Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Published in 1958, Things Fall Apart is one of the most celebrated books in African and world literature. One of the main characters of this story is Okonkwo who embodies a lot of negative traits that he tries to justify as a positive. Now on the verge of being colonized by the British, Okonkwo looks to his ancestors for their wisdom to help him survive. —Erika Hardison

Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah

In this first novel since his 2021 Nobel Prize win, three young people — Karim, Fauzia, and Badar — come of age in Tanzania at the turn of the 21st century. Karim has returned home from college with new confidence, and Fauzia sees in him a chance for escape. Together, they help Badar see a life outside of poverty, even if he’s still uncertain about his future. Though they are together, they’ll have to determine what their ever-changing world has in store for each of them.

Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite

This is a literary horror novel from Oyinkan Braithwaite, author of My Sister, the Serial Killer. Ebun gives birth to her daughter, Eniiyi, on the same day that her family buried her cousin Monife. Right away, everyone sees the connection between Eniiyi and Monife and worries Eniiyi will be doomed to the same tragic fate. Between that and the family curse, will Eniiyi be doomed to a life of sadness and heartbreak? Or will she be able to break the cycle? —Emily Martin

Remember the Bees
by Zineb Mekouar, translated by Maren Baudet-Lackner

Anir is a young boy who has been entrusted with an ancient apiary in Morocco. But problems start to arise with this finally realized dream—inspired by his beekeeper grandfather. Problems that mirror his personal life. The landscape that has fostered the bees’ life since forever is changing: temperatures are sky-high, and flowers are disappearing. And then there is the matter of his father, who has left to find work in the city, and his mother, whose illness is so consuming that it’s starting to feel like a curse.

I’ll Take the Fire by Leïla Slimani, translated by Sam Taylor

This was one of this year’s most anticipated translated books. It’s made even more intriguing with the fact that it is a poetry-filled autobiography of the author. In it, Mia seeks freedom, no matter the cost. Though she’s reared in a conservative Morocco, so many of the most important people in her life—from her banker father to her feminist doctor mother, to her favorite authors—all inspire her to be herself. So she sets out to find out exactly who she is, and travels from Casablanca to Paris and beyond, witnessing major historical moments along the way.

Sister Deborah by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated by Mark Polizzotti

Sugar Town Queens by Malla Nunn

This YA novel comes from a multi-award-winning author. Amandla and her mother are viewed as strange in Sugar Town, South Africa. For starters, her mother, Annalisa, has visions and can’t seem to remember much from before Amandla was born. But, perhaps most importantly, Amandla is brown and her mother is white. One day, everything changes—Amandla finds an address and a fat stack of cash in her mother’s purse, and she realizes it’s time to find out who her mother really is. What she finds changes everything she thought she knew about herself.