228. Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Few authors are able to keep their theme running for such a long time as Ngugi has done. As a critic of the post-independence politics of the new wave of African leaders, Ngugi wa Thiong'o knows more about the tricks, chicanery, and shenanigans of these people than most people. He has observed and written about it both in fiction and in essays. His keen interest has always been the lack of socialisation of government efforts and the endemic corruption that has strangulated several African countries, including his home country of Kenya - which had to go through a series of Constitutional reforms after the 2008 electoral crisis - from developing. Ngugi's observations, from the the dawn of independence when the capsule of euphoria burst and evaporated all at once leaving behind a blanket of realities, are encapsulated in his works. From his first novel Weep Not Child (1964), which studied the hostile relationship between the colonialists and the colonised to Wizard of the Crow (2006) Ngugi has tried to point out that the requisite tools for development have nothing to do with colour. It has all to do with harnessing the resources within the borders of one's country and using these resources efficiently to provide the goods and services the people needs. According to Ngugi, the traits of a good leader has nothing to do with tribe or ethnic affiliation but his selflessness, objectivity and integrity - his ability to bring the resources within the country together; that blackness is not all that makes a man.

In Wizard of the Crow (Anchor Books, 2006; 768) Ngugi wa Thiong'o brings together years of studies and observation in one swoop of a pen into a compelling novel. Wizard of the Crow brings together all the issues Ngugi raises in all his novels - from that carpenter (and the Jacobos) who wanted to have it all, in Weep Not Child, to John Boy and his collusion with the second generation colonialists in Matigari to the betrayal of the freedom fighters and the people by the new elites and that MP in A Grain of Wheat.

However, whereas his previous books centred somewhat on the coming of the colonialists and more on the nefariousness of the first wave of leaders, Wizard of the Crow strictly analyses the behaviours of African dictators and autocrats and the complicity of donor institutions and countries in that ginormous corruptions that have engulfed our countries. In some way it collaborates Dambisa Moyo's Dead Aid thesis when she argued that conditionalities and the type of government - autocrat, dictatorship, monarchy, endemically and openly corrupt - matter little as to who gets the World Bank and IMF loans and that governments use huge projects to siphon resources into their personalised off-shore bank accounts.

In WOTC, in that fictional country of Aburiria, we meet the head of state - known simply as the Ruler and his cronies - Sikiokuu, Tajirika, Big Ben, Machokali, Kaniuru and other obsequious grovellers; bootlickers who would sing praises if those praise-songs and appellations will enable them to steal more. In this set up, affiliations and alliances are capricious and lasts as long as dew would in harmattan. In the Ruler's government, positions are given to those who can steal more and those who excelled are made governors and managers of central and national banks, put in places where they can siphon more and share with the leader. Those who are hounded and described as enemies of the state are the poor selfless souls whose only crime is that they won't participate in pillage; that they are pure and seek the healing of the souls; people like Nyawira (the Limping Witch) and Kamiti (The Wizard of the Crow). The corruption described gets to such a level that it becomes abnormal to be moral, to be seen doing the right thing, like the situation Achebe described in his tiny green book The Trouble with Nigeria.

Regardless of the satirical nature of the write and the mirth it can engender in the reader to the point of hiccups and uncontrollable dribbling of tears, what Ngugi described in this novel is the reality of most African countries including those that have taken on a semblance of democracy (and this was also discussed in the book). There are leaders who today refer to the country the rule's natural resources as 'my oil' and run the country like their bona fide property, an extension of their hopeless homes. In WOTC, the bootlickers have decided to honour the Ruler with a mansion bigger and taller than what the biblical Babylonians attempted, and failed. Consequently, this birthday project was christened Marching to Heaven; the vision was for it to become the largest project and to show the world that the people of Aburiria can, and are able to, challenge the developments of developed countries. Now where will the funding come from? The Global Bank had to be convinced to release the resources for this mind-boggling project. And even before the Global Bank agreed (or disagreed) contract seekers have already bribing the chairman of the committee responsible for the project. On the other hand, all the macroeconomic indicators of the country are poor: unemployment is of such levels that the entire country is queuing for nonexistent jobs; inflation is so high that it has rendered the Buris worthless and trading is virtually conducted in dollars.

But the Ruler was a friend of the United States and the West for his dedication towards their cause during the Cold War. (Exactly what Dambisa stated in her book when she proved, with data, that during the Cold War, it mattered not the type of government one practiced, so far as one showed he is in favour of capitalism or communism one got funded; so that from Mobutu of now DR Congo to Mengistu of Ethiopia to Bokassa of Central African Republic - whose coronation as an emperor is reputed to have cost US$ 22 million - all received donor monies). However, again exactly as Dambisa wrote, the tides have changed. The West, perhaps on a guilt-trip, now wants to see some changes before advancing the required resources for this ginormous Marching to Heaven project. But what type of change do they want? Is it superficial or deeper? The answer came when the leader, after several failures in accessing the required funds, declared the State of Aburiria a democracy where free and fair elections will be held; thus succumbing to the requirements of the West. But with one catch: He will be the Ruler of whichever party that won elections. Thus, regardless of the elections, he is bound to stay in power forever. This sends applause and congratulations to all quarters including donor countries and institutions. In no time the money required for the project was released and work began. Autocracy then was replaced by dictatorial democracy.

Is this therefore a political dystopia fraught with that Orwellian doublethink-doublespeak, where words are democratic and deeds autocratic? What it shows clearly is how the idea of democracy fosters timidity and inaction, allowing the same folks to be in power and do the same things. It also shows that democracy can and do accommodate the negativities inherent in autocracy and dictatorial regimes: the outward morphing of dictatorships into democracies whilst leaving their deeds intact.

Thus, the Ruler in this case symbolises two main practices across autocratic states. The first is leaders who have democratise autocracy so that they win every election and can contest as many times as they want till they drop dead. The other symbolism is that there could be changes in leadership but because they are all corrupt and corruption has become the norm rather than the exception, it matters not who wins the election, the end will be the same: more corruption, less provision of goods and services and the cycle continues unabated. Just as Dambisa said, what a young country at the nascent stages of development needs is not democracy as these leaders democratise and institutionalise corruption in a way that is difficult to challenge; rather such countries need benevolent dictators, perhaps the likes of Mahathir of Malaysia. However, in Africa there has been more of the dictator and less of the benevolence.

