Must-Read Fiction Books by Black Authors That Paint Vivid, Haunting and Beautiful Depictions of the Black Experience
Books are travel. Books are voyeurism. Books are more than “glimpses” into other worlds, other bodies, and other minds - they create a full-body experience for engaged readers, they grip onto your mind, transform you into the characters and places within, and the best ones never let go. Books are vital. Especially now.
Today is Juneteenth, and it’s a really important one as the United States finally, finally collectively wakes up to systemic racism. To me, it feels like we finally shook off this weird, weighted mantle and are left naked and blinking and sheepish as everything around us that we took for granted is exposed as part of a corrupt system designed to hold down over half of our population - Black and POC people. One good thing that has come of this is that it has blown the lid off of talking about race - the cat is way out of the bag, and it’s time to have open conversations about race, to admit our shortcomings as white people, and to ask questions of and inform ourselves and others.
Part of doing that is to read. Read, read and keep reading. Read articles, read social media from Black activists and Black civilians as well. Read books about systemic racism, the prison system, how everything from policing to the education system is designed to fail Black Americans. Read fiction. White people will never, ever know what it’s like to be Black in America, and perhaps the closest we can get is to get into a book and allow its characters to take over our brains for a few minutes or hours a day.
I don’t think I’m some kind of radical activist who discovered reading books by someone of another race or background. This is something everyone should be doing anyway. But since we are now waking up to the fact that the system is geared to promote and offer opportunities to white people and make it difficult for Black people across pretty much every single profession, it is important to make a conscious, concerted effort to support Black writers and to provide tools and information to encourage others to do the same. In that spirit, I am sharing a list of some of my favorite books by Black authors. Some I read decades ago, some I read earlier this year. This is of course not a full list of every book by a Black author, this is just a list of the ones that I have read and that have stuck with me and taught me a lot about the Black experience in a way that text books never could, and, as most of these are fiction, even in a way that nonfiction could not. Please leave a comment with a recommendation for me, as I plan to never stop seeking out stories by Black authors.
I am linking all book recommendations* to Uncle Bobbies, a Black-owned bookstore here in Philadelphia. You can buy them online via their site and via the links I shared. Please support this or any other Black-owned bookstore rather than Amazon, even if it’s just this once. Maybe it’ll become a habit!
*Just to be super clear, I am not receiving any commission or anything at all by linking these books or encouraging you to buy them, I am just trying to support Black writers and a Black-owned bookstore in my home city.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
A multi-generational story about one family across two continents and two centuries, told in chronological order as two sisters in Ghana get separated. One ends up a slave in North America and the other lives a more noble life, with their descendants each living divergent paths that sometimes don’t seem too different at all.
BOOK JACKET SUMMARY:
Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery.
Homegoing follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem. Yaa Gyasi's extraordinary novel illuminates slavery's troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed--and shows how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation.
WHY IT STUCK WITH ME:
This book so clearly showed, not just told, how for Black people, life since slavery ended has been just as dark, cruel, unforgiving, unfair…I could go on. It showed how free Blacks were taunted, looked down upon, and oppressed, discredited, and just not allowed to live a peaceful existence. There were some stories in this book that I will never stop thinking about; one of the American ancestors after emancipation was forced to work in a coal mine as a prisoner (so basically…slavery) where anyone not meeting their quota was literally beaten to death, so to save a fellow prisoner, he and the other workers took on a beaten man’s workload in addition to their own; they all woke up the next day basically unable to move but had to return to the coal mine anyway. There was just no break, no end in sight. Everyday was the hardest day of your life. This was life for some Black people, and while things today aren’t exactly the same, the way our current prison system, and specifically our school-to-prison funnel, is set up, ending up in prison and fighting for your life daily are just reality for a lot of Black Americans. Many of us have heard the phrase “inherited trauma” but this book really gives that a face - many faces - while at the same time painting a beautiful picture of survival and strength.
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
A Young Adult fantasy novel centered on a young, black, female heroine by writer Toni Adeyami. This is her first novel, and she absolutely knocked it out of the park, earning #1 spot on the New York Times Bestsellers list.
BOOK JACKET SUMMARY:
They killed my mother.
They took our magic.
They tried to bury us.
Now we rise.
Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.
But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.
Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good. Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers—and her growing feelings for an enemy.
WHY IT’S A MUST:
Okay, yes this is technically Young Adult fiction, but I’m in my thirties and I was swept away by it, no shame. This book was so beautiful and imaginative and inventive and created this fictional world where you could get lost, but, like so many YA stories, where the problems and prejudices mirrored those in our own world and present reality. Also - the heroine and main character is a girl. Also - there were lots of badass animal sidekicks. This book deserves a place next to Harry Potter in the annals of children’s literature. I really recommend anyone, specifically white people, with children in Middle School or older, to add this to your own or your children’s reading list; let young Black magical heroes and heroines take up as much space as white ones do.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
This book takes the concept of the Underground Railroad literally - it’s an actual railroad, underground, with cars and conductors and hidden stations. That is the only part of Cora’s story that is slightly fantastical - her struggles, disappointments, fears, and the terrible things that happen to her are all an amalgamation of the daily realities of life as a slave and a runaway slave.
