It's that time of the year when the 'Best books of [fill in year]' lists are released, and this year (as with previous years), I love to find out which African books made it on to the lists. Well, over on the NYT no African books were on the editors of of the NYT Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2016, but not to worry BuzzFeed - whose list of 24 best fiction books of 2016 is pretty awesome - cites Helen Oyeyemi's What is Not Yours is Not Yours and Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing. Canada's The Globe & Mail also lists Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing as one of their 100 best books of the year, while on the Slate, Laura Miller's 10 Favourite Books of 2016 includes Helen Oyeyemi's What is Yours is Not Yours
On the FT, Petinah Gappah makes it clear that her favorite books this year are by African authors:
Some of my favorite books this year were published by Cassava Republic ... Particularly striking was 'Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun' by Sarah Ladipo Manyika, a lyrical novel about the pains and pleasures of aging and lives well-lived. I also enjoyed Elnathan John's 'Born on a Tuesday', a sensitive coming-of-age novel set in northern Nigeria, and I loved Abubakar Adam Ibrahim's wonderful 'Season of Crimson Blossoms', an unexpected intergenerational love story set against the menacing background of political violence. Cassava Republic was also the first publisher to recognize the talents of Teju Cole, whose 'Known and Strange Things' (Faber/Random House) is my non-fiction book of the year.
Nnedi Okorafor's novella Binti and Nick Wood's debut adult novel Azanian Bridges are a couple of the Guardian's best SF and Fantasy books of 2016. While one of the Guardian's best fiction of 2016 is JM Cotzee's The Schooldays of Jesus.
While one of the Guardian's best fiction of 2016 is JM Cotzee's The Schooldays of Jesus.
Clearly it's still early days and over the next couple of weeks there will be more 'best of' lists produced. While it seems like the frontrunners are Homegoing and What is Not Yours is Not Yours, it's really refreshing to see African SFF on the Guardian's Best SFF list. I eagerly await the other lists, but for now - what were some of your favorite (African) books published this year?