In the end, the excessive corruption in the Aburiria government bred jealousy and vile machinations leading to several deaths and palace coups. Though Ngugi derides autocracy in this satiric thesis, he clearly exposes the dangers of excessive capitalism and American imperialism. He showed the multiplicity of American interests and how it can change over time to suit its objectives: from slavery to colonialism to capitalism to globalisation, all to its benefit; in so doing, as clearly articulated, it can befriend the vilest autocrats - the likes of Mobutu (who stole a humongous sum of US$ 5 billion) and Idi Amin (whose atrocities in his home country of Uganda makes his name almost synonymous to Hitler) when it suits them and if these leaders can best serve these interests. Once these interests are served, they quickly withdraw, wipe their hands, and attack that country as if they never dealt with, or know them at all. They launch a vilification campaign against them - sometimes including war, like it happened to Saddam Hussein of Iraq (when they had claimed that this man is the best person to rule his people and later accused him of a crime he had already committed when this accolade was showered on him).

Finally, Ngugi shows the gradual corporating of the world, through globalisation; the gradual recolonisation of the world through the use of corporate or private capital, with Non-Governmental Organisations playing the roles of the wolfish missionaries.

But there are certain distinctions that should be made regarding the actions of the Ruler. Was everything that he implemented bad? The answer is a huge no; however, the ends they were to achieve was what made them bad. For instance, he was somewhat nationalistic, which is not negative if you know your strengths; after all, some call it patriotism, others call it socialism. But nationalising to the benefit of cronies and family is not the way to go. Again, the Ruler streamlined the health system to include traditional healers, but doing it so you can arrest your enemies - Nyawira and Kamiti in this case - serves no end.

Ngugi's disaffection from his characters (even from the protagonists - Kamiti and Nyawira) brought out the humanity in them; that they are not gods (and therefore are fallible and have epistemic limitations) and alone are incapable of taking on the whole country. It might be seen as an unsolvable conundrum, an inextricable knot but what Ngugi is seeking are changes among a large section of people; changes that are major, conscious and directed at a positive end. You can make a change in your circumstances but it's impossible to make it in the world alone if not supported; besides, a lighted country will light up a room but not a city. 

Anyone who reads this book will come to understand their governments better. The reader will come to appreciate the ways of politics, governance and corporations. It should be a manual for the hoi-polloi so that they are not taken in by those apples dangling before their eyes. It is highly recommended.

270. Dreams in a Time of War by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Stories of the atrocities and ills committed during colonialism most often seem fictional to people's ears, especially those who never lived within the period and never directly experienced them. To those twice removed from the action, it sounds like a fantastic tale told to children around the firelight, beneath the full moon. This might have occurred because for the larger part of the twentieth century, this has been the motif for several African writers - poets, novelists, dramatists. However, nothing is as real as the wanton devastation of the people by the colonists and colonialists in their bid to own the land and subjugate, or in their own way civilise, the people. It is through the biographies and memoirs of those who lived the times that the true effects of what was meted out to our fathers and grandfathers come alive. It is easy for one to disregard fiction, but not too easy to ignore a memoir. 

And in the childhood memoir of Ngugi wa Thiong'o, one of Africa's eminent chronicler of socioeconomic changes, the atrocities come alive at a rate that discombobulate the reader. Dreams in a Time of War (Vintage, 2011 (FP: 2010), 257) tracks Ngugi's life from his father's compound to his mother's-cum-grandfather's compound to the point where he miraculously left for school. It deals with loss and rejection, and a mother's foresight to educate a son, at all cost.

Ngugi's true tale of his life in a Kenyan village clearly showed the role of the church in the colonisation of the indigenes - or the natives, as they were derogatorily referred to by the settlers. It emphasises that what we have read all too often in works of fiction, including the author's own oeuvre, are not mere writers' fantasies. If anything at all, they are watered-down versions, for most often facts are stranger than what fiction could conjure. The role of the church in subjugating the people, through their religious tales, through their preaching, which dehumanises blacks, through the portrayal of their seafarers who landed on the shores Africa, in the classrooms they monopolised and in their churches, cannot in no way be underestimated. In having the sole control of education, they were armed with the single most effective tool of subjugation. It is for this reason why some believe that the Christian God is a white god, and cannot represent blacks.

Even when the natives showed leadership and foresight by creating their own schooling system teaching their students their own syllabuses, the colonialists closed it down when they realised that the nationalists elements are overreaching their bounds; allowing those that agreed to teach the colonialist's approved subjects and syllabuses to open. The priests who manned the religious-schools progressively proselytised all their students and staff, demanding of them to shed all traditional and cultural entrapment, regarding those that imbibed European culture and sensibilities as the avant-gardes. They became the 'path clearers' for the colonial administration. In most African countries, baptismal certificates became the only official document the colonial government accepted when one was dealing with the state. The role of these priests is treated in Mongo Beti's The Poor Christ of Bomba, though unlike Father Superior Drumont, most of these priests never gave.

Reflecting on Ngugi's memoir, it becomes clear that every country has done to another that which it has at one point in time itself fought against. It became clearer that people do not fight oppression because they are entirely anti-oppression or that they abhor, strongly detest, oppression. People do fight oppression because they think they are superior and above oppression. Not others. Most often, when such anti-oppression fighters gain their freedom, succeed in their fight, the very first thing they do is to implement what they had fought against on others they feel superior to, sometimes on the very people they have just defeated. Whilst the British fought Hitler and this occupation of European countries and spread of Nazism, they were at the same time implementing equally draconian and Nazi-like segregation, apartheid, eviction, and occupation in their colonies. If Nazism is racism, what is segregation, apartheid, black land-confiscation?

After the African soldiers - Kenyan soldiers in this specific case - helped the British in a war they had nothing to do with - the Second World War, they - the British colonial government - took lands away from the natives to settle their white soldiers as payment for their war efforts. Thus, while the white soldiers came home to large tracts of land, the black soldiers came home to displaced families. This is a universal phenomenon and it is one that confound exceedingly. After that abominable holocaust and the Jews' return to 'their homeland', they displaced the Palestinians in a blitzkrieg that shocked and still shocks the world. The world is not about fairness or equality. It has never been and might never be. Regardless of what one thinks, the Orwellian principle of Animal Farm reigns. Fairness and Equality are concepts the strong proposes to subject the weak, whose weakness prevents them from retaliating the fairness and equality. A prejudiced mind, a mind of racial and tribal superiority, of religious fundamentalism, of birthers and truthers, a mind which defines brotherhood not in humanity but in other concepts that eliminates others can never ever beget fairness and equality. Asking such a mind to do so is like asking darkness to produce light.

