In this volume Keith Booker provides an introduction to eight African novels written in English.

The rise to global prominence of African literature, and particularly of the African novel, has been seen by many as a vital development in contemporary world culture. Keith Booker examines are: Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart; Buchi Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood ; Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born; Ama Ata Aidoo's Our Sister Killjoy; Nadine Gordimer's Burger's Daughter; Alex la Guma's In the Fog of the Seasons' End; Ngugi wa Thiongo's Devil on the Cross and Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions.

Booker uses these works to illustrate the scope and variety of the African novel and the aesthetic, cultural and political concerns that have motivated African authors. The text concludes that Americans and Europeans have every reason to study the African novel, and in so doing they will become familiar with one of the mostpowerful cultural forces in the late-20th-century world.

North America: Heinemann