From BuzzFeed to The Washington Post: Here are the Best Books of 2014 by African Writers

by - 12:57

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Ah! It's that time of the year. Where the 'Best Of ...' lists come out. We all know I love lists and I've been following them - from BuzzFeed to The Washington Post, you name it - to see what books by African writers have made it. The same names appear in multiple lists - Helen Oyeyemi and Dinaw Mengestu - but there are also some nice surprises in other lists. So who made it?

Over at The New York Times and their list of 100 Notable Books of 2014, in the Fiction & Poetry section, Dinaw Mengestu's All Our Names, Helen Oyeyemi's Boy Snow Bird and Laila Lalami's The Moor's Account all make the list. The Telegraphs Best Books of 2014 includes Teju Cole's Every Day is For the Thief, Damon Galgut's The Arctic Summer and Dinaw Mengestu's All Our Names also makes an appearance on this list. 

At The Washington Post their Top 50 Fiction Books for 2014 includes Helen Oyeyemi's Boy, Snow, Bird and Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor's Dust. While The Globe and Mail (yes, I even went all the way to Canada :) and I love the layout of their list) has Teju Cole's Every Day is For the Thief, Dinaw Mengestu's All Our Names, and Helen Oyeyemi's Boy, Snow, Bird on their The Globe 100: The best books of 2014.

The Guardian asks writers to pick their favourite books of 2014. Helen Oyeyemi's Boy Snow Bird makes the list for Jackie Kay. While Binyavanga Wainana introduces some new names to his list of favourites which includes Yvonne Owuor's Dust, Diriye Osman's Fairytales for Lost Children and Dilman Dila's A Killing in the Sun. In the Irish Times, 2014 Man Booker Prize shortlisted author, Neel Mukherjee's Books of the Year include Ivan Vladislavic's The Restless Supermarket and Zoë Wicomb's October.

At Book Riot, their Riot Round-Up of the Best Books of 2014 also includes Helen Oyeyemi's Boy, Snow, Bird. BuzzFeed also has Helen Oyeyemi's Boy, Snow, Bird and Dinaw Mengestu's All Our Names on their 24 Best Fiction Books of 2014.

I think. No, I know I am in love with NPRs Guide to 2014 Great Reads which includes Okey Ndibe's Foreign Gods, Inc., Helen Oyeyemi's Boy, Snow, Bird, Barnaby Phillip's Another Man's War:The Story of a Burma Boy in Britain's Forgotten Army, Dinaw Mengestu's All Our Names, Teju Cole's Every Day is For the Thief, Lauren Beukes' Broken Monsters, Laila Lalami's The Moor's Account. I loved the layout of The Globe and Mail's, but I'm head over heels in love with everything NPR is giving me with that list.




Those are the 13 books (okay one's not written by an African writer but still ... ) from this year that made it on to the different best of lists I found. What do you think? Did your faves make it?

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