Many of the books listed below will engage readers in the coming year; some will win prizes, spark conversations, and become bestsellers, while others may generate controversy or challenge conventional expectations.
By Afrocritik’s Editorial Board
If the list below shows anything, it is that 2026 is promising on a number of counts. Once again, some of the most recognisable African authors working today have books coming out. Another noticeable trend is the publication of poetry collections (in Nigeria, perhaps that has something to do with the fact that the 2026 edition of the Nigeria Prize for Literature is on poetry).
A number of debuts are testaments that visibility is being given to homegrown talents. On the other hand, we will realise that many of the books coming out in Africa today are merely books being republished for an African readership, having already been published in the United States, the UK, and elsewhere. Of course, this is very welcome, but it also calls for self-reflection. Some of the recognisable names here are authors who, having built their reputation with fiction, now appear to be branching off into genres such as children’s literature and poetry.
Some promisingly engaging scholarly works, such as the one being published by the editor of Brittle Paper, Ainehi Edoro, also bring a different dimension to the conversation around African books. Going forward, we hope to highlight more of those. We will also continue to place African publishers at the centre of all literary and book discourses here, with the hope that that will spur others to continue the great work before us all.
Many of the books listed below will engage readers in the coming year; some will win prizes, spark conversations, and become bestsellers, while others may generate controversy or challenge conventional expectations—that much is obvious. With that, we present Afrocritik’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026.
Note: This is a developing article and will continue to be edited as more new books come under our radar in the first two months of 2026.
Grace — Chika Unigwe (Canongate Books)
Expected Release Date: January 15, 2026
On Baby’s birthday, Grace is forced to confront the child she gave up twenty-six years ago. Now a respected doctor, a wife, and a mother to twin girls, Grace has spent years shaping a life built on distance and control. Pregnant at fifteen and compelled by her parents to surrender her firstborn, she severed ties and buried the past. But when her estranged mother reappears without warning, long-suppressed truths threaten to undo everything Grace has built.
Author of The Middle Daughter longlisted for The Nigeria Prize for Literature, 2025, Chika Unigwe’s new novel will be published in January.
Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions — Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi (Masobe Books)
Expected Release Date: January 15, 2026
After the devastating loss of a friend, four women are bound together. Moving from Nigeria to the United States and then to Poland across decades, this interlocked novel traces their adult lives, the choices they must make across work and family, and the enduring power of friendship. Originally published in the US by Amistad Books, Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions will be made available to Nigerian readers in January 2026 by Masobe Books.
A Dying Giant in the Palm of Your Hand — Adelehin Ijasan (Masobe Books)
Expected Release Date: January 20, 2026
Necessary in this time of profound climate crisis, Adelehin Ijasan’s debut is a searing, lyrical narrative in the tradition of Ben Okri. Ten-year-old Nimi’s life, and the fate of his community, shift irrevocably when his father pulls a strange creature from the sea. Nimi is forced to reckon with the breakdown of his community as the lines blur between the real and the imagined, the human and the mythical. A Dying Giant in the Palm of Your Hand will be published by Masobe Books in January 2026.
stages — Tramaine Suubi (Amistad)
Expected Release Date: January 27, 2026.
The narrative begun in Tramaine Suubi’s 2025 book, phases, continues with a companion collection, stages: Poems, eagerly anticipated for release. While Suubi’s first book turned its gaze to the moon, stages charts the evolution of stars, moving from “Yellow Dwarf” to “Protostar”.
The collection is described as a meditation on the choices that define a life, navigating the tension between personal tranquillity and the entanglements of capitalism. It traces Suubi’s journey across continents, asserting a fierce freedom to exist on one’s own terms. Early praise has been effusive: National Book Award winner, Mary Szybist, calls the work “visionary love poetry”, celebrating its ability to render a single life as vast and enduring as the life cycle of a star.
The Comedian’s Diary — Obase-Sam Ikoi (Masobe Books)
Expected Release Date: January 28, 2026
This inventive debut follows failed accountant and aspiring comedian, Oga Simon, as alcohol addiction slowly unravels his life, and after, his path to redemption, to building a life worth living. Intimate and emotionally charged, Ikoi demonstrates addiction’s far-reaching consequences, not only on the victim but on loved ones too, and the crude reality in one man’s trying and failing to get his life back on track.
