At long last another newsletter, just to let you know that African Review of Books is still kicking. We are updating our site constantly and have just published review on the Maputo Development Corridor and a monograph of the artist Magdalene Odundo, who works with clay. There is also Archbishop Desmond Tutu's lecture for the Nelson Mandela Foundation and news of prizes from Francophone Africa and a call for stories on animal welfare.

This newsletter is not so much about what's new on the site, but as with much other mail at this time of year, an unashamed marketing exercise. African Review of Books is a labour of love and depends on you buying books through our site so we can keep this project alive. With this in mind we have drawn up a list of some of the best titles this year from, and about, Africa. More information on all the books mentioned below appears on the website www.africanreviewofbooks.com and click on the ARoB Bookshop link on the left. If you have concerns about security of online shopping, we can take telephone orders. Simply send us an email at mail@africanreviewofbooks.com with your phone number and when it is best to call you (anywhere in the world at anytime) and we will do the rest.

Top of the list is Telling Tales, a collection of some of the world¹s best writers who have selected their own work for inclusion in an anthology edited by Nadine Gordimer, the South African Nobel laureate.

From another Nobel laureate comes The Green Belt Movement by Wangari Mathaai. This Kenyan won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and the book tells of her environmental work in the East African country which led to her accolade.

Another of this year¹s top prize winner¹s was Brian Chikwava of Zimbabwe. He took the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing with his tale of Harare¹s underbelly in ŒSeventh Street Alchemy¹. The story is part of an anthology, Writing Still, which brings together many well-known Zimbabwean writers and gives fresh views on the country.

Africa featured in the Man Booker prize again this year. Two titles made it through to the longlist and Achmat Dangor¹s Bitter Fruit made the shortlist of the prestigious UK prize. It tells of South Africa¹s search for reconciliation, its striving for Œordinariness¹ in the aftermath of apartheid. It is a powerful story that does not attempt to smooth over the cracks.

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, apart from being in the Booker longlist, was also a finalist for the Orange prize for fiction. It is a powerful and unsettling novel, at times emotionally demanding. It tells of a girl growing up in a strict Catholic household in Nigeria.

From Mozambique comes a tale of magical absurdity, of humour mixed with optimisim. The Last Flight of the Flamingo by Mia Couto tells of environmental tragedy at the same time as highlighting the plight of a people being subjected to the vagaries of United Nations peacekeepers, who happen to be inexplicably exploding.

From West Africa comes a classic of oral literature an epic of West Africa, and a retelling of one of Africa¹s 100 Best Books. Sunjata is an epic which traces the adventures and achievements of the Mande hero who liberates his people from the sorcerer king of Soso and established the medieval empire of Mali. Not fiction, not history, not poetry, it is oral tradition turned into literature.

For something more luxurious, something to display as well as absorb, consider one of these three coffee-table books ­ WS: A life in full, Magdalene Odundo, Malangatana.
The first is a celebration in pictures and essays of one of Africa¹s greatest writers, Wole Soyinka, who celebrated his 70th birthday this year. Magdalene Odundo is a Kenyan artist whose pottery is a statement of elegance. Malangatana is a Mozambican painter and this study of his work brings it to life in full colour.

If it is something more lighthearted you want, then consider The Official Wife, a tale of a woman finding ways of coping in a world of skinny ladies. In non-fiction there are the republished works by one of the most well-known Africa scholars, Basil Davidson. His well known works, The African Slave Trade, The Lost Cities of Africa and The African Genius have just been republished. Most deserving.

In the Christmas list section there are also a number of children's books to choose from.

And if you are still not satisfied, consider one of Africa¹s 100 Best Books, and begin to unwrap a continent.

Thanks for your support

Raks and Richard
African Review of Books