Book picks similar to
Radio Sunrise by Anietie Isong
africa
nigeria
arc
fiction
The Bird that Sang in Color
Grace Mattioli - 2021
However, he remains single, childless, and subsists in cramped apartments. She harbors guilt for her supposed failure until she discovers a sketch-book he’d made of his life, which prompts her own journey to live authentically.While this textured story combines serious issues such as alcoholism, death, and family conflict, it’s balanced with wit and humor and is filled with endearing, unforgettable characters. The story spans decades, beginning in 1970 and ending in the present. Readers will be immersed in this tale as it poses an intriguing question: “What pictures will you have of yourself by the end of your life?”“hugely moving, beautifully rendered, and brilliant,” Lidia Yucknavitch
The Ballad of John MacLea
A.J. MacKenzie - 2019
Tasked with routing out enemy agents and thwarting an elaborate espionage ring, which includes beautiful American double agent Josephine Lafitte, MacLea’s mission is betrayed. Now, trapped in a dramatic showdown aboard a captured American warship headed for the breach at Niagara Falls, battle-hardened MacLea finds himself fighting not just for freedom, but for his life.
The Water Thief
Claire Hajaj - 2018
Their attraction threatens both their worlds, blurring the line between right and wrong. And when a deadly drought descends it brings an irrevocable choice. With all their hopes at stake, should he take matters into his own hands? Or let fate run its course? His decision has life-changing consequences for them all.
Speak No Evil
Uzodinma Iweala - 2018
Raised by two attentive parents in Washington, D.C., he’s a top student and a track star at his prestigious private high school. Bound for Harvard in the fall, his prospects are bright. But Niru has a painful secret: he is queer—an abominable sin to his conservative Nigerian parents. No one knows except Meredith, his best friend, the daughter of prominent Washington insiders—and the one person who seems not to judge him.When his father accidentally discovers Niru is gay, the fallout is brutal and swift. Coping with troubles of her own, however, Meredith finds that she has little left emotionally to offer him. As the two friends struggle to reconcile their desires against the expectations and institutions that seek to define them, they find themselves speeding toward a future more violent and senseless than they can imagine.
Dance of the Jakaranda
Peter Kimani - 2017
Years later, when Babu's grandson Rajan--who ekes out a living by singing Babu's epic tales of the railway's construction--accidentally kisses a mysterious stranger in a dark nightclub, the encounter provides the spark to illuminate the three men's shared, murky past.With its riveting multiracial, multicultural cast and diverse literary allusions, Dance of the Jakaranda could well be a story of globalization. Yet the novel is firmly anchored in the African oral storytelling tradition, its language a dreamy, exalted, and earthy mix that creates new thresholds of identity, providing a fresh metaphor for race in contemporary Africa.
Up Against the Night
Justin Cartwright - 2015
His ancestor Piet Retief, leader of the South African Great Trek, was killed by Zulu king Dingane in the 1838 massacre, along with a hundred men, women, and children. Afrikaner legend paints Retief as a homegrown Moses, bringing his people to the Promised Land. But Frank believes something rotten lies at the core of this family myth.Frank spends his days in his London home with his new partner and her son and the products of his wealth. But the return of his daughter, Lucinda, from rehab in California brings him intense guilt: having sided with him during his divorce from her mother, she crumbled under the weight of the bitter separation. Lucinda has brought home with her a mysterious boy, and they will join the family trip to Frank's beach house in South Africa--not far from the site of the 1838 massacre. In the lulls of their idyllic days, Frank unravels what really happened on that fateful day, and how it may connect to the violence of the apartheid years, and the violence encroaching on them even now.Up Against the Night is an enthralling tale of personal conflict and intrigue, set against the backdrop of South Africa's tangled past and troubled present, and told with tremendous color and insight. Absolutely original and gripping, it is destined to be as influential as JM Coetzee's Disgrace.
Doubt on a Limb: The Leafy Hollow Mysteries, Book 8
Rickie Blair - 2020
The Neglected Ones (The Haunting of Stone Cliff)
C.L. Salaski - 2017
. . After his mother is sent to a nursing home for therapy following hip surgery, artist David Reid soon learns the truth about Haven. Once a magnificent seaside hotel on the coast of Maine, the property is now managed by a greedy corporation and a nursing staff who neglect and abuse the residents. Dealing with the inept staff is an endless battle. And to make matters worse, David's mother claims ghosts are haunting the facility. Are the spirits hallucinations caused by her medications? Or is Haven really haunted?