Forest Imaginaries: How African Novels Think — Ainehi Edoro (Columbia University Press)
Expected Release Date: January, 2026
In her debut book, Forest Imaginaries: How African Novels Think, Ainehi Edoro reconsiders the forest as a generative force in African fiction, challenging conventional readings of it as a mere setting or symbol. Drawing on indigenous narratives and contemporary science fiction, the book traces a rich lineage from Chinua Achebe to Nnedi Okorafor. By foregrounding Indigenous ideas of time, space, and storytelling, Forest Imaginaries rethinks African literary history and expands the possibilities of the African novel.
Born at the End of the World — Donica Merhazion (Catalyst Press)
Expected Release Date: February 2026
Born at the End of the World is the debut historical novel by Eritrean-Ethiopian author Donica Merhazion, to be published by Catalyst Press in February 2026. Inspired by the true story of the author’s parents, the novel is set during the Ethiopian Red Terror of the 1970s and unfolds as a powerful narrative of love, sacrifice, and resistance.
It follows the intertwined lives of Elen, who escapes an arranged marriage in rural Ethiopia to build a new life in Asmara, and Girmai, who flees an abusive home and rises from street hustler to respected businessman. Their paths converge as the Derg regime seizes power, forcing both into the underground network of the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front, where they serve as spies in the struggle for freedom. Amid terror and political violence, a deep and passionate bond forms between them.
Praised by Foreword Reviews as a thrilling novel of resilience and resistance, and by Library Journal as heartbreaking yet hopeful, the book explores patriotism, courage, and the capacity of ordinary people to act extraordinarily. The title carries a personal resonance: Merhazion was born in an Ethiopian prison called Alem Bekagn—“end of the world”.
Benni — Benni McCarthy with Mark Gleeson (Pan Macmillan South Africa)
Expected Release Date: February 2026
Benni is the authorised biography of Benni McCarthy, co-authored with Mark Gleeson and set for release in February 2026 by Pan Macmillan South Africa. The book chronicles McCarthy’s journey of resilience, tracing his rise from growing up amid poverty and gang violence in Hanover Park, Cape Town, to becoming one of the most respected figures in global football.
It details his playing career at clubs including Ajax Amsterdam, Celta Vigo, Blackburn Rovers, and Orlando Pirates, with particular focus on his time at FC Porto under José Mourinho, where he played a central role in the club’s 2004 UEFA Champions League triumph—the first time a South African player won the competition.
The Shipikisha Club — Mubanga Kalimamukwento (Dzanc Books)
Expected Release Date: March 10, 2026,
The Shipikisha Club by Mubanga Kalimamukwento, slated for release on 10 March 2026 by Dzanc Books, is set in Kabwe, Zambia. The novel follows Salifyanji (Sali), a mother of three, as she stands trial for the murder of her husband, Kasunga.
At its heart, the story interrogates the Zambian cultural concept of shipikisha—the expectation that wives must endure any hardship in marriage. Told through the shifting perspectives of Sali, her daughter Ntashé, and her mother Peggy, the novel unfolds as a poignant family and courtroom drama, balancing intimate emotional stakes with broader questions of duty, endurance, and personal agency.
Heart Analytics — Kulthum Asha (Masobe Books)
Expected Release Date: 13th March, 2026
This is a heart-wrenching, deeply romantic story about two people who teach each other how to love—and how to be loved. When data-obsessed Renike Bello agrees to a seemingly harmless tutoring arrangement with Rotimi “RJ” Jacobs, the cocky, infuriating baseball star who can code better than he can flirt, she expects nothing more than a boost in her proficiency. She does not expect stolen glances, soft confessions, or a connection that rewrites every rule she has built her life around.
But love is the one variable Renike cannot control. And when a cruel misunderstanding shatters their fragile new bond, she is forced to confront the truth she has spent years burying: that sometimes the most terrifying risks are the ones that change you.
