Review This Year in Books With the Best African Literature of 2024
Brittle Paper has unveiled their yearly celebration of the best African storytelling: 100 books that made an impact across genres and countries.
The visual culture around books is at an all-time high, as is evident in the stunning book covers.
If you're looking to add some incredible African stories to your bookshelf, Brittle Paper’s100 Notable African Books of 2024 is a great place to start. This year’s roundup highlights standout works across genres — poetry, speculative fiction, memoirs, children’s books and more.
Since its launch in 2018, Brittle Paper has celebrated the depth and diversity of African storytelling. The 2024 list features books from 25 countries, including first-timers like Western Sahara and Mauritius. It continues the tradition of spotlighting debut authors, who make up 30 percent of the selections — a testament to the continent's thriving literary scene.
Brittle Paper describes their process as a year-long tracking of English-published African books, followed by selecting “100 titles that made an impact — whether they sparked important conversations, tackled unique themes, introduced underrepresented worlds, or simply stood out for their exceptional writing.”
This year, the list includes works from authors across several African countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Namibia, Rwanda, Sudan, Libya, Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa. Notable titles include Half Portraits Underwater by Kenya’sDennis Mugaa, Pemi Aguda’s groundbreaking short story collection Ghostroots, which has beenlonglisted for the 2024 National Book Prize, and South African comedian Trevor Noah’s debut novel, Into the Cut Grass.
Other highlights include Hisham Matar’s Booker Prize-nominated novel about friendship and exile, My Friends, and Angolan novelist Ondjaki's speculative fiction masterpiece, Our Beautiful Darkness.
In herintroduction, Brittle Paper’s Editor-in-Chief,Ainehi Edoro, remarked on how challenging it was to curate this year’s list because of the sheer volume of excellent books coming out of the continent. “Fiction remains dominant, but poetry had a strong showing. The visual culture around books is at an all-time high, as is evident in the stunning book covers. Contemporary African writing is still fiercely Pan-African,” she added.
Brittle Paper’s 100 Notable African Books of 2024tells us everything we need to know about today’s African literary scene: it only keeps improving. From debut authors to seasoned favorites across different genres and themes, the list reminds us of the power of African storytelling to captivate minds and inspire readers everywhere.
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