• So Long a Letter (African Writers Series)

    Written by award-winning African novelist Mariama Ba and translated from the original French, So Long a Letter has been recognized as one of Africa’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century. The brief narrative, written as an extended letter, is a sequence of reminiscences—some wistful, some bitter—recounted by recently widowed Senegalese schoolteacher Ramatoulaye Fall. Addressed to a lifelong friend, Aissatou, it is a record of Ramatoulaye’s emotional struggle for survival after her husband betrayed their marriage by taking a second wife. This semi-autobiographical account is a perceptive testimony to the plight of educated and articulate Muslim women. Angered by the traditions that allow polygyny, they inhabit a social milieu dominated by attitudes and values that deny them status equal to men. Ramatoulaye hopes for a world where the best of old customs and new freedom can be combined.Considered a classic of contemporary African women’s literature, So Long a Letter is a must-read for anyone interested in African literature and the passage from colonialism to modernism in a Muslim country.

    Winner of the prestigious Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.

  • The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (African Writers Series, AWS43)

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    A railway freight clerk in Ghana attempts to hold out against the pressures that impel him toward corruption in both his family and his country. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born is the novel that catapulted Ayi Kwei Armah into the limelight. The novel is generally a satirical attack on the Ghanaian society during Kwame Nkrumah’s regime and the period immediately after independence in the 1960s. It is often claimed to rank with Things Fall Apart as one of the high points of post-colonial African Literature.
  • The Girl Who Can (African Writers Series)

    In The Girl Who Can, the irrepressible Ama Ata Aidoo looks at the roles and rules, and the games people find themselves playing, often unwillingly. She analyses African women’s struggle to find their rightful place in society. Her stories raise issues of choice and conflict, teasing about the issues with disarming frankness. How do people behave in cross-cultural relationships? In the modern world, where a plastic label identifies us, what is our identity? Will African women be in the driving seat in the twenty-first century? With the zest and humour, Aidoo raises these questions and provides some challenging answers.

    In this collection of short stories, Aidoo elevates the mundane in women’s lives to an intellectual level in an attempt at challenging patriarchal structures and dominance in African society. Written from a child’s perspective, Aidoo subverts the traditional beliefs and assumptions about the child’s voice. Her inimitable sense of style and eloquence, explores love, marriage and relationships with all the issues they throw up for the contemporary African woman. In doing so, she manages to capture the very essence of womanhood.

  • The Concubine (African Writers Series, AWS25)

    Ihuoma, a beautiful young widow, has the admiration of the entire community in which she lives, and especially of the hunter Ekwueme. Obedient to the expectations of the traditional society they belong to, they forswear their love so that Ekwueme can marry the girl to whom he had been betrothed since birth. But their passion is fated and jealousy, a love potion and the closeness of the spirit world lift this simple tale on to a tragic plane.
  • Mine Boy (African Writers Series, AWS6)

    When Xuma move to Johannesburg he is a naive country boy, but the impact of harsh city life awakens him to the new ways and values of  radically different world. His vision of a ‘man without colour’, a raceless society, is shattered by the realities of his underprivileged existence.
    First published in 1946, this novel was one of the first books to expose universally the condition of black South Africans under a white regime. Abrahams’ forceful but restrained images of discrimination in the gold mines, the appalling housing and Xuma’s simple, humanitarian act of defiance, struck a chord around the world. Mine Boy has remained a central influence on South African fiction for over fifty years.
  • A Man of the People (African Writers Series, AWS31)

    As Minister for Culture, the Honourable M. A. Nanga is ‘a man of the people’, as cynical as he is charming, and a roguish opportunist. At first, the contrast between Nanga and Odili, a former pupil who is visiting the ministry, appears huge. But in the ‘eat-and-let-eat’ atmosphere, Odili’s idealism soon collides with his lusts – and the two men’s personal and political tauntings threaten to send their country into chaos. Published, prophetically, just days before Nigeria’s first attempted coup in 1966, A Man of the People is an essential part of his body of work dealing with modern African history.

  • The Housemaid (African Writers Series)

    A dead baby and bloodstained clothes are discovered near a small village. Everyone is ready to comment on the likely story behind the abandoned infant. The men have one opinion, the women another. As the story rapidly unfolds it becomes clear that seven different women played their part in the drama. All of them are caught in a web of superstition, ignorance, greed and corruption.

