It would be hard for anyone to finish Dear Senthuran without a change—a change in perspective, understanding, knowledge. Knowing your identity is one thing, but living it is another. Emezi does both.
Reviews
She Called Me Woman: Cassava Republic Press collects the stories of Nigeria’s queer women
She Called Me Woman: Nigeria’s Queer Women Speak a rich resource that allows Nigeria’s queer women to speak their truths as honestly, as openly, and as safely as they can.
My Darling from the Lions by Rachel Long: A Critical Summary
My Darling from the Lions is a remarkable debut collection with plenty to say and the ability to say it in a unique, witty, and fresh manner.
To love is to see, and to be loved is to be seen: Love in Colour by Bolu Babalola
Love in Colour challenges you to be loved loudly and unashamedly. Bolu Babalola wants readers to know that to love is to see and to be loved is to be seen.
In Every Mirror She’s Black is the perfect read
Solitude is the real story of In Every Mirror She’s Black, a unique distillation of commercial and literary fiction that ultimately hits like a tragedy.
Travelling While Black: Opening readers’ eyes to a unique conversation on what it means to travel in this disoriented world
An insightful read for the average traveller who wants a broader perspective on what it’s like to travel in a world that privileges some but restricts many others from moving around.
Shadow Forward: A Review of My Monticello
Who and what are we the product of, and what is the future of this current birthing? I want us to exercise patience as we wait for the arrival of answers.
Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen lays bare the internal woes of existing as a Black woman
This book reminds Black women that we are not superheroes, thus we should not treat ourselves or allow others to treat us as such.
Grown is a letter to the younger you and a map for the next generation
You may laugh, you may tear up a little, and you just might remember lessons from your younger self that were long forgotten.
Black Girl Finance: Let’s Talk Money offers us the vital tools we need for better financial well-being
Within a swarm of finance books like Rich Dad Poor Dad and How to Get Rich, it’s been difficult to find a beginner-friendly finance book that speaks directly to me.
Dear Black Girl gives Black girls encouragement at the time they need it the most
Have you ever read a book and knew that it was going to be an experience you would remember forever? Dear Black Girl: Letters from Your Sisters on Stepping Into Your Power was just that for me.
Home is Not a Country: A novel-in-verse about identity, belonging, and the true meaning of home
Home is Not a Country is told through the eyes of Nima, a Muslim American girl who finds herself longing to be someone else.
Tami Charles’ Muted explores the music industry’s dark side
A fast-paced coming-of-age story about music, the loss of innocence, and the dangers lurking in the shadows of the entertainment industry.
The first title originally written in an African language longlisted for the Booker
A modern take on the origin story of Kenya’s Gĩkũyũ people, The Perfect Nine is one of those rare books about history that has, itself, made history.
Nadifa Mohamed’s The Fortune Men centres humanity in the midst of tragedy and injustice
The Fortune Men is a historical fiction set in 1950s Cardiff that explores the real and distressing story of Mahmood Mattan, the last man to be hanged in Wales.
A stunning legal thriller with a medical conspiracy that will keep you on the edge of your seat
While Justice Sleeps follows Avery, a law clerk who’s just been made power of attorney over the Supreme Court judge she serves. But she has no idea why.
Accra Noir: Crime in a city of stories, legends, and allegories
Edited by Nana-Ama Danquah, Accra Noir's writers spin a complex and fantastical web of love, intrigue, drama, and crime.
Prolific romance author Alyssa Cole delivers a chilling thriller about gentrification
When No One is Watching is strongest once readers understand they're being asphyxiated in the protagonist's psyche as forcefully as Black residents are being plucked out of Gifford Place.
Addis Ababa Noir: A dark, gritty collection of short stories set in the shadow of the city
These stories draw you to the side of a city that is filled with greed, power, death, and despair.
Chibundu Onuzo’s third novel, Sankofa, comes at the right time
Following Welcome to Lagos, Sankofa marks a departure from Lagosian life and tells the story of a mixed-race British woman's search for her long-lost West African father.
Black Moses is a damning portrait of 80s Congo-Brazzaville
Longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize, Alain Mabanckou’s Black Moses is a cynical coming-of-age story that zeroes in on corruption in late 1970s and 80s Congo-Brazzaville.
Bernardine Evaristo cuts her teeth on a fun verse novel
The Emperor’s Babe is an irreverent and salacious romp that merges together the traditional and the contemporaneous in a startlingly unique way.
Maame Blue’s debut is a breathtaking love letter to diaspora
Bad Love has a somewhat misleading title. Though it is about how we hurt and are hurt in love, it is ultimately about the resilience of love across space and time.
Hari Ziyad’s debut memoir is a perfect blend of the personal and the political
Black Boy Out of Time is an eloquent and enlightening testament to the ways in which Black authors recraft genre categories that are not truly interested in telling our stories.
The winner of the 2020 Jhalak Prize is a pioneering travelogue about Black Europe
With Afropean, Johny Pitts leads the way in spotlighting the flavour and entangled histories of Europe's Black communities through what may be one of the most comprehensive and transnational studies on the subject to date.
Parsing Freedom: A Review of Kaitlyn Greenidge’s Libertie
Set in Reconstruction-era Brooklyn, this is a book for the sisters who are tired of being strong, for the sisters who have no interest in conditional humanity.
“A Pride and Prejudice Remix” that packs a punch
Pride is a deeply representative retelling that foregrounds Black people’s right to exist in a canon that has always pretended they do not.
Open Water: An ethereal meditation on Black love and art
People like to say that love sees no colour, that love is blind. True as that may be, it is also true that love is about seeing.