It has been an interesting year in the African literary landscape. 2023 has produced memorable debuts and works by established authors that have lived up to the hype. At
The Republic, we started 2023 with a guide to exciting African books to expect in the calendar year. In our list of
23 African Books to Expect in 2023, we highlighted books such as the 2023 Booker Prize shortlisted novel,
A Spell of Good Things, by Nigerian author,
Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀. Another book we were looking forward to ahead of the year was
River Spiritby award-winning Sudanese novelist,
Leila Aboulela. In our
interview with Aboulela, she revealed that she ‘decided to centre the voice of a woman in
River Spiritbecause women are merely footnotes in the historical records.’ Our list of new releases also featured Stephen Buoro’s debut,
The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa. In our
review of this novel, Kenechukwu Nwokedi described Buoro’s debut as ‘an unabashedly Nigerian novel, unwavering in how it depicts the surreality of average Nigerian life while determined not to coddle readers who may not understand its idiosyncrasies.’ All of these books and more made it to our 2023 August Reading list.
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