25 New Books by African Authors to Expect in 2025 | The Republic
25 New Books by African Authors to Expect in 2025
2025 promises exciting new book releases from African authors such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Laila Lalami, Ben Okri, Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, and more. Read the full list of books to expect this year.
Written by Ijapa O and Peace Yetunde Onafuye
Jan 26, 2025
As a new year begins, one of the most exciting prospects for book lovers is checking out new book releases. And it seems like 2025 is shaping up to be an interesting one. From celebrated literary icons like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Nobel laureate, Abdulrazak Gurnah, to debut voices such as Olufunke Grace Bankole and Tochi Eze, these forthcoming books span various genres, themes, and continents, showcasing the diversity of African storytelling. Whether you’re drawn to tales of forbidden love, speculative futures, or stories on identity and history—our selections are a testament to the depth of literary ideas from Africa and the diaspora.
Here are 25 books by African authors to look forward to in 2025.
In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s highly anticipated novel, Dream Count, she follows the lives of four women: Chiamaka, Zikora, Omelogor, and Kadiatou.
Chiamaka, a Nigerian travel writer based in America, is alone during the pandemic. Having no current romantic partner, she finds herself constantly remembering the past with her past lovers, struggling to come to terms with her choices and her regrets. On the other hand, Zikora, her best friend, is recently heartbroken, having suffered a betrayal from her lover. Where before she was a confident, successful lawyer with the Midas touch, she now has to turn to the person she thought she least needed to survive.
Omelogor is Chiamaka’s cousin, a ‘financial powerhouse’ in Nigeria, bold and outspoken. But she begins to wonder if she really knows herself as much as she thought she did. Finally, Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America. But when things get too hard, everything she has worked hard to achieve seems likely to go down the drain.
In this book, Adichie explores profound questions about the nature of love, happiness, honesty, and self-knowledge with ‘emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations on the human heart.’
It is 1978 and Nancy has just moved from Gambia to Sweden on a scholarship. There, she meets Lars, a charismatic scholar with whom she promptly falls in love. But she soon discovers the storm beneath his steady surface, and the dangers of being pulled into his world.
Decades later, in 2006, Nancy’s daughter, Tina, has become a beloved popstar. She enjoys the glitz and glamour, but beneath all that is the nagging question of who she really is. Her mother is no help: she seems desperate to keep her past a secret. Desperate to find out, Tina takes the opportunity an unexpected figure presents to learn about the past.
THE EDGE OF WATER AUTHOR: OLUFUNKE GRACE BANKOLE GENRE: FICTION EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: FEBRUARY 2025
In this stunning debut, Nigerian author Olufunke Grace Bankole contemplates the mother-daughter bond, exploring folklore, traditional religion, and Yoruba Christianity.
When a mother receives a prophecy that her daughter will come to danger in America, it is enough reason to panic. But she nonetheless supports her daughter, sending her off the new country with her fingers crossed.
Not long after Amina arrives in New Orleans, the city suffers a hurricane, an event that upturns her life, hopes and dreams. Years later, Amina’s daughter is desperate for answers about her mother’s life and the family she left behind in Nigeria.
The Edge of Water is the story of a young woman ‘brave enough to leave all she knows behind, and the way her fate transforms a family destined to stay together.’
THE CATCH AUTHOR: YRSA DALEY-WARD EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: JUNE 2025
English writer of Nigerian and Jamaican descent, Yrsa Daley-Ward was previously known for her spoken word poetry and her 2017 poetry collection, Bone. Now, in 2025, the author is set to make a fiction debut with her novel, The Catch.
Described as a ‘darkly whimsical debut about women daring to live and create with impunity’, The Catch follows the lives of twin sister Clara and Dempsey, who are ‘all but estranged’. Their difficulty in relating with each other is made final after their mother vanished into the Thames in their childhood. Now, many years later, as adults, the sisters barely talk—that is, until Clara, now a celebrity author, runs into a woman who looks exactly like their mother; a woman who hasn’t aged a day!