Redeeming the Cowboy: A Contemporary Christian Romance (Blackwater Ranch Book 6)
Mandi Blake - 2021
Fine Boys
Eghosa Imasuen - 2012
In his second novel, Eghosa Imasuen presents the everyday life of a Nigerian university student against the backdrop of the pro-democracy riots of the 1980s and ‘90s, the lost hopes of June 12th, and the terror of the Abacha years.
A Justifiable Madness
A.B. Morgan - 2017
But who is he and why is he so keen to spend time in a psychiatric hospital?When Mark is admitted, silent and naked, the staff are suspicious about his motives.Dealing with this, as well as the patients on the ward, Mark’s troubles really begin once he is Sectioned under the Mental Health Act. When decisions about his future are handed to Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Giles Sharman, Mark’s life goes from bad to worse.
Drugged, abused and in danger, Mark looks for a way out of this nightmare. But he’s about to learn, proving that you are sane might not be easy as it sounds…
Sunshine Town
Maniissh Aroraa - 2017
A dream to make his parents happy and affection of a neighbourhood sweetheart, Natasha. Though both are poles apart, their interests bring them close. Together, they experience new emotions. But, just when they are ready to acknowledge their feeling of love for each other, it is too late.The rapids of life set Shlok on an unexpected journey, and he realizes one can't always be in control of circumstances. Unable to crack an important entrance exam and geographical difficulties affecting his love life, Shlok's life goes through turbulent times. All the while, his faith in God ebbs and flows, but like a wave, it ends up breaking on the shore before returning to the sea. He is confronted with a perennial question-am I good enough for anything? Holding a mirror to himself, he is faced with a decision to give up on everything he thought was right for him. Set in Varanasi, a city in North India, during the late 90s, before the pervasiveness of technology, Sunshine Town is about the aspirations and emotional turmoil of being a teenager. This story deals with the themes of love, career, and personal fulfillment.
A Winter Memory
Lulu Taylor - 2021
They met as students and Helen fell in love, not just with Angus but with the romantic Ballintyre family and their beautiful house on the edge of a loch. But marriage to Angus has not proved happy.Now, years later and with a family, Helen and Angus have been forced to move back to live at Ballintyre with his older brother, Charlie. Helen is surprised to find that Sylla, Charlie’s wife, has disappeared and no one seems to know where she is. Helen is worried, not least because Charlie and Sylla lost their teenage daughter, Rose, only a year before. Surely someone should be looking for her . . .Sylla Ballintyre has spent her life ministering to her husband, Charlie, and coping with the presence of his overbearing mother, Josephine, until the tragedy of losing Rose drained her happiness away. When she stumbles on the path to freedom, she knows she must take it, whatever the cost.As Helen struggles with the fallout of recent events and its effect on her life, Ballintyre House becomes the setting for revelations of love, obsession and betrayal that have resonated beyond the present and into the past, affecting the lives of all those who have called it home.
Baby Teeth: The First Ten Chapters
Zoje Stage - 2018
He’s the only person who understands her, and all Hanna wants is to live happily ever after with him. But Mommy stands in her way, and she’ll try any trick she can think of to get rid of her. Ideally for good.Meet Suzette.She loves her daughter, really, but after years of expulsions and strained home schooling, her precarious health and sanity are weakening day by day. As Hanna’s tricks become increasingly sophisticated, and Suzette's husband remains blind to the failing family dynamics, Suzette starts to fear that there’s something seriously wrong, and that maybe home isn’t the best place for their baby girl after all.BABY TEETH is a story about a perfect-looking family, and a mute little girl who wants nothing more than to kill her mother.
Skyfall
Saba Karim Khan - 2020
Despite the worst of humanity every day – her madrassa running father selling her mother's body and beating her sister – Rania remains the 'Troublemaker', unable to give up on her dreams.When an Indian filmmaker encourages her to enrol in a music contest that can take her to New York, her dreams take flight. But even as she wins the hearts of her listeners, a family secret threatens to bring her life in Heera Mandi back in sharp relief, upending the new life she has built for herself.From the oppressive walls of religious hypocrisy to the orange jumpsuits of American prisons, Skyfall is a tender, piercing debut that teaches us the strength of human endeavour and our desire for love in a time of hate.