10 Illuminating books every Black person should read this September

Fuel is scarce, dollar is high, life is tough and the Nigerian economy is crashing.

For those who are looking to curl up with something new, we’ve rounded up a few books ― some of them new, some of them newish ― that we think should be required reading.

If you've read any of these books, share your thoughts below.

1. The Underground Railroad by Colin Whitehead

This book went viral after Oprah selected it for her book club. Set in the pre–Civil War era South, Colson Whitehead’s powerful new novel The Underground Railroad follows Cora, a slave in Georgia who manages to escape from a cotton plantation but ends up killing a young white boy in the process.

As she flees from slave catchers in hot pursuit and heads north via the Underground Railroad, readers are forced to grapple with the horrors and brutalities of America’s past that still linger on in present day.

2. Swing Time by Zadie Smith

Set across West Africa and London, Swing Time focuses on a sweeping, energetic story of a complex friendship between two black girls who grow up aspiring to be dancers, yet whose lives diverge because only one has talent.

3. Known and Strange Things by Teju Cole

This 40-plus essays in this book of essays span art, literature, and politics, with topics from Virginia Woolf and James Baldwin to President Obama and Boko Haram. This collection includes pre-published essays that gone viral, like “The White Industrial Savior Complex,” first published in The Atlantic.

4. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

A compulsively readable debut novel about marriage, immigration, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream—the unforgettable story of a young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York just as the Great Recession upends the economy.

5. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

This book follows the life of Oscar, a hopelessly romantic Dominican sci-fi nerd living in New Jersey. The story jumps from narrator to narrator, moving through different decades of Oscar’s family, to help establish the way the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic runs deep in the blood of Dominican families, even those who immigrated to the United States. Oscar as a character is relatable, embracing the lifestyle immigrants and children of immigrants often do.

6. The Vegetarian by Han Kang

Winner of the 2016 Man Booker Prize, this book tells the story of a completely ordinary wife who decides to become a vegetarian as she seeks a more “plant-like” existence. The controversial decision provokes cruelty from her husband and from her father, and obsession from her sister’s husband, as the woman, Yeong-hye, dreams obsessively about becoming a tree.

7. Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty by Ramona Ausubel

A relaxing, romantic life of sea, sand and baked goods is the backdrop for Ausubel’s latest novel ― that is, until a rude awakening washes all of that away, and the central family is forced to cope with a nightmare they didn’t even think to fear.

8. The Lazarus Effect by H.J. Golakai

The Lazarus Effect tells the story of Vee Johnson, an investigative journalist turned detective, who starts seeing disturbing visions of a young girl in a red hat. When she discovers a photograph of the same girl on a local clinic’s noticeboard, Vee uses an article about missing children in the city as a ruse to investigate the girl’s disappearance. (Book Shy Books)

9. The Lights of Pointe-Noire by Alain Mabanckou  (Translated by Helen Stevenson)

The Lights of Pointe Noire is an account of Mabanckou’s return to his hometown, after decades abroad.

10. The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz (Translated by Elisabeth Jaquette · Melville House)

This Egyptian novel is set in an almost present-day Egypt, slightly more dystopian than reality. After a failed uprising, a sinister authority, the Gate, rises to power. The main character was shot during the uprising and is waiting for official permission to have a bullet removed; the novel is, intriguingly, structured using his medical records. (Aaron Brady)

Compliment this list with Why Nigerians should start paying attention to unhyped writers,  10 outstanding books by African authors you should read in May, and 10 powerful books we would recommend to President Buhari and other African leaders

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