SOMADINA AUTHOR:AKWAEKE EMEZI EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: APRIL 2025
Somadina and her twin brother, Jayaike, are practically the same person: they finish each other’s sentences and make each other whole. When the twins come of age, their magical gifts begin to develop, but while Jayaike’s powers enchant, Somadina’s cause fear to ripple through her town.
Always an outsider, Somadina now faces blatant and dangerous hostility. And things go from bad to worse when her brother—the one person she trusted—vanishes. Somadina knows that no matter the dangers, she must track him down. Even if it means entering the Sacred Forest. Even if it means gruelling, otherworldly travel she may not survive. Even if it means finding the hidden places where those closest to the spirit world don’t dare to go. Does Somadina have the strength—within both her body and her soul—for the trying journey ahead?
THIS KIND OF TROUBLE AUTHOR: TOCHI EZE EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: AUGUST 2025
It is 1960 in Lagos, and a headstrong Nigerian woman, Margaret, meets Benjamin, a British-born young man on a mission to connect with his roots after the death of his half-Nigerian father. The two immediately fall in love. Along the line, they find that their pasts are more interlinked than either of them would have ever guessed. Struggling to come to terms with this discovery, the ripple effects of events that happened a long time ago in their ancestral community, and Margaret’s failing mental health, the two eventually break up.
Almost 40 years later, Margaret and Benjamin are completely estranged, living alone in different parts of the world. But when their grandson starts to manifest the symptoms of Margaret’s past struggles, the estranged couple must come together to address the issues they had dismissed in the past. This debut novel is a story about forbidden love and family legacies.
THEFT AUTHOR: ABDULRAZAK GURNAH EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: MARCH 2025
Tanzanian author, Abdulrazak Gurnah, sets his first novel since winning the Nobel prize in 2021 in an era of ‘dizzying’ change in Tanzania.
It is the 1990s, and three young people are coming of age. There is Karim, who has just finished university and swaggers about, filled with hope for his future and his country. For Fauzia, he presents an opportunity to escape her oppressive family. Then, there is Badar, a poor boy serving in Karim’s parents house. The three develop a touching friendship. But a false accusation of theft levelled against Badar suddenly shatters everything, revealing the true nature of each character and what it means to take fate into your own hands.
SALUTATION ROAD AUTHOR: SALMA IBRAHIM GENRE: FICTION EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: FEBRUARY 2025
In Somali author Salma Ibrahim’s 2025 novel, a young woman takes a life-changing trip to an alternate timeline.
Sirad Ali is 23 years old, with a life she is dissatisfied with. As a child, she was abandoned by her father and now exerts her time and energy supporting her mother and brother in a small flat in South London.
However, when, one morning, she boards a bus to work and ends up in an alternate timeline in Mogadishu, where she meets an unrecognizable version of her family. She meets her double, Utah, and gets a glimpse of the life she would have had if her parents had not escaped to London during the Somali Civil War.
Back home in London, she is able to better contextualize her life, overwhelmed by her mysterious new-found knowledge. She expects to forget the mysterious experience, until, one day, she stumbles on Utah in London!
A SEASON OF LIGHT AUTHOR: JULIE IROMUANYA GENRE: FICTION EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: FEBRUARY 2025
Nigerian author Julie Iromuanya’s A Season of Light is a touching meditation on the trauma of war and violence.
Fidelis Ewerike, a Florida-based barrister, poet, and former prisoner of war of the Nigerian Civil War, has a visceral reaction to the abduction of 276 schoolgirls in Nigeria. He finds himself suddenly consumed by the memories of his younger sister, Ugochi, who went missing during the war.
Overwhelmed, Fidelis becomes convinced that his 16-year-old daughter, Amara, who uncannily resembles Ugochi, will meet the same fate as Ugochi. This causes him to lock his beloved daughter up in her bedroom with no explanation. When Amara finally escapes, she falls in love with Maksym Kostyk, the son of the town drunk, and hatches a plan to run away with him.