BOOK JACKET SUMMARY:
Cora is a young slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood--where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him.
In Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor: engineers and conductors operate a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora embarks on a harrowing flight from one state to the next, encountering, like Gulliver, strange yet familiar iterations of her own world at each stop.
As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the terrors of the antebellum era, he weaves in the saga of our nation, from the brutal abduction of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is both the gripping tale of one woman's will to escape the horrors of bondage--and a powerful meditation on the history we all share.
WHY IT STUCK WITH ME:
This book showed how life as a slave was f*cking brutal. I just don’t know how else to say it. Slave owners were at best apathetic and at worst downright sadistic, and as a result, life amongst the enslaved Black people was just as cutthroat, dangerous, and unstable - things could and did change on a dime even at home, and real friendships and alliances were hard to come by and were broken up by slave owners and their lackeys. I think one of the most important things I got from this book in particular was that there was no silver lining. There was no “good” or “nice” slave owner that helped out. There were no lucky chances. States where slavery was illegal were oftentimes the worst and most brutal for a runaway or freed slave. Every step of every day as Cora tried to escape was filled with hardship and a life and death struggle and a reminder that danger existed around every single corner, no matter where she went.
To be clear, this was an extremely tough read. But it also felt necessary and illuminating and took away any notion I may have been carrying around that fairness exists for people of color and specifically Black people, throughout history in America and even now.
Sula by Toni Morrison
(Editor’s note: Buy and read anything by Toni Morrison.) I read Sula before I read Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series, and I can’t help but wonder if Ferrante was even a little bit inspired by Sula, Toni Morrison’s short novel about two girls who grew up together and who’s lives stayed intertwined through adulthood.
BOOK JACKET DESCRIPTION:
Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who become something worse than enemies. In this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison tells the story of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who meet as children in the small town of Medallion, Ohio. Their devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the black community and Sula has become a pariah. But their friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal--or does it end? Terrifying, comic, ribald and tragic, Sula is a work that overflows with life.
WHY IT STUCK WITH ME:
This book has stuck with me more than most that I have read in my life, and I honestly can’t really answer why. (Hey, that is kind of an endorsement in itself, right?) I think one of the biggest reasons is that what I know, or think I know, of life in America in the 1920s, 30s and 40s is kind of through the eyes of a white man. When I think of that era, I think of the Great Depression and World Wars or maybe even Hollywood - the realms of men, all, designed for and by men. Sula takes place in that time frame, but barely touches on those “basics” of American history. It’s just life for two black women, Nellie and Sula. It’s bullies and family and men and cheating men and competing with each other and losing everything and building a household, trying to hold onto husbands and households or break free of them. It was very much equal parts a story of women, a story of Blacks, a story of friends and a story of enemies. How does Toni Morrison spin such an intricate web that will take a lifetime to digest, every single time?
The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood
This is a memoir of journalist Helene Cooper’s childhood in Liberia. I find that I learn best through personal stories, and this memoir taught me a lot about Liberian society, history and politics by anchoring me as a reader within this family and experiencing it all through them, and the eyes of a young Helene. Knowing stories like hers is crucial to anyone who treasures America’s diverse tapestry. We all come to this country with stories and families and legacies that were left behind, and knowing everyone’s story is vital to figuring out how to move forward with love and respect and awareness for our neighbors today.
BOOK JACKET SUMMARY:
Helene Cooper is “Congo,” a descendant of two Liberian dynasties—traced back to the first ship of freemen that set sail from New York in 1820 to found Monrovia. Helene grew up at Sugar Beach, a twenty-two-room mansion by the sea. Her childhood was filled with servants, flashy cars, a villa in Spain, and a farmhouse up-country. It was also an African childhood, filled with knock foot games and hot pepper soup, heartmen and neegee. When Helene was eight, the Coopers took in a foster child—a common custom among the Liberian elite. Eunice, a Bassa girl, suddenly became known as “Mrs. Cooper’s daughter.”
For years the Cooper daughters—Helene, her sister Marlene, and Eunice—blissfully enjoyed the trappings of wealth and advantage. But Liberia was like an unwatched pot of water left boiling on the stove. And on April 12, 1980, a group of soldiers staged a coup d'état, assassinating President William Tolbert and executing his cabinet. The Coopers and the entire Congo class were now the hunted, being imprisoned, shot, tortured, and raped. After a brutal daylight attack by a ragtag crew of soldiers, Helene, Marlene, and their mother fled Sugar Beach, and then Liberia, for America. They left Eunice behind.
A world away, Helene tried to assimilate as an American teenager. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill she found her passion in journalism, eventually becoming a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. She reported from every part of the globe—except Africa—as Liberia descended into war-torn, third-world hell.