How different therefore was the colonialist's behaviour in Africa during the struggle for independence, especially in Kenya, different from the atrocities carried out the world over? They killed en masse, people disappeared during the night, people were arrested and killed without trial, they wiped out villages, they engaged numerous spies, they hauled resources, they psychologically destroyed people, they dehumanised the natives. Was this not another genocide? What is it called, when a country sets out to destroy another by surgically destroying its history, identity - through controlled manipulations in classrooms, by confiscating its land (to the African land is more than just a piece of the earth), and by killing them en masse at the least resistance? Were these not exactly what the communist countries were accused of?

To stray off, and jump Ngugi - for I know this would definitely appear in his other memoirs, some of the African leaders who led the fight for independence, or who forcefully took power right after independence, behaved similarly. These folks only wanted to be like the white rulers - to enjoy the perks of power, the position and rewards it affords, not necessarily to remove the yoke from their people's necks. In Dreams in a Time of War, a classic example would be Rev Stanley Kahahu, who after becoming a priest, thought he had scaled a wall higher than his people, and armed with the colonial knowledge he had gained and with the backing of the colonial administration he supported, took lands away from their rightful owners. His wife was worst, for she treated everybody, especially the non-Christians, as dirt - cheating them as and when she deemed fit. And one shivers when one realises that one is not reading Weep Not Child, or A Grain of Wheat or any fiction for that matter, but a memoir - a true account of events. Thus, a person does not lose his character when he acquires power. His traits become pronounced. A wicked person may be humble only because he is poor, his real character comes to the fore when he is in a position of power.

Just as not all whites behaved like the colonialists, not all blacks supported the nationalists in their fight for an independent Kenya. In fact, the most brutal colonial force - those who descended heavily physically and emotionally - on the Mau Mau fighters and their families was the Home Guards, which consisted of natives sympathetic to the colonial cause. These folks, living among the people, sometimes from the same womb, developed tortured their kin in droves. And do we not have such elements in our midst today as we pretend to fight neo-colonialism? Are there not Africans out there who say we cannot and should not think of going beyond our means? Are there not Africans who have sold Africa and continue to sell it for their sole benefits?

This war, which Ngugi lived under, which destroyed homes, families, friendships, would turn brother against brother, neighbour against neighbour. It will cause a rift within families and villages. The victims were thus divided, as each takes a stand in the colonialists versus the nationalists struggle. No one would leave the turf unscathed.

Ngugi also talked about the nascent transportation infrastructure that was taking place in the country, with a child's fascination. At a point in time, he had to choose between fulfilling his desire to ride in a train and his pact with her mother to stay at school. All through Africa, in colonial period, the construction of roads and rails meant further oppression from the colonialists. Usually these transport systems were directed at areas with huge resource reserve. It also paved the way, literally, for the evangelical works of the church, which precedes and prepare the people for colonial administration. 

Dreams in a Time of War treats politics, as a pre-teen-early-teen child saw it, and socioeconomic changes that followed rapid colonisation and the war that ensued. It captures the nuances of life - the sad times (a father's rejection; a brother's flight into the bush; an education that was nearly lost), the happy times (gaining admission into one of the best schools; participating in the rite of passage), the emotional moments (beaten by a British soldier for not adding the respectful 'effendi' to statements; having to go without food in the quest for education), and youthful carelessness (the near-asphyxiation; the life-goes-on regardless of the 'bush war').

The writing and narrative style - past and present - put the reader right in the midst of the actions as Ngugi describes them. This makes the reader's emotions synchronous with the emotions exuding from the pages of this magnificent book. The reader goes through all the topsy-turvy moments, living with the figures (not characters), the near misses, the deaths, and pain of realising you have been sold out by a brother, a friend. Reading this book, one has to remind himself that he is reading a memoir and not a work of fiction. It is the reservoir from which Ngugi draws out his work of fiction and anyone who has read any of Ngugi's works will understand it better after reading this work. This work - and may be the others that follow like In the House of Interpreters - encapsulates the essence of Ngugi's oeuvre. 

Individuals who lived within this period of Africa's history - the period when the struggles against the colonialists were at their peak - have a lot to tell. For in their lives is the real history of Africa and Africans. Their lives provide the human side of the struggles narrated in History text books, which is sometimes skewed - told to make some others look macho and important, to exaggerate the roles of sellouts and people who did nothing, or even to water-down the atrocities of the colonialists. These stories expose the evil of colonial rule and the native stooges of the time. And it is these that we must fight; that we do not do to ourselves that which we have fought ferociously against. That we shall no more become colonised, but fight neo-colonism, and whilst doing so prevent the return of the Bokassas, the Mobutu Sese Sekos, the Idi Amins, and such barbaric rulers that shattered the continent. And finally, be wise not to be caught up in any East-West struggle, the like of the Cold War era.

More importantly, these memoirs show that the journey of life is not smooth. It has its bumps and anyone who wants to take a ride must know and appreciate this. They also show us the volume of work that is left or needed to be done. The struggles that Ngugi went through to get education should not be seen in Kenya today. These are the markers against which progress will be measured. Our failures and achievements would be determined by the rate at which we can distinguish between life under colonial rule and life under independence.

This is a quintessential Ngugi book, one that I will recommend to all.

_________________

Read about the author here

The Nobel and Ngugi's Cause - A Short Response to Tricia Adaobi's Article, 'In Africa, the Laureate's Curse'

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Discussions have been going-on, ever since Tricia Adoabi's article In Africa, the Laureate's Curse, was published in The New York Times. I had vehemently opposed to most of the issues raised in the article and had a facebook post of it yesterday. However, I really didn't want to blog about my qualms. Yet, to distance my comments from my blog would be a dereliction of duty, most especially when my blog exists mainly to promote African Literature. To begin with Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani is the author of that beautifully-written, award-winning novel I Do Not Come to you by Chance, a novel that has been on my contemporary reading list but for its unavailability in Ghanaian shops I would have reviewed it on my blog.

Now to the crux of the issue. Adaobi stated that:

A Nigerian publisher told me that of the manuscripts she reads from aspiring writers, half echo Chinua Achebe and half try to adopt Wole Soyinka's style. (paragraph two)

and then

I know some young writers who are experimenting in these and other genres; an Ngugi award could have pushed them back to the old tried and tired ways.

