Books from Nigeria
Writing from Nigeria draws on a long tradition of storytelling across the novel, poetry, memoir and speculative fiction. The books gathered here include novels, poems and life writing that explore love, war, politics, family and the imagination. Together they reflect a range of Nigerian voices.
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Contemporary Fiction
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Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
A novel about Igbo life in southeastern Nigeria and the arrival of British colonial rule, told through the story of Okonkwo.
- Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. A novel set in southeastern Nigeria during the late 1960s that follows five characters through the Biafran war, including a houseboy, a professor, his partner and an Englishman.
Mystery & Thriller
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A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe
A novel about a Nigerian minister and a former pupil whose idealism collides with political corruption in the years before the first coup.
- My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. A darkly comic novel set in Nigeria about a woman who helps her younger sister cover up the killing of her boyfriends.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
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Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
A fantasy novel set in a future Africa about a young woman with magical powers who seeks to confront the man who fathered her.
- Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor. A science fiction novel set in Lagos in which a marine biologist is drawn into a strange event when something arrives from the sea.
Poetry
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Christmas in Biafra and Other Poems by Chinua Achebe
A poetry collection with poems reflecting on the Biafran war and Nigerian life.
- Idanre and Other Poems by Wole Soyinka. A poetry collection that draws on Yoruba myth and Nigerian experience.
Memoir & Nonfiction
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We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
An essay adapted from a talk that discusses feminism and gender in Nigeria and beyond.
- There Was a Country by Chinua Achebe. A memoir about his childhood in Nigeria, his writing life and the Biafran war.
How we choose
These lists start from books Atlas Unread readers can stamp for Nigeria. Each title and author is confirmed against Wikidata, Wikipedia or library records before it is listed.