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It’s the last month of the year and everyone is wrapping up their 2024 reading goals. For me, though I didn’t quite plan it, I have read more books this year than in the last two years. Now, it is only a question of how many more books I can squeeze in before the end of the year.
In our latest book recommendation, we have compiled a list of books that will help you end your reading year on a high. From a story about how a Muslim woman finds love in an unlikely person to an anti-dictatorship tract that exposes the horror of military rule in Nigeria, these books will help you hit your 2024 reading goals while introducing you to new and captivating stories.
Read our recommendations below.
BROKEN: NOT A HALAL LOVE STORY
Author: FaTIMA BALA
Genre: Fiction
In Broken, Nigerian author, poet, and lecturer, Fatima Bala, brings two dissimilar characters together in a love story that challenges everything each of them believes.
There is Fa’iza Mohammed, a conservative Muslim woman studying in Toronto. She has had a sheltered life, holding steadfast to her faith and cultural values. However, her life will take a different turn when she meets Ahmad Babangida, a young man with a completely different set of values, whom she finds herself falling in love with. She tries to resist, but the pull of affection is too great.
Ahmad Babangida, for his part, is the radical intellectual type. He believes everything is a construct and that humans are socially conditioned to conform to societal and religious norms. His main aim in life is to live his life on his own terms, and the last thing he planned was to fall in love with a conservative Muslim woman. Will Fa’iza and Ahmad be able to make things work—and what exactly would that entail? What compromises will they have to make to be together?
WAITING FOR AN ANGEL
AUTHOR: HELON HABILA
GENRE: fiction
Nigerian author Helon Habila stunned readers in 2002 when his debut novel Waiting for an Angel was published. The book, a series of interconnected stories, is set during the ruthless rule of General Sani Abacha, the Nigeria’s last and most brutal military dictator.
It follows a journalist, Lomba, editor at a local newspaper, The Dial, narrating his experiences struggling against military dictatorship from his undergraduate days up until his imprisonment by the military regime many years later. Told in a non-linear narrative form, Waiting for an Angel paints a vivid picture of daily life in a military state, introducing readers to a cast of unforgettable characters whose lives are marred by military rule.
AN ANGEL’S DEMISE
AUTHOR: SUE NYATHI
GENRE: fiction
An Angel’s Demise is a saga that explores a contested legacy and the heartrending destiny of a family. The year is 1977 and the story begins on a farm in Somabhula with the birth of Angel. The farm is run by Paul Williams, an outwardly harsh and bigoted man who holds the livelihoods of many in his hands. When Angel’s parents join the liberation struggle, she is left in the care of her grandmothers, who have been in service to the Williams family for generations.
Angel grows up on the farm over three momentous decades that see a convoluted past and inheritance unfold into an equally complicated present. Through her, we see a woman’s quest to unearth her identity and assert her independence. In the process of self-discovery, Angel realizes that sometimes you need to be uprooted before you can grow.
An Angel’s Demise is a gripping tale infused with spirituality. It recounts an explosive story of love, war, bloody massacre and betrayal that encompasses a harrowing history, the cruel caprice of politics, gender-based violence and what happens when ordinary people get caught up in lies.
Cassava Republic Press is proud to announce the launch of their inaugural $20,000 Global Black Women’s Non-Fiction Manuscript Prize dedicated to exceptional works by Black women. Deadline: 30th June 2024. Learn more here.
TOMORROW I BECOME A WOMAN
AUTHOR: aIWANOSE ODAFEN
GENRE: fiction
It is 1978, less than a decade after the Nigerian Civil War, when Obianuju and Gozie meet. For Obianuju, the hands of fate are visible in their auspicious meeting. Before then, she was confused about her feelings for Akin, a young Yoruba man whom her mother would never accept. The wounds of the civil war are still very fresh. Obianuju is certain her mother would never give her blessings to her to marry a man from the other side of a war that had claimed the mother’s brother’s life. Moreover, the relationship between mother and daughter is far from rosy, and Obianuju is reluctant to complicate it further.
Enter Gozie, a young Igbo man who reminds Obianuju of her uncle Ikenna, her mother’s brother who had disappeared during the war. When Gozie asks for Obianuju’s hand in marriage, she assents, believing he is the perfect match and hoping for a rosy future. It never occurs to her that she might be wrong.
SWALLOW: EFUNSETAN ANIWURA
Author: AYODELE OLOFINTUADE
Genre: fiction
In Swallow: Efunsetan Aniwura, Nigerian author Ayodele Olofintuade reimagines the lives of two great matriarchs in Yoruba history: Efunsetan Aniwura and Efunporonye Ositinubu. In it, Efunsetan and Efunporonye are imagined as lovers grappling with the political and economic situations of their times. Set in the early 1830s, when the countries of the global north are at war, the novel explores British involvement in the local politics of Yorubaland, and the role powerful women like Efunsetan Aniwura played in resisting colonial domination.
Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon
AUTHOR: WOLE TALABI
GENRE: fiction
Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon is a contemporary fantasy novel brimming with Yoruba mythology.
In this book, Wole Talabi introduces us to Shigidi, the god of nightmare in the Orisha spirit company. He does the bidding of his worshippers, sending nightmares to people who offend them. This way, he can retain his position. However, things change when he meets a succubus, Nneoma, an intriguing character with a secretive past.
Lovestruck, Shigidi wants to leave his company and make a life with Nneoma. But leaving the Orisha spirit company is not a walk in the park, especially not when the elder gods have big plans for Shigidi.
THESE LETTERS END IN TEARS
AUTHOR: MUSIH TEDJI XAVIERE
GENRE: fiction
While chasing a rogue football, Fatima crosses paths with Bessem and the instant attraction between the two propels them into a life-changing romance. Despite an atmosphere of threat due to the criminalization of same-sex relationships in their home country of Cameroon, Fatima and Bessem persevere in living out their love. All seems to be going well, until one day tragedy strikes, and Fatima disappears.
Thirteen years later, Bessem is now a university professor, keeping her sexuality secret but bonding with her equally closeted friend Jamal and the queer community around her. But Fatima still haunts her. A chance encounter with people from her past, pushes Bessem to finally go after the truth of her lover’s whereabouts. Told mostly through unsent letters, These Letters End in Tears, powerfully charts all the different ways that love, despite all odds, can persevere⎈