Ará’lúèbó: The Immigrant Monologues — Kányin Olorunnisola (Acre Books)
Expected Release Date: March 15, 2026
Kânyin Olorunnisola arrives with a brilliantly imagined debut collection of poems. Ará’lúèbó: The Immigrant Monologues, featuring five fictional poet-speakers, is experimental in form and spirit: poems incorporate elements of music and theatre with a blend of linguistic influences, and come in forms of diary entries, dictionary entries, pie charts, flow charts and movie screenplays. Olorunnisola investigates what it means to be Nigerian and American— what it means to belong.
Boys Will Be Boys — Miracle Emeka-Nkwor (Masobe Books)
Expected Release Date: March 17, 2026
The celebrated author of What Happened to Janet Uzor returns with another YA thriller. Set in the city of Port Harcourt, Boys Will Be Boys follows Chisom, a new arrival at Bethlehem Glorious High School, who finds herself at the centre of a murder mystery involving five popular friends. With accessible language and masterful pacing, Boys Will Be Boys promises to captivate and thrill.
A Museum of Unfinished Men — Kukogho Iruesiri Samson (Masobe Books)
Expected Release Date: 23rd March, 2026
A Museum of Unfinished Men is a deeply introspective poetry collection that examines the devastating complexities of failed fatherhood and generational legacy. Through raw emotional candour and profound reflection, it explores how inherited silence and emotional neglect shape male identity across different eras, creating an agonising tension between inherited burdens and the pursuit of transformation.
The poems navigate themes of accountability, rupture, and the transformative power of love, seeking to answer the question: Can one break a cycle that has defined their life?
The Inventory of Lost Things — Abubakar Ibrahim (Masobe Books)
Expected Release Date: 27th March, 2026
The Inventory for Lost Things is a lyrical meditation on memory, grief, exile, and the ways we rebuild ourselves after loss. Through sixty poems that shift between personal recollection and collective history, the collection explores how language can be both wound and wonder, and how tenderness endures in the aftermath of ruin.
The poems traverse intimate and public landscapes, from the quiet ache of familial absence and the ghost of a mother’s voice, to the smouldering ruins of war-torn geographies such as Gaza and Khartoum, to elegies for drowned men and vanished homelands. Each piece bears witness to displacement, love, and spiritual endurance, drawing on faith and history to create meaning from what remains.
Three Is A Crowd — Chinasa Anaele (Masobe Books)
Expected Release Date: 15th April, 2026
Things take a turn when Cheta finds herself irresistibly drawn to the older brother of the man she is to marry. Torn between guilt, lust, and loyalty, Cheta must make difficult choices. Thrumming with the electricity of desire, Three Is a Crowd is a provocative exploration of love, forbidden attraction, and the grey spaces that lie between.
My Own Dear People — Dwight Johnson (Cassava Republic)
Expected Release Date: April 21, 2026
Nyjah Messado is haunted by a moment of cowardice he has never escaped. As a schoolboy at an elite private institution, he watched a trainee teacher, Maude Dallmeyer, violently attacked by his peers—and remained silent. Years later, that silence follows him from university back to Montego Bay, a city shaped for tourists yet brutal to its residents, governed by gang power and the legacies of colonialism.
Navigating its volatile streets, Nyjah must reckon with his masculinity, his complicity, and his place in a society hostile to women and queer lives. My Own Dear People is a tense, lyrical meditation on guilt and accountability.
One Leg On Earth — Pemi Aguda (W.W. Norton)
Expected Release Date: May 5, 2026.
Author of Ghostroots (2024), Pemi Aguda returns with another compelling work. In her forthcoming novel, One Leg On Earth, twenty-three-year-old Yosoye arrives in Lagos determined to remake her life. An internship at a sleek architectural firm promises glamour, ambition, and belonging—until she discovers she is pregnant.
As construction accelerates on Omi City, a glossy development reclaimed from the ocean, rumours spread of an inexplicable force haunting pregnant women and claiming lives in the city’s waters. Joy turns to dread as Yosoye senses a presence she cannot escape without risking both her child and her future. One Leg On Earth is a haunting portrait of modern Lagos, probing motherhood, belonging, and the dark underside of progress. The Nigerian edition will be published by Masobe Books.
