God's Children Are Little Broken Things, 2022, Arinze Ifeakandu ****

This novel is unlike anything I've read before. It's built on the lives of gay men in Nigeria, a subject I'd only ever encountered in fragments and whispers, never told this openly, this fully, until Arinze Ifeakandu's debut.

Structured as a collection of interlinked stories, the book moves through parents who disown their own children over their sexuality, men who marry women out of fear rather than love, and boys who are bullied, harassed, or falsely accused simply for who they are. But it's also something warmer than that list suggests: a coming-of-age portrait of gay boys and men in Nigeria, how they party, how they flirt, how they build ordinary lives inside an unforgiving world.

Ifeakandu is clearly gifted. His prose is exquisite, the kind you want to slow down for. I'll admit, though, that I sometimes lost the thread with so many characters shifting in and out of focus across stories. It asks for patience, but it rewards it too.

A few stories stayed with me long after I finished the book.

"Where the Heart Sleeps" follows Nonye, who returns home for her father's burial only to find his partner, Tochukwu, still living in the

The Girl with the Louding Voice, 2020, Abi Daré ****

Sometimes a book title alone is enough to make you pause. And then, a few pages in, you realise it has delivered on every promise it made. Abi Daré's debut novel introduces us to Adunni, a girl born and raised in a small village near Lagos, Nigeria. She loses her mother young, her father dismisses her hunger for education without a second thought, and she is married off as a teenager before she even has the chance to understand what womanhood might mean on her own terms. Raped and crushed by one calamity after another, she eventually finds herself in a car headed for Lagos, and it is precisely at that moment that this novel truly ignites. 

Once the city enters the picture, so does a whole constellation of characters, and Daré handles them with the confidence of someone who knows this world intimately, its textures, its hypocrisies, its warmth, its cruelty. At its core, this is a novel about what poverty and the absence of education do to a

Dream Count, 2025, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ****

Dream Count is the story of four women Chiamaka, Zikora, Kadiatou and Omelogor and from the very first pages, I felt like I had been invited into their private group chat. The kind where ambition, heartbreak, pride and vulnerability all sit at the same table.

Chiamaka is born into wealth and raised in comfort, yet she chooses the uncertain life of a travel writer. She circles the globe while dating vigorously, convinced that somewhere between boarding gates and hotel lounges she will meet the man who completes her story. Zikora, her friend who migrates from Nigeria to the United States, is a sharp corporate lawyer. She wants the wedding of her dreams, the husband of her dreams and the perfectly curated family life. At the same time, she is carrying the quiet ache of wanting to reconcile with her mother. Kadiatou’s story is the one that lingers. Born poor in Guinea Conakry, she becomes Chiamaka’s help. After being raped in a VIP hotel room by a

Bitter Honey, 2025, Lola Akinmade ****

Bitter Honey by Lola Akinmade is a historical fiction novel that follows the life of Nancy, a young Gambian girl with big dreams who migrates to Sweden, only to have those dreams quietly crushed by someone meant to guide her: her university professor. As I read, I could feel the weight of that single moment echo through the rest of her life. The story traces how that derailed ambition stunts her growth and shapes the woman she becomes, influencing everything from her sense of self to the way she raises her children, especially her daughter.

One thing that stood out to me is how Akinmade weaves Nancy’s personal journey into a broader historical landscape. The backdrop of Olof Palme’s assassination, Eurovision, and the Arab Revolution gives the story a textured, time-anchored feel without ever overwhelming the main narrative. It’s history used purposefully, not decoratively.

Despite the heavy themes, the writing itself is far from heavy. It’s an easy, accessible read with a plot that flows smoothly and has all the ingredients of a TV-worthy soap opera; family tension, ambition, heartbreak, identity, and the quiet tragedies that shape us. What struck me the most was

Memoirs of a Woman Doctor, 2019, Nawal El Saadawi ****

Nawal El Saadawi, I wonder why she has not yet won the Nobel Literature Prize. Memoirs of a Woman Doctor narrates the story of a girl who is forced to grow up in a society dominated by men. 

