10 Books by African Women to Read This November
Five new and recent novels and five modern classics by African and diaspora women, from Lagos horror to a letter from Dakar, with a line or two on why each one is worth your evenings.
TL;DR: Ten books by African and diaspora women for the long evenings: five recent releases (Adichie, Unigwe, Aguda, Kuku, Olugbile) and five modern classics (Bâ, Emecheta, Dangarembga, Adébáyọ̀, Gyasi). Pick one new, one classic, and swap a little scrolling for a few chapters before bed.
November is the month the year starts to wind down. The evenings come in earlier, the December calendar is already filling up, and there is a short window where a quiet night with a book feels like the best plan available. So here is a stack worth reaching for: ten books by African and diaspora women, half of them recent and half of them the kind of modern classics people keep pressing into each other's hands. No homework energy here. Read the ones that call to you and leave the rest for January.
The new and recent ones
1. Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2025)
Adichie's first novel in more than a decade, published in 2025. It follows four women, Chiamaka, Zikora, Kadiatou and Omelogor, and their loves, longings and choices across Nigeria and America. Read it for the friendships, and for the way it takes women's inner lives seriously from the first page.
2. Grace by Chika Unigwe (2026)
Published by Canongate in January 2026. Set in Enugu in 2020, during the pandemic, it centres on a respected midwife who runs a maternity home, and who carries grief and guilt over a child she gave up after becoming pregnant at fifteen. Brittle Paper called it a feminist dictionary of mothering, which is about right.
3. One Leg on Earth by 'Pemi Aguda (2026)
Aguda's debut novel, out in May 2026 from W. W. Norton. It is eerie, horror-tinged fiction set in Lagos, where pregnant women are walking into the water, and a young woman interning at an architecture firm building an enclave on land reclaimed from the sea discovers she is pregnant herself. Perfect for a dark November night, if you like your fiction unsettling and sharp about cities, class and bodies.
4. Women Rent Men and Secrets Here by Damilare Kuku (2025)
The latest novel from the author of Nearly All the Men in Lagos Are Mad, published in Nigeria by TBLNG Press. It blends sharp social commentary on contemporary Nigerian life with laugh-out-loud moments, and it sold 1,000 copies in ten days, so you will have people to discuss it with.
5. Sànyà by Oyin Olugbile
This one won the 2025 Nigeria Prize for Literature, chosen from 252 entries, with the judges singling out her bold choice to cast the Yoruba deity Sango as a woman. If you grew up on folktales and mythology, this is a fresh way back into them.
The modern classics
6. So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ (1979)
A short novel written as a long letter from Ramatoulaye, a newly widowed woman in Dakar, to her childhood friend. It deals with polygamy, friendship and what women owe themselves. You can finish it in a weekend, and you will be thinking about it for much longer.
7. The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta (1979)
Nnu Ego builds her whole life around being a mother in colonial Lagos, and the title is as pointed as it sounds. It is a clear-eyed look at how much is asked of women in the name of family. Pair it with Grace for a conversation across almost fifty years.
8. Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga (1988)
Tambu, a girl in colonial Rhodesia, fights her way into an education her family meant for her brother. Funny, angry and precise, it remains one of the most loved coming-of-age novels from the continent, and it is the first of a trilogy if you want to keep going.
9. Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ (2017)
Yejide and Akin are in love, but years pass without a pregnancy, and family pressure brings a second wife into their home. It is a tender and painful look at marriage, fertility and loss in 1980s Nigeria. It also touches on sickle cell disease, something many families know well. If those themes are close to home, our guides to sickle cell, periods and pregnancy and fertility cover the health side.
10. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (2016)
Two half-sisters are born in different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. One marries a British slaver, the other is sold into slavery, and the novel follows their descendants through the generations in Ghana and America. Each chapter is almost its own story, which makes it an easy book to pick up in short bursts.
How do I choose where to start?
Start with your mood. If you want something fast and funny, go with Kuku. If you want to be gripped and a little spooked, Aguda. If you want a book that will stay with you for years, Bâ or Dangarembga. Book clubs might enjoy pairing a classic with a new release, The Joys of Motherhood with Grace, or Nervous Conditions with Dream Count, and talking about what has changed for women and what has not.
Can reading before bed help me sleep?
It can be part of a good wind-down. The NHS suggests avoiding screens for an hour before bed and swapping in something relaxing, such as reading. A paper book under a warm lamp is about as calm as an evening gets. If your sleep shifts around your cycle, our post on sleep and hormones has more ideas.
A few practical tips for a reading month
Buy from African bookshops and publishers where you can, borrow from the library, and pass your copies on when you are done. Join or start a small book chat with friends, even a group chat where you share one line you loved each week. And let go of finishing everything. Ten books is a menu, not a target.
If you log your mood or energy in Asele, you might enjoy noticing which weeks you read more. It is one small way to see what helps you feel like yourself.
Sources
- Penguin Random House. Dream Count. sites.prh.com
- Brittle Paper. A Feminist Dictionary of Mothering: review of Grace by Chika Unigwe. brittlepaper.com
- NPR. New novels from Elizabeth Strout and 'Pemi Aguda are lonely, enchanting. npr.org
- The Guardian. One Leg on Earth by 'Pemi Aguda review: a powerfully eerie portrait of Lagos. theguardian.com
- Brittle Paper. Damilare Kuku sells 1,000 copies of Women Rent Men and Secrets Here in 10 days. brittlepaper.com
- Nairametrics. Sanya by Oyin Olugbile wins The Nigeria Prize for Literature, 2025. nairametrics.com
- NHS Every Mind Matters. How to fall asleep faster and sleep better. nhs.uk
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