: Penguin Classics ISBN: 0141183330 Published: 2001 Paperback: 336 pages Price: £7.99


	Moses Isegawa - Abyssinian Chronicles Voted one of Africa's 100 best books of the past century. Set in a village during the years of the Idi Amin terror in Uganda, Abyssinian Chronicles takes us into the heart of Africa, vividly immersing us in mesmerizing extremes of beauty and brutality, wisdom and ignorance, wealth and poverty, hope and despair. We come to intimately know an extended family rich in tradition, and follow the unsentimental education of the boy who takes it all in, who learns, observes and teaches, and starts to feel the very earth moving under the African experience and the people he loves. Publisher: Picador ISBN: 0330376659 Published: 2001 Paperback Price: £7.99