"because from early childhood a girl is brought up to believe that she's a body and nothing more, so her body becomes her main concern for the rest of her life, and she doesn't realise that she's got a mind as well which must be looked after and encouraged to develop"

"How can a woman live alone without a man? Why is she going out? Why is she coming in? Why is she smiling? Why is she breathing? Why is she taking gulps of fresh air? Why is she looking at the moon? Why does she hold her head up and open her eyes wide? Why does she tread with confidence and

Horses of God, 2010, Mahi Binebine ****

Horses of God tells the story of a boy who lives in abject poverty and squalor in Morocco, falls into Islamic indoctrination and is convinced to carry out a jihad. This book actually is written in remembrance of the 2003 Casablanca bombing. One of the suicide bombers from his grave narrates the story of his life and what led him to become a suicide bomber.

It is not a novel I particularly enjoyed however, I must say it is brilliantly written. An interesting read as we live in an era where there has been more often than not suicide attacks,  a situation that creates

The Boy Who Spat in Sargrenti's Eye, 2014, Manu Herbstein ****

Manu Herbstein is a historical novelist whose novels are so well researched, Ama: A Story Of The Atlantic Slave Trade is a good example.
The Boy who Spat in Sargrenti's eye is the story of  the invasion of today's Ghanaian territory by the British army told through the eyes of a teenage boy Kofi Gyan, in the 1800s. Villages were ransacked, villagers were hanged, maimed or sent to exile. Tons of gold were stolen and auctioned at the invaders' heart desire.

An easy read, even a book I'd

How to Read the Air, 2010, Dinaw Mengestu ****

"Like most of the men he was thirsty all the time, and he was convinced that there was something irreparably cruel about a place that put water that could not be drunk in front of you"

"The ships that you see at the far end of the port are all government controlled,... They carry one of two things: food or weapons. We don't make either of them in Sudan"

"I know what you want, he would shout. You want me to go back and have  me dead." In the way he phrased it, death always sounded less like a condition and more like an item from a grocery list. You want me to go back and get the fish. Or You want me to go back and get more bread."

Jonas trying to make sense of his existence, the broken relationship with his parents and the failed marriage to his wife Angela, has to invent a story for

The Underground Railroad, 2016, Colson Whitehead ****

The Underground Railroad is the plightful journey to freedom of a young woman named Cora, from a plantation in Georgia, United States of America. Her grand mother, Ajarry was kidnapped from Africa and enslaved in America. Her mother Mabel was born into slavery, she supposedly abandoned Cora in search of her own freedom.

This book basically narrates the life of Cora in Randall's plantation, how she escaped, the people that helped, betrayed and hunted her. It is a novel that helps you understand the history of Africans in America.

"For we are Africans in America. Something new in the history of the world, without models for what we will become"

The book is painfully interesting because I know it is a historical novel even

Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, 2011, Alexandra Fuller

I read Alexandra Fuller's "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" and fell in love with her writing, therefore, I decided to read Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness. A non-fiction dedicated to her mother. Her birth, how she met her husband, how she came to settle in Africa. The children she gave birth to, the ones she buried, the friends she lost and the ones she gained. Her continuous moving. How she strove to remain in the African

Hausfrau, 2015, Jill Alexander Essbaum ****

I am not sure why the low ratings of this novel on Goodreads and Amazon. Is it because of the writing, which I think is not bad at all or is it because of the main character who is simply annoying?

I read this book because in one of Chimamanda's interviews on The New Yorker, This Week in Fiction: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie By Willing Davidson April 6, 2015 When asked:

The undercurrent of attraction in the story is elegant and subtle, and yet we sense by the end the interest that Okenwa has in Raphael, and it snaps the beginning of the story into place. How do you go about constructing a story such that the ending reveals something about the beginning? Are there stories or novels you particularly like that you think do this well?

She replied:

The Fishermen, 2015, Chigozie Obioma ****

I met Chigozie Obioma in person when he was invited to Barcelona for his book promotion in Spanish and Catalan. I haven't read his book then, we took a picture together and I found his speech, questions and answers interesting. Click here for more info regarding his visit to my city.

Chigozie is a stellar storyteller and writer, another talented novelist full of promises from Nigeria,"The Fishermen" is only his debut novel, in spite of its accolades, I

The Book of Memory, 2015, Petinah Gappah ****

Memory is an albino, who is found guilty of Lloyd's death. The man whom she believes her parents sold her to. In order for her to have a second trial, she is required to write her story for an appeal. The Book of Memory is her story.