My problem is not with writers. It is with the publishers who want nothing but to see the next Achebe or Soyinka. They hardly experiment and as Tricia rightly pointed out 

the floundering publishing industry [on the continent] has little money for experimentation and [...] writers [...] have to move abroad to gain international recognition.

Who then is the problem if young writers ape the established ones? Publishers always want things that sell and if one has already been established why not follow them? For instance, if one is writing about Africa and it is not mundane, morbid, atrocious, despicable, political it won't sell. Should writers then be blamed if they copy those who are already established?

Besides, I am not comfortable when the article seems to suggest Africans would only recognise a great writer only when Western establishments have honoured him or her with a great award such as the Man Booker International (Chinua Achebe) or the Nobel (Wole Soyinka). I believe Ngugi's oeuvre is as impressive as any other Nobel laureate and at least any reader of African fiction would have read him. He is and has been a great writer even before his name came up for the Nobel award. Hence Nobel or no Nobel Ngugi would be loved, emulated, and improved by writers. And who said there is a writer who has never been influenced by another writer? Show me one such writer and I would boldly show you a liar. Unless one is John Nash, an Economics Nobel Laureate, who refused to attend lectures while studying for his Doctoral thesis for fear of influencing his original idea, unless one is him, one cannot hit his chest boldly and say 'I have not been influenced by any writer' including the likes of Soyinka, Ngugi, and Achebe. The key is, learn from them, add onto them, express your writings with your unique voice and perspectives of issues.

Yes, we need variety and on this I have written about. Yet, I believe that Tricia herself, Tendai Huchu, Myne Whitman, Ngozi Achebe and others are doing greater exploration by carting a different path in terms of genres and issues to write about. However, before one can brand a group of writers's writing style as

... an earnest and sober style

one should take cognisance of the environment within which such writers wrote and the purpose of their writes. It takes only a significantly unusual writer to write about the sky and the stars and the lions, when his environment is drowned in stuttering bullets and raging militarism; when access to basic commodities is bleak at best; when the so-called rulers are nothing but cheating chaps. It takes a writer who's blinded and deaf to his environments to write anything other than the disturbances, the dis-equilibrium that is likely to be caused by colonisation. And writers are anything but blind and deaf to their environs.

Today, writers have the liberty to explore because by and large we have moved from these messy issues into a world where all things are possible, where ones environment is not only the country within which he or she finds himself. If one studies the trend in African literature one would realise that it has been changing such that today any topic is explorable. And I believe that if Tricia were writing in 1940s to 1950s he definitely would have written something different from what she has written.

My last issue is my biggest issue. The issue of the language in which one has to write. Except when we refuse to equate our local languages, such as Twi, Ga, Ewe, Igbo, Swahili, Yoruba, Hausa, Gikuyu, to languages like Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, can we complain of the language in which we write. However, if we accept the fact that these languages are equal to others then I don't understand why a writer would 'shudder' when another writer writes in his local language or why one could not refer to a writer as a great African writer even if that writer writes in his native language.

Many fans have extolled his [Ngugi] brave decision to write in his mother tongue, Kikuyu, instead of English. If he truly desires a Nobel, I can't help but wish him one. But I shudder to imagine how many African writers would be inspired by the prize to copy him. Instead of acclaimed Nigerian writers, we would have acclaimed Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa writers. We suffer enough tribal differences already. This is not the kind of variety we need.

This paragraph breaks my heart absolutely. First, is English a Nigerian language? Are the people of Nigeria referred to as English. Couldn't a Nigerian writer be accorded the accolade 'acclaimed' if he or she writes in any of the numerous languages in Nigeria? To bestow universality to a borrowed language is to divest oneself of one's identity. Let's not be blind to the fact that 'English' as a language is another man's culture; his local language. A people who lose sight of their culture is a dead people (paraphrase from Two Thousand Seasons by Ayi Kwei Armah). Besides, I don't think Ngugi desires a Nobel. Absolutely not! Yet, a Nobel that recognises his works in his mother-tongue would greatly inspire writers in the local languages to revive this dying literature. English is not a unifying language as the paragraph suggests. It has not been. It has only widened the gap between the reading and non-reading public such that now reading has become an elitist activity. Every great non-English language novel, as Ngugi has shown, would eventually get translated. Don't we read Russo-Literature, and works from other non-English speaking countries in English? The elitist view which associates everything Western to civilisation  or modernisation is Africa's greatest enemy to development.

In the end, it is imperative that Tricia's works be encouraged in much the same way as any writer who wants to write in any  language he feels comfortable with. In fact such writers should be given special attention as they are doing us a great favour, resuscitating what we are eagerly strangulating. After all, Herta Muller (Nobel Laureate in 2009) won the award for her works in a minority language. Why not Ngugi? Why should English be thrust on us?

Author's Country

For other categories, see Review

I have sought to read from as many parts of Africa as possible. This index categorises authors by country. The categorisation is such that authors are listed according to the nationality they possessed when their works became famous. Thus, Bessie head is considered a Motswana from Botswana rather than a South African and Coetzee, a South African rather than an Australian. Non-African authors are listed under 'Other Countries'. Always, the author's last name comes first. Anthologies: If it is a single-authored anthology, the author's name appears under the country where the author comes from. For multiple-authored anthologies only the editor('s') name(s) are (are) used. If the anthology is multiple-editored and the editors come from the same country, only the name of the editor which comes first at the back of the book is used (example Ivor Hartmann and Emmanuel Sigauke both come from Zimbabwe, only the former is used); if both (or all) editors come from different countries (as in Chinua Achebe (Nigeria) and C.L. Innes (Australia), then each editor's name appears under the country of origin. Under Australia, C.L. Innes name will come first followed by Achebe's. 

