7 Books That Are Time Machines in Disguise

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One of the great pleasures of reading is that it can transport you to a different place. Without moving, you can travel miles, crossing oceans and deserts from the warmth of your couch. Just as books can take you to different places, they can also transport you through time. By reading a good novel, you can travel back hundreds, or even thousands, of years to eras so distinct from your own that they seem unrecognizable.

In our latest book recommendation, we have compiled a list of seven books that are time machines in disguise. These books will take you from the Nigerian civil war era to pre-apartheid South Africa, and even many centuries back to the expedition that brought the first African to the Americas.

Read our recommendations below.

Half of a Yellow Sun

Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Genre: Fiction

Half of a Yellow Sun is Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s masterpiece, which takes readers several decades back to the Nigerian Civil War years and the years immediately preceding it. The novel follows a set of characters, including a university professor, Odenigbo; his housekeeper, Ugwu; his lover, Olanna, the daughter of a rich businessman; her twin sister, Kainene; as well as Kainene’s lover, the British expatriate, Richard, all of whose lives are deeply affected by the war. More than giving readers a history lesson, Adichie goes into the intimate details that history seldom covers, portraying the realities of the minor as well as major events of history. She paints a vivid picture of the ‘60s Nigeria and the ugliness of life in a war-torn country.