In 2003, a near-death experience in Iraq convinced Helene that Liberia—and Eunice—could wait no longer. At once a deeply personal memoir and an examination of a violent and stratified country, The House at Sugar Beach tells of tragedy, forgiveness, and transcendence with unflinching honesty and a survivor's gentle humor. And at its heart, it is a story of Helene Cooper’s long voyage home.
WHY IT STUCK WITH ME:
Helene Cooper is a journalist, so her style of writing in conjunction with her rich memories of a literally rich childhood in Liberia was so action packed, fast-moving, and ornately detailed. She combined slices of life like boring afternoons with her cousins with really weighty moments such as a violent attack in her own home, all seen through the eyes of a child and spoken through the mouth of an adult who now lives a world and decades away from it all.
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A collection of a dozen short stories that take place in Adichie’s native Nigeria as well as in America, with characters ranging from a jilted wife to a medical student, written by the extraordinary, talented, and prolific author and speaker Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. (Yes, she of the Beyonce “Flawless” fame!)
BOOK JACKET SUMMARY:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie burst onto the literary scene with her remarkable debut novel, Purple Hibiscus, which critics hailed as “one of the best novels to come out of Africa in years” (Baltimore Sun), with “prose as lush as the Nigerian landscape that it powerfully evokes” (The Boston Globe). Her award-winning Half of a Yellow Sun became an instant classic upon its publication three years later, once again putting her tremendous gifts—graceful storytelling, knowing compassion, and fierce insight into her characters’ hearts—on display.
In The Thing Around Your Neck (published in 2009); Adichie turns her penetrating eye on not only Nigeria but also America, in twelve dazzling stories that explore the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States.
In “A Private Experience,” a medical student hides from a violent riot with a poor Muslim woman whose dignity and faith force her to confront the realities and fears she’s been pushing away. In “Tomorrow is Too Far,” a woman unlocks the devastating secret that surrounds her brother’s death. The young mother at the center of “Imitation” finds her comfortable life in Philadelphia threatened when she learns that her husband has moved his mistress into their Lagos home. And the title story depicts the choking loneliness of a Nigerian girl who moves to an America that turns out to be nothing like the country she expected; though falling in love brings her desires nearly within reach, a death in her homeland forces her to reexamine them.
Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow, and longing, these stories map, with Adichie’s signature emotional wisdom, the collision of two cultures and the deeply human struggle to reconcile them. The Thing Around Your Neck is a resounding confirmation of the prodigious literary powers of one of our most essential writers.
WHY IT STUCK WITH ME:
I read this book so long ago - over a decade - but I still think of the intricate worlds Adichie created in each of the twelve stories, like rooms in a dollhouse, fully furnished in miniature with not a detail spared. Short stories are among my favorites, because it’s a way to sample many characters and places but all through the lens of the same trusted story teller. It’s fascinating how Adichie gets into the heads of each of her characters throughout these stories, so although the expert weaver of all twelve tales is her, she makes that very easy to forget, as well. Very few writers come close to perfecting this kind of magic!
NEXT UP ON MY READING LIST:
Becoming by Michelle Obama
I watched the documentary by the same name on Netflix and I was ugly crying the entire time. What a woman and what a human!! She is not “the wife of”, she is a force of her own and in her own right. You can see from interviews, pictures, and stories from her childhood and youth that she was always destined for greatness, and though the path wasn’t always clear to herself, she put one foot in front of the other in a way that was so deliberate and self-confident that it is no surprise at all that she ended up turning everything she touches into a success. I also loved how much of herself she gives to her fans - she makes it a point to look each one in the eye and she gives such a warm smile and heartfelt advice and words of love, encouragement and inspiration to a never-ending stream of people each day, including those that work for and with her. It’s truly stunning. She will forever be my role model. I am planning on reading the book because I want to know more about the things she touched on in the doc, like her relationships with her mother, father and brother, going to Princeton, motherhood and IVF, what it was like to live in the White House, and what life is like now!
Year of the Rat by Marc Anthony Richardson
Richardson is based in Philadelphia, and I had the amazing opportunity to listen to him read an exerpt from this book. It was so completely haunting that I had to buy the book - if the section that he read aloud is any indication, I know it’s going to be an emotion, haunting, challenging read. It’s currently on by bedside in my “next up” stack, waiting for the perfect moon for me to dive right in.
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
I have never read Zadie Smith, although my BFF loves her. I’ve listened to a lot of her interviews, though, and I feel like I know her and am dying to get lost in one of her books, particularly this one, as it is lauded for the brilliant way it captures the intersectionality of its two main characters being a combination of some or all of the following: Veteran, Muslim, Black in London, Immigrant, Male, Married, and so on.
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
“You don’t quite know where it’s going and then BAM it legit turns into a psychological thriller.” This is how my friend Caolan described this book to me. Say. No. More.
