Print

Botswana

Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.  Mystery
A woman in Botswana opens a detective agency and helps people solve a variety of mysteries.

Michael Stanley, A Carrion Death. Mystery
A Botswana police detective links a half-eaten corpse on a game reserve to a major corporation.

Egypt

Alaa Al Aswany, The Yacoubian Building.
The residents of a Cairo apartment building embody the many facets of modern Egyptian society.

Carolyn Baugh, The View from Garden City.
An American studying in Cairo meets a variety of Egyptian women and learns about their lives.

Naguib Mahfouz, Palace Walk.
The story of the disintegrating family life of a merchant, his timid wife and their rebellious children.

Elizabeth Peters, The Golden One. Mystery
Archeologists Amelia and Emerson chase tomb robbers in Luxor while their son goes on a mission to Gaza.

Ahdaf Soueif, The Map of Love.
A woman discovers the journal of an Englishwoman who fell in love with an Egyptian nationalist.

Paul Sussman, The Lost Army of Cambyses.
A woman finds her archeologist-father murdered and is pursued by someone seeking an ancient treasure.

Rosie Thomas, Iris and Ruby.
An English girl runs away to Cairo where her grandmother lives.

Ethiopia

Maaza Mengiste, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze.
A doctor and his family are caught in the turmoil of the 1970s civil war in Ethiopia.

Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone.
Twin brothers are born to an Indian nun at a mission hospital in Ethiopia and grow up to become doctors but are separated by an act of betrayal.

Ghana

Kwei Quartey, Wife of the Gods. Mystery
A police detective in Ghana is sent to a remote village when a medical student is murdered and finds himself in conflict with the local police and customs.

Iran

Mahbod Seraji, Rooftops of Tehran.
In the 1970s during the reign of the Shah, a teenage boy falls in love with the girl next door but she is betrothed to a radical targeted by the secret police.

Dalia Sofer, The Septembers of Shiraz.
A Jewish jeweler is imprisoned during the revolution in Iran while his family is uncertain of his fate.

Iraq

Jessica Jiji, Sweet Dates in Basra.
In 1940s Iraq, complications arise when a Jewish boy falls in love with a Muslim servant.

Alia Mamdouh, Naphtalene.
A 9-year-old girl comes of age in 1950s Baghdad.

Israel

Anita Diamant, Day after Night.
Four young women refugees who survived the Holocaust become friends in an internment camp for illegal immigrants run by the British in Palestine.

David Grossman, To the End of the Land.
Fearing bad news about her son in the Israeli army, a woman goes on a hike in Galilee with a former lover who became a recluse after the Yom Kippur war.

Batya Gur, Saturday Morning Murder. Mystery
A Jerusalem detective investigates the murder of a prominent psychiatrist.

Matt Rees, The Collaborator of Bethlehem. Mystery
A Palestinian teacher in Bethlehem helps a former pupil accused of collaborating with the Israelis.

Meir Shalev, A Pigeon and a Boy.
An Israeli tour guide favored by bird watchers learns that an American client fought in a clandestine military force in the 1948 war of independence.

A.B. Yehoshua, The Liberated Bride.
A professor in Haifa teams up with an Arab woman grad student for a research project.

Jordan

Masha Hamilton, Staircase of a Thousand Steps.
A girl travels to the desert village where her mother was born and uncovers long-buried family secrets.

Laila Halaby, West of the Jordan.
Four cousins in Jordan and America face choices about family, traditions and freedom as they grow up.

Kenya

Suzanne Arruda, The Mark of the Lion. Mystery
A World War I ambulance driver promises to find a dying soldier’s brother, which leads her to Africa.

Nicholas Drayson, Guide to the Birds of East Africa.
Rival suitors have a bird-spotting contest to determine which will ask a lady to the Nairobi Hunt Club Ball.

Kuwait

Anastasia Hobbet, Small Kingdoms.
Between the Gulf Wars, the lives of a variety of Kuwaitis and Americans become intertwined.

Lebanon

Nathalie Abi-Ezzi, Girl Made of Dust.
A 7-year-old Lebanese girl is confused by the changes in her family during the war with Israel.

Libya

Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men.
In 1979, a 9-year-old Libyan boy learns that his father has been targeted by Qaddafi's secret police.

Morocco

Laila Lalami, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits.
Four Moroccans from different backgrounds try to cross the Strait of Gibraltar illegally on a raft.

Nigeria

Chimamanda Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun.
A houseboy to a radical professor gets caught up in the civil war following the secession of Biafra.

Chris Cleave, Little Bee.
A British couple hoping to save their marriage take a trip to Nigeria, but a fateful encounter with two sisters has consequences that continue to haunt them.

Adaobi Nwaubani, I Do Not Come to You By Chance.
An engineering school graduate who can’t find a job moves in with his rich uncle who runs Internet scams.

Lola Shoneyin, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives.
A woman with no prospects becomes a man’s fourth wife and upsets the balance of power in their home.

Rwanda

Gaile Parkin, Baking Cakes in Kigali.
A baker in Rwanda dispenses advice along with cakes to a variety of customers and neighbors.

Saudi Arabia

Rajaa Alsanea, Girls of Riyadh.
Four young women in Saudi Arabia face conflicts between the modern world and a traditional society.

Zoe Ferraris, Finding Nouf. Mystery
A desert guide in Saudi Arabia investigates when a missing girl is found drowned in the desert.

Sierra Leone

Aminatta Forna, Ancestor Stones.
A woman returns home to Sierra Leone when her four aunts inform her that they’re bequeathing her the family’s coffee plantation.

Somalia

Nuruddin Farah, Links.
A former political prisoner returns to Somalia and helps a friend whose niece has been kidnapped.

Owen West, Sharkman Six.
U.S. Marines try to protect a Red Cross shipment in Somalia but are hampered by warlords and their own restrictive rules of engagement.

South Africa

Jassy Mackenzie, Random Violence. Mystery
A PI returns to South Africa seeking revenge for her father’s murder and helps his old assistant on a case.

Zakes Mda, The Madonna of Excelsior.
A woman gives birth to a mixed-race daughter and is charged under the Immorality Act.

Deon Meyer, Heart of the Hunter.
A former assassin embarks on an adventure across Africa to help a friend’s daughter.

Malla Nunn, A Beautiful Place to Die. Mystery
In 1952 South Africa after the start of apartheid a white police captain is murdered in a border town.

Sudan

Philip Caputo, Acts of Faith.
Aid workers in the Sudan become involved in the politics and upheaval of the wartorn region.

Syria

Rafik Schami, The Dark Side of Love.
A murder in Damascus in linked to a blood feud between two families and a pair of star-crossed lovers.

Turkey

Barbara Nadel, Belshazzar’s Daughter. Mystery
Turkish police investigating the murder of an elderly Jewish man uncover a secret history.

Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul.
A teenage girl befriends a family relation who comes to Istanbul from America seeking her Armenian roots.

Zimbabwe

J. Nozipo Maraire, Zenzele.
A Zimbabwean mother shares her heritage with her daughter at Harvard in a letter.