If You Liked That Book, Then Read This One: African Women’s Fiction Edition

Do you make reading challenges for yourself every year, and promise you’re going to expand your reading tastes? Have you signed up for a reading challenge that requires you to read outside of your comfort zone? Are you trying to read more African authors perhaps, but don’t know where to even start since Africa is a continent with 57 unique countries and a broad diversity of authors?

Maybe you’re just bored with your current TBR list and you’re looking for a way to spice things up. Don’t worry, I have some excellent book recommendations for you that will be of particular interest to those who love domestic drama and book club fiction.

The Best Domestic Drama from West African Writers

One of the reasons many readers cite for not wanting to read fiction from African authors, is that they believe the work will all be political or depressing. As if the entire continent of Africa is one big war story. Sometimes readers claim they just want to read romance or something light and relatable, and they think every novel written by a Nigerian author is going to recap the Biafran War, or they’re going to get a tale about being a child soldier in Sierra Leone. I’m not knocking those types of stories, but chick lit exists in Africa as well. Women’s fiction. Domestic Dramas. Whatever you want to call it, African authors are writing it and it’s good. Juicy, complex, sophisticated, and moving. Here are some suggestions from West African authors I’ve recently read, to get you started.

If You Loved That Book, then Read This One by an African Author

If you loved The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw, then you should read Someone Birthed them Broken by Ghanaian author and poet, Ama Asantewa Diaka. This collection of linked short stories centers the lives of contemporary Ghanaian young adults, dealing with life, love, parental pressure, work, and general life (dis)satisfaction. The stories are deftly woven together, taking us into the inner lives of everyday people who all have their unique struggles. The stories provide just a snapshot, and yet by the end of the book there is a sense of completion that makes this book a satisfying read. Bonus, the author, Diaka, is also a brilliant poet, so the language in these stories is stunning.

If you loved Fruit of the Lemon by Andrea Levy, then you should read Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo. Like Fruit of the Lemon, Sankofa is the story of a Black British woman who decides to go to her father’s homeland to try to connect with her African identity. In this case, her father’s homeland is a fictitious west African country that is obviously based on Ghana. The main character is a middle-aged biracial woman raised by her white mum who never knew her African father. The book describes her journey to find her father after her mother’s death. It is an adult coming-of-age story, and a meditation on family, race, and identity.

If you loved Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson, then you should read Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi. This delicious novel, like Black Cake, is told in multiple POVs and has multiple timelines and locations. Plus, there’s cake. Butter Honey Pig Bread tells the story of a troubled Nigerian family, a mother and her adult identical twin daughters. After the father dies, bad things happen and the girls both leave Nigeria to lead separate lives. Over the course of the book, we travel backwards and forward in time, as the girls come back home to Nigeria to try to mend their individual hurts. This book still haunts me, it’s that good.

If you’re a fan of Pretty Woman (the movie) and/or if you love Cinderella stories, then you should read His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie. This breezy but ultimately empowering book centers a young woman from a village in Ghana who is “chosen” to marry a wealthy businessman to save face for her mother and ultimately bring peace and prosperity to her entire extended family. The only problem is, the wealthy businessman already has a girlfriend. This is a quick, easy read, but offers insight into contemporary Ghanaian culture, the choices women have to make, and complicated family relations. This would be a great book for book clubs as there are a lot of plot points that will certainly have readers pondering what they would do in similar circumstances.

Keep Reading African Authors

Add some African authors to your TBR list in 2025.

Granted, I am a bit biased having spent an entire month in a library in Ghana reading as many West African authors as possible, but I feel like I was baptized into a whole new religion of African writers. Not only do I want to read more, I want to tell everyone else to do the same. I felt the same way after attending the Calabash Literary festival in Jamaica several years back. After attending Calabash I was obsessed with Jamaican authors and read only Jamaican authors for almost a year.

The thing is, African authors do need to be highlighted in the west because the publicity machines don’t work in their favor. They get all the news about American and British authors, but their work isn’t being promoted to American and European readers at the same rate. So, I’m doing my part. Not only because I want to see these writers winning, but also because I’d like to see the literary ecosystem for Black writers across the diaspora continue to bloom and grow beyond borders.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for what I should read next on my journey to read domestic dramas by African Authors. Preference right now for West African women writers. Please and thank you!