ÀÁNÚÌFẸ́ AUTHOR: LARA T. KAREEM GENRE: FICTION EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: JANUARY 2025
After a series of personal setbacks, Ina retreats to her grandparents’ old home in Onilewa, a village alive with cherished memories from her childhood. As she immerses herself in the village’s gentle rhythms, the echoes of her past resurface, forcing her to confront the wounds she had long tried to escape. Amidst the beauty of Onilewa and the warmth of its people, Ina discovers that strength arises from vulnerability, connection, and the courage to rebuild. With new beginnings on the horizon, she must decide whether to embrace the life unfolding before her or remain anchored to the weight of her past.
Àànú Ifẹ́ is a tender and poignant tale of friendship, self-discovery, and the enduring power of starting over. Through evocative prose and a deeply reflective narrative, Lara T. Kareem captures the delicate nuances of emotional resilience, inviting readers to explore what it truly means to face one’s past and embrace the uncertainty of the future.
THE DREAM HOTEL AUTHOR: LAILA LALAMI GENRE: FICTION EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: MARCH 2025
Imagine a world where the government could see your dreams. That’s exactly what Moroccan-American author Laila Lalami does in her upcoming novel, The Dream Hotel, set in a near future.
When Sara, a young woman, lands at the airport, returning from a conference, she is pulled aside by agents from the Risk Assessment Administration, who tell her that based on data from her dreams, she will soon harm her husband, the person she loves most in the world. For this reason, they say, they have to keep her under surveillance for three weeks. Sara is transferred to a retention centre, where she meets other ‘dreamers’, women accused of different imminent crimes. But three weeks elapse, and then months pass, but Sara is not released from the facility. One day, a new ‘dreamer’ arrives, bringing with her an opportunity for Sara to confront the powers that have deprived her of freedom.
THE WATKINS BOOK OF AFRICAN FOLKLORE AUTHOR: HELEN NDE GENRE: FICTION EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: MARCH 2025
In The Watkins Book of African Folklore, Cameroonian author, Helen Nde collects 50 profound and entertaining African folktales in beautiful, resonant prose. This book include tales from Tanzania, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and more.
From Algeria, for example, Nde brings us ‘The Story of the First Man and Woman’, in which the first man and woman bond over their struggles to access a well and then go on to populate the world with 100 human children. From Zimbabwe, there is ‘The Moon and His Wives’, the story of the moon, which becomes the first man on earth after asking the creator to transform him into a mortal being and send him to earth.
The tales collected here are well-researched and expertly told, a delight for anyone interested in folktales and mythology.
THE CREATION OF HALF-BROKEN PEOPLE AUTHOR: SIPHIWE GLORIA NDLOVU GENRE: FICTION EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: APRIL 2025
Described as a ‘stupendous African gothic’ novel, The Creation of Half-Broken People is the story of an unnamed woman disturbed by visions. An employee of the Good Foundation and its museum, established in honour of the Good family, she is quite pleased with her life. That is, until she stumbles on a group of protesters outside the museum, egged on by an ‘ancient’ woman our unnamed heroine knows is not real. Suddenly, our heroine knows that the past has caught up with her, and she flees, ending up in a haunted castle.
This is a novel about how the past continues to haunt the present, and the impact of colonialism, patriarchy, and capitalism on ‘normalizing a certain kind of womanhood.’
British-Nigerian author Irenosen Okojie’s 2025 novel, Curandera, spans centuries and continents. It begins in the 17th century, in the Gethsemane, Cape Verde, where the mysterious arrival of Zulmira sets of a series of strange events. Zulmira is a devotee of Oni, an omnipotent god known for vengefulness. In Cape Verde, Zulmira develops a close relationship with a fisherman, Domingos, and his wife and daughter, Marguerite and Sueli, as the strange occurrences in the Gethsemane multiply, leading to a fracturing of time and space.
Centuries later, in present-day London, a botanist, Therese, and three housemates, Azacca, Emilien, and Finn are bound by a shared descent to Oni. After journey to another realm to complete a secret mission for the god, they return with a ‘bleeding ribcage, flowering intoxicating fruit’, growing increasingly powerful. They will soon discover the true costs of serving Oni.