ANGOLA

Agualusa, Jose Eduardo: The Book of Chameleons
Pepetela: The Return of the Water Spirit

ALGERIA
Boudjedra, Rashid: The Repudiation
Djebar, Assia: The Foreigner, Sister of the Foreign Woman in Contemporary African Short Stories

BOTSWANA

Head, Bessie: A Question of Power

Head, Bessie: A Woman Alone
Head, Bessie: The Cardinals with Meditations and Short Stories
Head, Bessie: Maru
Head, Bessie: Snapshots of a Wedding in African Short Stories
Head, Bessie: Tales of Tenderness and Power
Head, Bessie: When Rain Clouds Gather
Kubuitsile, Laurie: In the Spirit of McPhineas Lata

CAMEROON

Doh, A. B.: The Spaces in-Between in African Roar 2013
Kwa, Dipita: In Bramble Bushes in African Roar 2013
Mongo Beti: The Poor Christ of Bomba
Mutia, Ba'bila: The Miracle in Contemporary African Short Stories
Oyono, Ferdinand: Houseboy

CONGO

Dongala, E.B.: The Man in Contemporary African Short Stories

COTE D'IVOIRE

Kourouma, Ahmadou: Allah is not Obliged
Kourouma, Ahmadou: Waiting for the Wild Beasts to VoteTadjo, Veronique: As the Crow Flies

Tadjo, Veronique: Away from My Father in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Tadjo, Veronique: The Betrayal in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing
Tadjo, Veronique: The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda

EGYPT

El-Bisatie, Mohammed: A Conversation from the Third Floor in African Short Stories
Mahfouz, Naguib: Palace Walk
Rifaat, Alifa: Distant View of a Minaret
El Saadawi, Nawal: Searching
El Saadawi, Nawal: God Dies by the Nile

GABON

Mengara, Daniel: Mema

GAMBIA
Sallah, Tijan M.: Weaverdom in Contemporary African Short Stories

GHANA

Acheampong, Sophia: Growing Yams in London
Acheampong, Sophia: Ipods in Accra
Adzei, Mawuli: TabooAgambila, G.a.: Journey
Agyei-Agyiri, Alex: Unexpected Joy at Dawn

Aidoo, Ama Ata: Certain Winds from the South in African Short Stories
Aidoo, Ama Ata: Changes
Aidoo, Ama Ata: Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories
Aidoo, Ama Ata: No Sweetness HereAidoo, Ama Ata: The Girl Who Can in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing

Akorli, Elikplim: A Heart's Quest
Akpabli, Kofi: A Sense of Savannah: Tales of a Friendly Walk through Northern Ghana
Akpabli, Kofi: Tickling the Ghanaian: Encounters with Contemporary Culture
Annan, Kofi: Interventions - A Life in War and Peace
Anyidoho, Kofi: The Place we Call Home and Other Poems
Armah, Ayi Kwei: The Beautyful Ones are not yet Born

Armah, Ayi Kwei: Fragments

Armah, Ayi Kwei: The Healers

Armah, Ayi Kwei: Two Thousand Seasons

Asibon, Aba Amissah: The Lump in her Throat
Asibon, Aba Amissah: Salvation in Odd Places in African Roar 2013
Badoe, Yaba: True Murder
Baezie, Camynta: African Agenda
Bedwei, Farida N.: Definition of a Miracle
Brew-Hammond, Nana Ekua: Powder Necklace
Busia, Abena P.A.: Traces of a Life: A collection of Elegies and Praise Poems
Busia, Abena P.A.: On Locations: A Letter to my Father in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Busia, Abena P.A.: Of Memory and Loss in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Darko, Amma: Faceless

Darko, Amma: Not Without Flowers
Darkoa-Sekyiamah, Nana (Editor): Women Leading Africa - Conversations with Inspirational African Women 

Damoah, Nana Awere: Excursions in my Mind
Damoah, Nana Awere: Through the Gates of Thought
Damoah, Nana Awere: Truth Floats in African Roar 2010

de-Graft Aikins Ama: The Three Little Girls of Anamaase in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Egblewogbe, Martin: Mr. Happy and the Hammer of God

Egblewogbe, Martin: Look Where You Have Gone to Sit (Co-Editor)
Harruna Attah, Ayesha: Harmattan Rain

Harruna Attah, Ayesha: Tamale Blues in African Roar 2010

Heward Mills, Marilyn: Cloth Girl

Kabu, Mamle: The End of Skill

Kabu, Mamle: Mr Oliver in A Life in Full and Other Stories

Kwakye, Benjamin: The Clothes of Nakedness

Kwakye, Benjamin: The Other Crucifix

Laing, Kojo: Big Bishop Roko and the Altar Gangsters

Laing, Kojo: Search Sweet Country
Laing, Kojo: Vacancy for the Post of Jesus Christ in Contemporary African Short Stories

Mahama, John Dramani: My First Coup D'etat - Memories from the Lost Decades of Africa
Marshal, Bill: Permit for Survival
Myers, James Robert (Editor): Breaking Silence - A Poetic Lifeline from Slavery to Love
Neequaye, Isaac: Water Wahala in African Roar 2011
Nkrumah, Kwame: Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism

Parkes, Nii Ayikwei: Tail of the Blue Bird

Quayson, Ato (Editor): Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration

Quayson, Ato: Bobo, the Snowflake Catcher in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Ribeiro-Ayeh, Ayebia: The Wake-Up Call in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration

Sekyi, Kobina: The Blinkards

Sumprim, Alba Kunadu: The Imported Ghanaian

Ulzen, Papa Kobina: Accra! Accra! More Poems about Modern Afrika

KENYA

Amlani, Alnoor: Soul Safari in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Gikandi, Simon: A Voyage Round my Daughter in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Hassan, Abdulghani Sheikh The Faces of Fate in African Roar 2013
Kibera, Leonard: The Spider's Web in African Short Stories
Kantai, Parselelo: You Wreck Her
Kahora, Billy: Urban Zoning
Kenyatta, Jomo: The Gentlemen of the Jungle in African Short Stories
Mabura, Lily: How shall we Kill the Bishop in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Matata, Lydia: Cut it Off in African Roar 2013
Mativo, Kyalo: On the Market Day in Contemporary African Short Stories
Munene, Samuel: The David Thuo Show in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Ogot, Grace: Green Leaves in African Short Stories
Oluoch Chianga Clifford: Set me Free in A Life in Full and Other Stories
wa Ngugi, Mukoma: How Kamau wa Mwangi Escaped into Exile
Sitawa Namwalie: Cut off My Tongue
wa Thiong'o, Ngugi: A Grain of Wheat
wa Thiong'o, Ngugi: Dreams in a Time of War - a Childhood Memoirwa Thiong'o, Ngugi: Matigari

wa Thiong'o, Ngugi: Minutes of Glory in African Short Stories
wa Thiong'o, Ngugi: The River Between
wa Thiong'o, Ngugi: Weep Not, Child
wa Thiong'o, Ngugi: Wizard of the Crow

