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Twelve books that open the door: the classics most readers of African literature meet first.

• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Nigeria, 1958
• So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ, Senegal, 1979
• Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih, Sudan, 1966
• Weep Not, Child by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Kenya, 1964
• Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga, Zimbabwe, 1988
• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigeria, 2006
• Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, South Africa, 1948
• The Dark Child by Camara Laye, Guinea, 1953
• God's Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembène, Senegal, 1960
• Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt, 1956
• Ambiguous Adventure by Cheikh Hamidou Kane, Senegal, 1961
• Houseboy by Ferdinand Oyono, Cameroon, 1956