The Finest Things — Deborah Kira (Masobe Books)
Expected Release Date: 13th May, 2026
The cracks in Adunni Ojo’s small, quiet life begin to appear one Saturday evening, following her meeting with Rotimi Badmus. Their connection is instant, disruptive, and what follows is a testament to love’s power to upend, transform, loosen, and tighten the ties that bind people. The Finest Things by Deborah Kira is slated for release in May 2026.
The Aquatics — Osvalde Lewat, translated by Maren Baudet Lackner (Cassava Republic)
Expected Release Date: May 19, 2026
In the imagined nation of Zambuena, Katmé moves through a life carefully shaped by power and expectation. As the overlooked wife of a rising politician, she enjoys comfort without intimacy, her days governed by duty and restraint. Her only refuge is Samy, a gifted but struggling artist whose queerness is criminalised by the state.
When Samy’s provocative exhibition exposes Zambuena’s social injustices, loyalty collides with danger. As political enemies close in and Samy faces imprisonment, Katmé must choose between preserving her family’s position or risking everything to protect the friendship that gives her life meaning. The Aquatics will be published by Cassava Republic in May 2026.
At Sea — YM (Yassmin) Abdel-Magied (Canongate Books/Pegasus Books)
Expected Release Date: May 2026
At Sea is the debut adult literary novel by Sudanese-born writer and former mechanical engineer, YM (Yassmin) Abdel-Magied, scheduled for release in May 2026. A propulsive environmental thriller, the book draws on the author’s real-world experience working on offshore oil rigs.
The story follows Zainab, a devout and highly skilled driller tasked with overseeing a high-stakes oil rig operation. To take on this career-defining role, she leaves behind her pregnant sister and enters a hostile, isolated, entirely male-dominated environment at sea.
As Zainab uncovers the possibility of catastrophic collapse on the rig, she faces intense prejudice from a crew resistant to her authority. Racing to investigate the danger, she realises that the greatest threat may not lie in the machinery or the ocean itself, but in the cold, profit-driven calculations of those who place greed above safety and the natural world.
The novel will be published in hardcover on 20 May 2026, with paperback editions following in late May or early June 2026.
Chino’s Treasure Hunt — Chimamanda Adichie, writing as Nwa Grace-James (HarperCollins)
Expected Release Date: June 19, 2026
Her second children’s book, following Mama’s Sleeping Scarf (2023), Chino’s Treasure Hunt—written under the name Nwa Grace-James by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie—will be published by HarperCollins in 2026. The book features characters from Mama’s Sleeping Scarf and tells a gentle story about the importance of family and love.
Dancing with Jinns: Black Women Write on Taboo — Edited by Ellah Wakatama and Momtaza Mehri (Cassava Republic) Anthology
Expected Release Date: June 23, 2026
In Dancing with Jinns, eleven African women push against silence, writing on diverse, often unspoken subjects such as AIDS, sexuality, menstruation, mental health, and patriarchy. The essays are at once intimate and universal, weaving together personal experiences, cultural norms, and theoretical reflections. This brave and important collection is the product of Cassava Republic’s African Women’s Non-Fiction Writing Workshop and will be published in June 2026.
Pillaging the Dead — Degol Hailu (Cassava Republic Press)
Expected Release Date: September 29th 2026
Pillaging the Dead is the debut novel by Ethiopian author, Degol Hailu, scheduled for paperback release in September 2026. A political satire set in an unnamed African nation, the novel follows Tarik, a university student and street hawker who sells banned books and political cartoons. After being caught in a government raid and brutally beaten, Tarik is drawn into a dangerous world of activism and political struggle.
Described as “ripped from the headlines”, the book unfolds as a suspenseful political thriller. It is highly anticipated for its sharp engagement with contemporary political realities on the continent and marks a significant debut from an Ethiopian writer.
The Freedom of Birds — Kiprop Kimutai (Graywolf Press)
Expected Release Date: Winter 2026
The Freedom of Birds by Kiprop Kimutai is scheduled for publication in Winter 2026 by Graywolf Press. The novel follows Bulei, a young man who loses both his job and his boyfriend in Nairobi and returns to his hometown of Tolosio in rural western Kenya, a place he had previously fled after the community discovered he was gay and threatened him. Back home, both Bulei and his mother, Ferono, find companionship and new possibilities with the help of Ahithophel, whom they hire to work on their house.