LESOTHO

Mofolo, Thomas: Chaka

Morojele, Morabo: How We Buried Puso

MALI

Dao, Anna: A Perfect Wife in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing

MALAWI
Chimombo, Steve: The Rubbish Dump in Contemporary African Short Stories
Kenani, Onjezani Stanley: Happy Ending in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Kenani, Onjezani Stanley: Love on Trial
Mapanje, Jack: Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison
Mapanje, Jack (Editor): Gathering Seaweed: Africa Prison Writing
Mkandawire, Dango: The Times in African Roar 2011
Zeleza, Tiyambe: Smouldering Charcoal
Zeleza, Tiyambe: Memories of Birth and Other Anectodes in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration

MAURITIUS
Collen, Lindsey: The Enigma in Opening Spaces: Contemporary Women's Writing

MOZAMBIQUE

Couto, Mia: The Birds of God in Contemporary African Short Stories
Couto, Mia: Voices Made Night

Couto, Mia: Every Man is a Race
Honwana, B.L.: Papa, Snake, and I in African Short Stories
Momplé, Lília: Neighbours: The Story of a Murder
Momplé, Lília: Stress in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing

NAMIBIA

Andreas, Neshani: The Purple Violet of Oshaantu
Jafta, Milly: The Home-Coming in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing

NIGER
Soumana, Boureima Igodiame: Near But Far in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora

NIGERIA

Abiola, H.: Smooth Lanes in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Achebe, Chinua: A Man of the People
Achebe, Chinua and Innes, C.L. (Editors) African Short Stories

Achebe, Chinua: Anthills of the Savannah
Achebe, Chinua: Arrow of God
Achebe, Chinua: Civil Peace in African Short Stories
Achebe, Chinua & Innes, C.L. (Editors): Contemporary African Short Stories

Achebe, Chinua: No Longer At Ease

Achebe, Chinua: Things Fall Apart
Achebe, Chinua: The Trouble with Nigeria

Adagha, Ovo: The Plantation in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi: Half of a Yellow Sun

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi: Purple Hibiscus

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi: The Thing Around Your Neck

Ajumeze, Henry: Dimples on the Sand

Akpan, Uwem: Say You're One of Them
Atta, Sefi: A Bit of Difference
Balogun, Odun: The Apprentice in African Short Stories
Chigbo, Okey: The Housegirl in Contemporary African Short Stories
Dibia, Jude: A Life in Full in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Ekwensi, Cyprian: Burning Grass

Ekunno, Mike: Anti Natal in African Roar 2013
Emecheta, Buchi: The Joys of Motherhood

Garuba, Harry: Letters to a Lost Daughter in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Habila, Helon: Three Seasons in in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Iduma, Emmanuel: Out of Memory in African Roar 2011
Irele, Abiola F: Me and My Daughters in in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Izundu, Uchenna: God No Go Vex in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Kalu, Anthonia C: The Initiation in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Maja-Pearce, Adewale: The Hotel in Contemporary African Short Stories
Mazi-Njoku, Chimdindu: Snake of the Niger Delta in African Roar 2011
Morocco-Clarke, Ayodele: Silent Night, Bloody Night in African Roar 2011
Morocco-Clarke, Ayodele: Nestbury Tree in African Roar 2010 
Myne Whitman (a pseudonym): A Heart to Mend
Nubi, Ola: Green Eyes and Old Photo in African Roar 2013
Nwokolo, Chuma Jnr: Diaries of a Dead African
Nwokolo, Chuma Jnr: The Ghost of Sani Abacha
Nwokolo, Chuma Jnr: Quaterback and Co in African Roar 2010
Oguibe, Olu: Obiageli Okigbo in Conversation with Olu Oguibe in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Okoye, Ifeoma: The Power of a Plate of Rice in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing
Okri, Ben: Converging City in Contemporary African Short Stories

Okri, Ben: The Famished Road
Okri, Ben: Incidents at the Shrine
Okri, Ben: Infinite Riches
Olaniyan, Tejumola: My Girls in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration

Olofintuade, Ayodele: Eno's Story
Onuzo, Chibundu: The Spider King's Daughter
Osofisan, Femi: Women of Owu
Osondu, E.C.: Waiting
Owoyele, David: The Will of Allah in African Short Stories
Rotimi, Babatunde: Bombay's Republic
Rotimi, Ola: Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again

Rotimi, Ola: The Gods are not to Blame
Saro-Wiwa, Ken: A Month and a Day & Letters
Saro-Wiwa, Zina: His Eyes were Shinning Like a Child in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Soyinka, Wole: Death and the King's Horseman
Soyinka, Wole: Kongi's Harvest
Soyinka, Wole: The Lion and the Jewel
Soyinka, Wole: Madmen and Specialists

Soyinka, Wole: You Must Set Forth at Dawn
Tubosun, Kola: Behind the Door in African Roar 2010 
Tutuola, Amos: The Palm-Wine Drinkard
Uche, Peter: Lose Myself in African Roar 2011
Ugwu, Georgia Ijeoma: African Queen in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Wood, Molara: Indigo in A Life in Full and Other Stories

SENEGAL
Ousman, Sembène: False Prophet in African Short Stories
Bâ, Mariama: So Long a Letter

SEYCHELLES
Amla, Hajira: Longing Home in African Roar 2011

SIERRA LEONE
Olufemi, Terry: Stickfighting Days in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Bockarie, Kalunda: Lunar Slam in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora

SOMALIA
Herzi, Saida Hagi-Dirie: Government by Magic Spell in Contemporary African Short Stories

SOUTH AFRICA

Abrahams, Peter: Mine Boy
Aucamp, Hennie: For Four Voices in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Barris, Ken: The Life of Worm in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Bauling, Jayne: Business as Usual in African Roar 2013
Biko, Steve: I Write What I Like
Boetie, Dugmore: Familiarity is the kingdom of the Lost in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Breytenbach, Breyten: The Double Dying of an Ordinary Criminal in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Brink, Andre: Praying Mantis

Brink, Andre: Before I Forget

Charles, Herman: Bekkersdal Marathon in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Coetzee, J.M.: Duskland

Coetzee, J.M.: In the Heart of the Country
Cope, Jack: Escape from Love in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present

