From the desk
“Which Nigerian books does every serious reader know?”
Essential Nigerian literature
Novels, a play and a memoir that shaped how Nigeria is written about — from colonial Igboland to the Biafran War to the streets of Abuja.
8 books · The Learningaid desk · Updated October 2026
- 01
Arrow of God
Chinua Achebe · 1964
“Achebe's richest novel: a priest, his god and the British administration.”
- 02
The Joys of Motherhood
Buchi Emecheta · 1979
“Buchi Emecheta on the cost of motherhood in colonial Lagos.”
- 03
Death and the King's Horseman
Wole Soyinka · 1975
“Soyinka's great tragedy of duty and colonial interference.”
- 04
Aké: The Years of Childhood
Wole Soyinka · 1981
“Soyinka's childhood, told with a novelist's eye.”
Paperback
- 05
- 06
Half of a Yellow Sun
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie · 2006
“The Biafran War, through the lives it changed.”
Paperback
- 07
- 08
Season of Crimson Blossoms
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim · 2015
“Set here in Abuja, and winner of the Nigeria Prize for Literature.”
