99 Essential African Books

That's what you'll find in my interview with Geoff Wisner at The Quarterly Conversation. He's the author of A Basket of Leaves: 99 Books that Capture the Spirit of Africa.

Among many, many authors, we discuss Achebe, Coetzee, and Ngugi, as well as Kapuscinski, Chatwin, and Bowles. Here's a taste:

SE: I wanted to get back to the African magical realists you mentioned earlier. Any relation to the Latin American magical realists?

GW: I think it would be difficult for any writer of magical realism to avoid the influence of Gabriel Garcia Márquez, but in Sony Labou Tansi the influence is unmistakable. Though it's a much longer book, The Seven Solitudes of Lorsa Lopez is like Chronicle of a Death Foretold in that it revolves around a murder that everyone knows will happen but that nobody seems able to prevent. It takes place in an imaginary land where time doesn't follow the usual rules. Supernatural creatures appear, and the language has the detail and sensuality that you find in Garcia Márquez, which makes fantastic occurrences feel convincing. Tansi has created a mythic version of Congo-Brazzaville, as Garcia Márquez created a mythic version of Colombia.

Ben Okri is probably the African writer who has made the most sophisticated use of magical realism . . .

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