Essop, Ahmed: The Hajji in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Essop, Ahmed: The Betrayal in African Short Stories
Golightly, Walton: AmaZulu
Gordimer, Nadine: Amnesty in Contemporary African Short Stories

Gordimer, Nadine: Bridegroom in African Short Stories
Gordimer, Nadine: Burger's Daughter
Gordimer, Nadine: The Conservationist
Gordimer, Nadine: July's People

Gordimer, Nadine: Six Feet of the Ground in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present

Gwala, Mafika: Reflections in a Cell in African Short Stories

Havemann, Ernst: Bloodsong in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Presentvan Heerden Etienne: Mad Dog in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present

Herbstein, Manu: Ama - A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Hirson, Denis with Martin Trump (Editors): South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present 

Hope, Christopher: Learning to Fly in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Jacobson, Dan: The Zulu and the Zeide in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Karodia, Farida: The Red Velvet in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing
Kitson, Norma: Uncle Bunty in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing
Mabuza, Lindiwe: Wake... in Contemporary African Short Stories
Magona, Sindiwe: A State of Outrage in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing
Mandela, Nelson: No Easy Walk to Freedom
Maqutu, Andiswa: A Yoke for Companionship in African Roar 2013
Maseko, Bheki: Mamlambo in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Medalie, David: The Mistress's Dog
Morgan, Alistair: Icebergs
Mphahlele, Ezekiel: The Coffee-Cart in African Short Stories
Muller, Elise: Night at the Ford in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Mutwa, Vausamazulu Credo: Indaba, My Children
Myburgh, Constance: Hunter Emmanuel
Ndebele, S. Njabulo: The Prophetess in Contemporary African Short Stories
Nkosi, Lewis: Underground People
Paton, Alan: A Life for a Life in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Paton, Alan: Cry, the Beloved Country
Schierhout, Gill: Invocations to the Dead in A Life in Full and Other Stories

Seripe, Vuyo: Almost Cured of Sadness in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Smit, Barto: I take Back my Country in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Smith, Alex: Soulmates in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Themba, Can: The Suit in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Tshabangu, Mango: Thoughts in a Train in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Vladislavic, Ivan: The Brothers in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present
Wanner, Zukiswa: A Writer's Lot in African Roar 2011
Wicomb, Zoe: A Trip to the Gifberge in South African Short Stories from 1945 to Present

SUDAN
Aboulela, Leila: The Museum in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing
Aboulela, Leila: Fathers and Amulets in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Mahjoud, Jamal: Road Block in Contemporary African Short Stories
Salih, Tayeb: A handful of Dates in African Short Stories
Salih, Tayeb: Season of Migration to the North

TANZANIA
Gurnah, Abdulrazak: Bossy in African Short Stories
Mollel, Tololwa Marti: A Night Out in Contemporary African Short Stories
Vassanji, M.G.: Leaving in Contemporary African Short Stories

UGANDA

Baingana, Doreen: Tropical Fish, Tales from Entebbe

Bwesigye, Brian: Through the same Gate in African Roar 2013
Dila, Dilman: The Puppets of Maramudhu in African Roar 2013
Lamwaka, Beatrice: Butterfly Dreams
Nsengiyunva Nambozo, Beverley: Unjumping
Sifuniso, Monde: Night Thoughts in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing

ZAMBIA
Moyo, Dambisa: Dead Aid - Why Aid Makes things Worse and How there is another Way for Africa 
Serpell, Namwali: Muzungu in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Sinyangwe, Binwell: A Cowrie of Hope
ZANZIBAR
Gurnah, Abdulrazak: Cages in Contemporary African Short Stories

ZIMBABWE

Brakash, Jonathan: Running in Zimbabwe in Writing Free
Chikowero, Murenga Joseph: Uncle Jeffrey in African Roar 2011
Chikwava, Brian: The Wasp and the Fig Tree

Chikwava, Brian: Harare North
Chinodya, Shimmer: Dew in the Morning
Chinodya, Shimmer: Harvest of Thorns
Dangarembga, Tsitsi: Nervous Conditions

Dangarembga, Tsitsi: The Book of Not
Erlwanger, S. Alison: Home in African Roar 2013
Gappah, Petina: Miss McConkey of Bridgewater Close in Writing Free
Hartmann, W. Ivor & Sigauke, Emmanuel (Editors): African Roar 2010 
Hartmann, W. Ivor & Sigauke, Emmanuel (Editors): African Roar 2011
Hartmann, W. Ivor: Diner Ten in African Roar 2011
Hartmann, W. Ivor: Lost Love in African Roar 2010
Hove, Chenjerai: Shadows
Huchu, Tendai: The Hairdresser of Harare
Huchu, Tendai: Crossroads in Writing Free
Kerstein, Donna: The Situation in Writing Free
Kwabato, Ethel: Time's Footprints in Writing Free
Mabasa, Ignatius: The Novel Citizen in Writing Free
Mandishona, Daniel: A Wasted Land in Contemporary African Short Stories
Mandishona, Daniel: An Intricate Deception in Writing Free
Manyika, Sarah Ladipo: Girlfriend in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration
Marechera, Dambudzo: Protista in African Short Stories
Matambandzo, Isabella: The Missing in Writing Free
Mhangami-Ruwende, Barbara: Transitions in African Roar 2013
Mlalazi, Christopher: A Cicada in the Shimmer in African Roar 2010
Mlalazi, Christopher: When the Moon Stares in Writing Free
Mupfudzo, Ruzvidzo Stanley: Witch's Brew in African Roar 2011
Musarir, Blessing: Eloquent Notes on a Suicide: Case of the Silent Girl in Writing Free
Musengezi, Chiedzi: Crocodile Tails in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing
Musoda, Masimba: Yesterday's Dog in African Roar 2010 
Musiyiwa, Ambrose: Danfo Driver in Writing Free
Myambo Tandiwe Melissa: La Salle de Départ
Myambo Tandiwe Melissa: Deciduous Gazzettes in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing 
Ncube, Mbonisi P.: Chanting Shadows in African Roar 2011
Ndlovu, Gugu: The Barell of a Pen in Opening Spaces: Contemporary African Women's Writing
NoViolet Bulawayo (pseudonym) : Hitting Budapest
NoViolet Bulawayso: Main in African Roar 2011
NoViolet Mka (pseudonym): Shamisos in Writing Free
Nzenza, Sekai: The Donor's Visit in Writing Free
Sasa, Fungiyasi: Eyes On in Writing Free
Sigauke, Emmanuel (Editor): African Roar 2013