THE TINY THINGS ARE HEAVIER AUTHOR: ESTHER IFESINACHI OKONKWO GENRE: FICTION EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: JUNE 2025
Sommy, a young Nigerian woman, has just arrived in the United States for graduate school. She should be thrilled, but the struggle to fit into her new life as an immigrant student is overwhelming. Coupled with that is the fact that just two weeks before she arrived in the United States, her brother, Mezie, attempted suicide, and Sommy is now filled with guilt about leaving home.
Sommy soon starts a relationship with Bayo, her Nigerian roommate, but when she meets Bryan, a biracial American with an estranged Nigerian father, she cannot resist falling in love with him. Soon, both Sommy and Bryan take a trip to Lagos, Nigeria. Sommy hopes to reconcile with her brother, and Bryan hopes connect with his estranged father. But neither knows just how much disarray is in store for them.
The Tiny Things are Heavier is a story about immigration, love, grief, and family.
DEATH OF THE AUTHOR AUTHOR: NNEDI OKORAFOR GENRE: FICTION EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: JANUARY 2025
Nnedi Okorafor’s new book takes readers on a roller coaster ride with its deft handling of two distinct plots which echo each other.
Zelu is a Nigerian-American whose life is suddenly turned upside down: she is sacked from her job as an associate professor of creative writing and simultaneously receives yet another rejection for her novel. Struck by despair, and with nothing to lose, she begins to write another novel, an entirely strange novel set in a distant, post-human life world of robots and artificial intelligence, a story that is subsequently accepted for publication and quickly becomes a bestseller.
Okorafor alternates deftly between these two stories: Zelu’s personal story and the story of the robots, giving readers an exciting book-within-book experience. In both stories, characters must learn to overcome their shame and embrace self-acceptance and forgiveness.
MADAME SOSOSTRIS AND THE FESTIVAL FOR THE BROKENHEARTED AUTHOR: BEN OKRI GENRE: FICTION EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: MARCH 2025
Where do you go for reprieve when the love of your life suddenly abandons you? Viv, the English protagonist of Nigerian author Ben Okri’s 2025 novel thinks she has found an answer. On the 20th anniversary of her first husband abandoning her, Viv decides to throw an unconventional party for abandoned lovers. She plans this party with her second husband, Alan, and their best friends, Beatrice and Stephen.
When she meets the popular fortune-teller, Madame Sosostris, she knows she must invite her to perform the headline act at her party. Viv expects a successful party; little does she know how awry the night will go!
HARMATTAN SEASON AUTHOR: TOCHI ONYEBUCHI GENRE: FICTION EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: MAY 2025
Bouba, short for Boubacar, is not very lucky. A veteran and private eye, he can’t find work, and, even worse, always seems to be in trouble. He wants to be left alone this harmattan season to figure out how to pay his bills, but a bleeding woman stumbles onto his doorway. This pulls him into events far grander than him, as he learns the secrets of a city on the brink of violence.
Harmattan Season is Nigerian author Tochi Onyebuchi’s gripping fantasy noir novel that is just as funny as it is unforgettable.
Eloghosa Osunde’s follow-up to her well-received 2022 Vagabonds! is a novel populated with characters searching for love and family. Set in Lagos, these queer characters defy society, parents, spouses, and friends to pursue the truest expressions of their selves. As they work towards a place in Lagos’s creative industry, we get glimpses of their dreams, hopes and fears, and the necessary fictions they have to believe to survive in the city.
In this novel, Osunde raises profound questions: What makes a family? Who defines it, and how? Is freedom truly for everyone?
ESPERANCE AUTHOR: ADAM OYEBANJI GENRE: FICTION EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: MAY 2025
Adam Oyebanji’s 2025 novel, Esperance, is ‘a whip-smart thriller in the vein of Blake Crouch, Andy Weir, and Neal Stephenson.’ With a setting spanning both the United States and England, the story follows the investigations of Detective Ethan Krol, who seeks to unravel the mystery of a father and son found dead by drowning in a Chicago apartment hundreds of miles from the ocean.