  • The Lost Royal Treasure

    “As soon as the children entered the cave, several pairs of rough hands grabbed them and bound them. Yaa was too scared to talk, she fainted.”

    When Koku and Kakra eagerly agree to accompany Prof Kumah and his daughter Yaa Asantewaa on an archeological expedition, they are unaware of the dangers that lie ahead of them. Whatever will the children do when they are lured into the mountain containing the lost royal treasure of Bepowase and are trapped by Boss, the evil head of a galamsey syndicate?

  • The Mystery of the Haunted House

    This book was awarded a Burt Award for African Literature, Ghana 2010. The Burt Award for African Literature is a new literary prize that the recognizes excellence in young adult fiction from Africa.

    “He continued reading about the different methods of grafting, about how to cut and store and protect scions and what the best time for planting was. The light from the torch began to grow dim. Koku checked the time. It was almost midnight, he had been reading for almost two hours. He had to sleep now or he would never wake up on time in the morning for his lessons. He switched off his torch and turned unto his side still excited. He was dozing off when he heard a sound and sat up. He couldn’t exactly say what it was but heard it. He got out of bed and tiptoed down to the hall. A light glowed dimly from the family room. Was it TV? His parents forbade them from watching late night movies but occasionally he and Sena disobeyed them and sneaked downstairs anyway. But if it was TV how come there was no sound? He stuck his head round the wall. Sena was behind the computer, her fingers pecking at the keyboard quickly. What was she doing? And who was she chatting with?”

  • Perfectly Imperfect

    Yayra Amenyo’s life is no longer perfect and these are the reasons why:

     

    1. She killed her father

    2. Her mother acts like everything is normal when it isn’t

    3. Her boyfriend is on ‘a break’ with her

    4. She looks like a freak

    5. She’s moved to a town far from anyone she knows

    6. She has to repeat Form Two in SHS.

     

    Could her life get any worse? Will she ever get her life to be as perfect as it once was?

  • The God’s Daughter

    Jackie Vance and her daughter Ama visit Ghana at the invitation of Mae Brown, an anthropology professor on sabbatical at the University of Cape Coast Ghana. While touring the female slave quarters at Elmina Castle, the largest castle in Africa built by the Portuguese in 1482, Jackie, channelling an Ashanti princess who was captured during the British-Ashanti war, goes into a reverie about the horrifying experiences of the women who lived there several hundred years ago. Jackie was a proud and hot-tempered Ashanti princess called Nana Yaa who was captured during one of the British-Ashanti wars.

  • Serwah: The Saga of an African Princess

    Serwah — tall, elegant, strong-willed and having the kind of beauty which inspire songs — uses wisdom to win her prince. Owusu – handsome and the heartthrob of every girl, a breaker of hearts, finally meets his match in Serwah, whom he desperately seeks to conquer. Can the love of two strong-willed royals survive the upheavals of true love?

    The novel is full of remarkable insights into some cultural practices including naming ceremonies, betrothals, marriages, funerals, and the installation of chiefs in Ghana.

  • Fate’s Promise

    Sequel to the Lost Princess.

    They say that the path of true love never did run smoothly. Prince Gyakari and Princess Batoma’s relationship has entered a fiery phase where their love and loyalties are tested. As with true love, other combatants are always involved. Prince Darkwa of Mrem will try everything he has to separate these two lovers and he has a partner in Princess Afrakoma, who would stop at nothing to do the same. Can their love survive the wicked machinations of this deadly duo? Will another combatant from Gyakari’s own royal house, Prince Bonsu, who was willing to eliminate him, succeed in turning the tables on Gyakari in order to win Batoma’s love?

  • Trinity High: Students in Crime (Trinity High Vol 1)

    High is full of adventure, mischief and fun. It tells the story of Naa Atswei, a form one girl, who together with her friends, discover that boarding house life for the nino is not just filled with terror…in some cases, you just might be able to call the shots! Naa Atswei and her friends plunge into one adventure after the other, whether it is getting out of trouble with the sixth formers, or evading the “beloved” cane of Mr. Aseidu, the French teacher.

  • Trinity High: Investigation Galore (Trinity High Vol 3)

    The third novel in the Trinity High Series, Investigation Galore is equally full of adventure, mischief and fun as its predecessors. Naa Atswei and her compatriots have finally escaped nino status and are seniors in their own right! The book is about life in form two at Trinity High. Join Naa, the sleuth and her associates as they stretch their investigative limits while they strive to keep seniors in check!

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