It starts with life with her parents and siblings in the slums, 1468 Maharapara street. What strikes me most in this part of her story is the continuous blistering of her skin due to sun exposure, I thought she would die of skin cancer at any given moment.

The second part of the book focuses

Thorns and Roses, 2017, Amaka Azie ****

Thorns and Roses is the story of Ifeoma, struggling to balance her love life with her independence. She and her sisters are brought up in an abusive house hold. They flee, determined to start afresh in Lagos. In a situation where emotional damage has been done, will they succeed? Or will they just fail as their father has always predicted?

There is nothing as refreshing  as to read a good book about Nigerians who live in Nigeria with no intention of emigrating. Almost every book I have read so far this year is about the African immigrant and the African diaspora, do not get me wrong, as I believe that their stories too

Happiness, Like Water 2013, Chinelo Okparanta ****

Happiness, Like Water is a collection of ten short stories that I enjoyed, in general. 

"Happiness is like water. We're always trying to grab onto it, but it's always slipping between our fingers. And my fingers are thin. With lots of gaps in between"

The main theme of the stories is the mother-daughter relationship. Are mothers always qualified enough to dictate the course of their daughter's life? I find it somewhat worrisome that the female child should live up to her mother's heart desire, even if that means sacrificing her own happiness. At the end of the day, the main aim is to bring up girls who are decision makers, who know how to live up to their own heart content.

The stories that I really enjoyed are:

Gratitude in Low Voices: A Memoir, 2017, Dawit Gebremichael Habte ****

Gratitude in Low Voices is the inspiring story of Dawit, who had to flee his home country Eritrea in the throes of war to join his elder brother in the USA. Dawit narrates the flow of life coupled with some historical event . I found out Eritrea was Ethiopian colony.

The story started as usual, life was not perfect, but they were happy to be home, his father lived in exile as he was one of those who opposed the Ethiopian government, however, he never stopped caring for his family. In one of the ways he cared for his children was asking them to move from the village to the city where

A Bit of Difference, 2012, Sefi Atta ****

One of the reasons why I have not read this book for a long time is because of its low ratings on Goodreads and Amazon. My interest rekindled when I reviewed Americanah and one my readers said it is the same story line as A Bit of Difference by Seffi Atta. However, I wonder why it is so low rated. Most readers say it is because of the writing style, let me tell you, there is nothing wrong with the writing style it is just different and does not complicate the comprehension of the story. Some say that they do not like the ending, however, it is a typical open-ended story that does not deserve those low ratings.

A Bit of Difference is similar to Americanah, it talks  about racism, hair, love, immigration, family matters, homosexuality and nothing in particular. Seffi Atta intervened in the telling of the story and would not let

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, 2007, Dinaw Mengestu ****

An Ethiopian refugee flees his home country to the United States of America after his father is brutally assassinated. He lives with his uncle, who also is a refugee, and later on moves into a lowly neighbourhood where he opens a store and meets a woman and her daughter. The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears might seem like another simple typical immigration story, far from, it narrates on the fate of a

An Image of Africa, 2002, Chinua Achebe ****

An Image of Africa is a collection of essays by the legendary Chinua Achebe. I have his other collection of (extensive) essay called The Education of a British-Protected Child first published in 2009, which I highly enjoyed. Both books were purchased in Spain, Barcelona and San Sebastian respectively.

This collection of essay is divided into two parts: one is "An Image of Africa"; Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness  and the other is "The Trouble with Nigeria".

The first part gives a historical perspective of the relationship of Europeans with Africans.

Africa as setting and back drop which eliminates the African as

The Wretched Africans, 2016, Joe Khamisi ****

First of all I'd like to thank Joe Khamisi for reaching out to me and sending me his book for review, I really did not know anything about the South-East African slave trade, or the Arab slave trade neither did I know about the Rabai and Freretown slave settlement.

This book narrates on the history of slavery in East Africa. The Arabs ravaged the land, instigate war to make it easier to capture African citizens in order to force them into slavery through the main slave market in Zanzibar.

The British banned slavery,  though that