In England, there is Abidemi Eniola, who has just arrived and is claiming to be Nigerian. A tech whiz, she has with her several heirlooms that need to be returned to their owner, a mission that her new friend Hollie Rogers is excited to hop on. But neither Abidemi nor her heirlooms are quite what they seem, and Hollie is about to have an unforgettable experience she never bargained for.
THE AFRICAN URBAN ECHOES EDITORS: OLÁJÍDÉ SALAWU AND RAZAQ MALIK GENRE: POETRY EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: JANUARY 2025
This anthology of poems edited by Nigerian poets Olájídé Salawu and Razaq Malik brings together several poets from across Africa, including the ones based in Western countries like Canada, to comment on ‘the echoes of resistance, hope, and anxieties all produced simultaneously by African urban centers in their polyvalences and unique characters.’ The poets collected in this anthology, including Jumoke Verissimo, Uchechukwu Umezurike, James Yeku and Tolu Oloruntoba, present a picture of cities as lives and lives as cities, compelling us ‘to see both the defined and undefined beauties of African cities through sublime experiences captured in disparate forms and network of images.’
Ugandan poet Tramaine Suubi takes the moon as her inspiration in her 2025 collection, Phases: Poems. She considers the phases of the moon, from Waning Gibbous to Full, reflecting on their effects on water, the Earth, and human bodies. She explores a wide range of emotions, making a commentary with each poem on the power of ‘the cyclical healing that occurs in nature, in our bodies, and in the bodies that have come before us.’
EVERYTHING IS FINE HERE AUTHOR: IRYN TUSHABE GENRE: FICTION EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: APRIL 2025
In Everything is Fine Here, Iryn Tushabe takes on the loaded subject of homosexuality in a restrictive society. In this ‘tender coming of age novel’, a young woman must learn to defy societal norms to love her queer sister. When Mbabazi comes home with her partner, her younger sister Aine is confronted by the truth of Mbabazi’s sexuality. But in spite of her initial hesitations, Aine comes to fully accept her sister’s sexuality, and to even grow quite close to Mbabazi’s partner, Achen. However, their mother, Mrs Kamara, a staunch Christian, remains unyielding. Unable to accommodate her elder daughter’s sexuality within her Christian beliefs, she issues Mbabazi and her partner an ultimatum that eventually sees them out of the house. Unable to accept their mother’s judgement, Aine runs away to live with Mbabazi and Achen in their home in Kamapala, where she reunites with Elia, a girl she has a crush on.
GRACE AUTHOR: CHIKA UNIGWE GENRE: FICTION EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: APRIL 2025 (BOOK COVER NOT AVAILABLE)
Grace is a successful young woman with her own hospital. She is happily married with twin daughters and a good life. But a terrible secret threatens to ruin her happiness. When her estranged mother turns up at her house asking questions, Grace is compelled to reveal the truth about her secret pregnancy 26 years ago, when she was only 15. She gave up the child from that pregnancy and has since never set eyes on her. Will Grace’s family forgive her for this terrible secret? And, more importantly, will Baby, the long-lost child from the pregnancy?
In this novel about ‘agency and forgiveness’, Chika Unigwe explores the ethics of modern motherhood.
WHEN WE ONLY HAVE THE EARTH AUTHOR: ABDOURAHMAN A. WABERI GENRE: POETRY EXPECTED PUBLICATION DATE: MARCH 2025
According to When We Only Have the Earth is a collection of poems by French-Djiboutian essayist, novelist and poet, Abdourahman A.Waberi, written as an ‘ode to the earth and all its living creatures.’ In this moving collection, Waberi considers the state of the planet, taking us from Africa to North America and Europe. He laments the imperilled planet, showing us its beauty and ‘daring us to love the earth beyond all rational thought.’ The book is translated into English by Nancy Naomi Carlson⎈
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