Sigauke, Emmanuel: African Wife in Writing Free
Sigauke, Emmanuel: Return to Moonlight in African Roar 2010 
Sigauke, Emmanuel: Snakes Will Follow You in African Roar 2011
Staunton, Irene (Editor): Writing Free
Tapureta, Beaven: Cost of Courage in African Roar 2010
Tshuma Novuyo Rosa: Big Pieces, Small Pieces in African Roar 2010 
Tshuma Novuyo Rosa: The King and I in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Tagwira, Valerie: The Journey in A Life in Full and Other Stories
Yvonne Vera (Editor): Opening Spaces: An Anthology of Contemporary African Women's Writing

OTHER COUNTRIES

Afghanistan
Hosseini, Khaled: The Kite Runner

America

Adams, Eleanor: Along Racial Lines in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Asimov, Isaac: The Foundation Trilogy
Bass, Sarah: To Rest in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Beare, Emma (Editor): Speeches that Changed the World
Brown, Dan: The Lost Symbol
Bryant, Sarah: Sand Daughter
Carroll, Jeff: No World Order in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Carter, Jimmy: Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis
Cather, Willa: Death Comes for the Archbishop
Daghetto, Arose N.: Rendezvou with Poverty in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Dike, W. Virginia: Birds of Our Land
Faulkner, William: Absalom, Absalom!
Ferris, Joshua: The Pilot
Fitzgeral, Scott F.: The Great Gatsby
Foer, Jonathan Safran: Here We Aren't, So Quickly
Franzen, Jonathan: The Corrections
Glaysher, Frederick: The Parliament of Poets 

Hall, Manly P.: The Secret Destiny of America

Harvey, Joan C. with Cynthia Katz: If I'm So Successful Why do I Feel Like a Fake, The Impostor Phenomenon
Heller, Joseph: Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man
Hemingway, Ernest: A Farewell to Arms
Henry, Veronica (Editor): Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Henry, Veronica: My Soul to Free in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Herbert, Frank: Dune Hill, Carrick Laban (Co-Editor): Look Where You Have Gone to Sit
Hill, Raymond: Fein, the Jew in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Hughes, Langston: The Best of Simple
Jones, Larrysha: Black in Love in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Jones, Ronald T.: Skyboat Strangers in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Kerouac, Jack: On the Road
Lee, Harper: To Kill a Mockingbird
Mark, Eddie: The Other Wife of Cranston Livingston in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Mark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Meyer, Philipp: What do You do Out There, When You're Alone
Moore, Lorrie: The Best American Short Stories
Morgan, C.E.: Twins
Morrison, Toni: Beloved
Morrison, Toni: The Bluest Eye
Morrison, Toni: Home

Morrison, Toni: Song of Solomon
Morrison, Toni: Sula

Nin, Anais: Delta of Venus

Obama, Barack: Dreams from my Father
Packer, ZZ: Dayward
Pearl, Matthew: The Dante Club
Puzo, Mario: The Godfather
Salinger, J.D.: The Catcher in the Rye
Scibona, Salvatore: The Kid
Shteyngart, Gary: Lenny Hearts Eunice
Sterling, Dorothy: Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman
Trudeau, G. B.: That's Doctor Sinatra, You Little Bimbo!

Vonnegut, Kurt: Cat's Cradle
Williams, Tennessee: A Streetcar Named Desire

Australia
Carey, Peter: Oscar and Lucinda
DBC Pierre: Vernon God Little
Innes, C.L. and Chinua Achebe (Editors): Contemporary African Short Stories
Leonard, Fiona: The Chicken Thief
Zusak, Markus: The Book Thief

Austria
Musil, Robert: The Confusions of Young Torless

Britain

Austen, Jane: PersuasionAusten, Jane: Pride and Prejudice
Austen, Jane: Northanger Abbey

Bronte, Emily: Wuthering Heights

Byatt, A.S.: Possession
Faulks, Sebastian: Devil May Care
Golding, William: Lord of the Flies

Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Hardy, Thomas: Jude the Obscure
Huxley, Aldous: Brave New World
Jenkins, Barbara: That Old Black Magic in Bloodlines - Tales from the African Diaspora
Maugham, W. Somerset: Theatre
McEwan, Ian: Amsterdam
McEwan, Ian: Atonement
McEwan, Ian: On Chesil Beach
McEwan, Ian: Saturday

Orwell, George: 1984
Orwell, George: Animal Farm

Ridley, Matt: The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
Rooney, David: Kwame Nkrumah: Vision and Tragedy
Shelley, Mary: Frankenstein

Smith, Zadie: White Teeth
Watson, Winifred: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Woolf, Virginia: Mrs. Dalloway

Bulgaria
Canetti, Elias: Auto da Fe

Canada

Atwood, Margaret: Oryx and Crake
Atwood, Margaret: The Handmaid's Tale
Galchen, Rivka: The Entire Northern Side was Covered with Fire
Martel, Yann: Life of Pi
Ondaatje, Michael: The English Patient
Thomas, Catt: Such a Cold Country in Fathers & Daughters - an Anthology of Exploration

Chile
Bolano, Roberto: The Last Evenings on Earth

China
Sun Tzu: The Art of War

Cuba
Moore, Carlos: Fela, This Bitch of a Life

Germany

Kafka, Franz: The Castle
Kafka, Franz: The Trial

Greece
Sophocles: Oedipus Rex

India
Desai, Kiran: The Inheritance of Loss
Roy, Arundhati: The God of Small Things
Rushdie, Salman (also British): Fury
Rushdie, Salman (also British): Midnight's Children

Iran
Nafisi, Azar: Reading Lolita in Tehran

Italy
Levi, Primo: The Periodic Table

Lebanon
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas (also American): Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas (also American): The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Norway
Ibsen, Henrik: An Enemy of the People

Portugal
Saramago, Jose: Blindness

Russia
Dostoevsky, Fyodor: Crime and Punishment
Dostoevsky, Fyodor: The Karamazov Brothers
Gogol, Nikolai V.: The Government Inspector
Tolstoy, Leo: War and Peace (Volume I, II, III & IV)
Tolstoy, Leo: Anna Karenina

Scotland
Smith, Alexander McCall: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency 

Trinidad and Tobago
Naipaul, V.S. (also British): A Bend in the River

Naipaul, V.S. (also British): A House for Mr. Biswas