Winner of the 2023 Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize, the novel has been praised by Booker Prize-shortlisted author, Tsitsi Dangarembga, as “epic in scope and intimate in detail,” commending Kimutai’s bravery and restraint in depicting a rural Kenyan community often absent from literature.
Belongers — Doreen Anyango (Ibua Publishing)
Expected Release Date: 2026
Belongers by Doreen Anyango will be published by Ibua Publishing in 2026. The novel is a joint winner of the 2024 Ibua Novel Manuscript Project and has been described by head judge Billy Kahora as “the contemporary Ugandan epic novel that East Africa needs”, while judge Stacy Hardy praised it as an “emotionally intricate, lyrical exploration.”
Set in modern Uganda, the novel examines themes of grief, belonging, and survival, interweaving socio-political commentary with intimate, character-driven storytelling that resonates beyond its immediate setting. Anyango, a Ugandan writer, scriptwriter, and biotechnologist based in Kampala, brings a practised literary sensibility to the work, honed through widely published short fiction and earlier recognition, including second place in the 2021 Island Prize for Fiction for the Belongers manuscript.
Next of Kin — Gladwell Pamba (Ibua Publishing)
Expected Release Date: 2026
Next of Kin by Gladwell Pamba will be published by Ibua Publishing in 2026 and is a joint winner of the 2024 Ibua Novel Manuscript Project. Set in urban Nairobi, the novel weaves personal grief into a layered narrative of the city’s social tensions, offering a socially conscious reimagining that addresses systemic issues of urban poverty and patriarchy.
Judges on the selection panel praised the manuscript’s force and immediacy: Vimbai Shire noted that she was “immersed from the first line” and held throughout, while Billy Kahora observed that the novel “excavates urban Nairobi in new ways that will astonish readers”. Pamba, a Kenyan writer with an MA in Creative Writing, brings to the work a feminist sensibility shaped by her sustained engagement with African culture and her widely published short fiction.
The Oath — Muthoni wa Gichuru (Ibua Publishing)
Expected Release Date: 2026
The Oath by Muthoni wa Gichuru will be published by Ibua Publishing in 2026 and was the runner-up in the 2024 Ibua Novel Manuscript Project. A historical novel attentive to spiritual and cultural rituals, it has been praised for its rich world-building and its sustained engagement with the traumatic legacy of colonialism.
The narrative explores tensions between tradition and modernity, questions of cultural identity, and the enduring imprint of the colonial era on African societies. JudgeBilly Kahora highlighted the novel’s strong engagement with the trauma of the colonial experience, while Judge Edwige-Renée Dro commended the depth and coherence of its world-building.
Hassan and Hassana Share Everything — Elnathan John (Cassava Republic)
Expected Release Date: November 10, 2026
Elnathan John’s first children’s book follows a pair of identical twins, Hassan and Hassana, who share everything. On their eighth birthday, they receive a bicycle and a set of drums. Hassan faces a difficult choice when he is told that girls do not ride bikes. Through this story, John illustrates how early gender norms seep into the lives of children—and how, with kindness and sensitivity, they can be challenged. Hassan and Hassana Share Everything will be released by Cassava Republic in November 2026.
Scorpio (Skorpio) (English Edition) — Deon Meyer (Human & Rousseau/Pan Macmillan South Africa/Macmillan UK)
Expected Release Date: English Edition 2026–2027
Scorpio (titled Skorpio in Afrikaans) is the upcoming ninth instalment in Deon Meyer’s bestselling Benny Griessel series. The novel finds detectives Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido recently reinstated as captains but assigned what appear to be minor cases in Stellenbosch. Griessel investigates the death of a private investigator found crushed under a car—a case initially ruled a suicide, though Cupido suspects murder—while Cupido is distracted by a small arson incident at a shepherd’s hut, until a nearby caravan explosion reveals a body and ignites a media storm.
As an international security forum, dubbed the “BRICS circus”, prepares to convene in town, the two investigations escalate into a high-stakes plot involving global leaders, with consequences that threaten to reverberate far beyond South Africa. The Afrikaans edition is published by Human & Rousseau, followed by the South African English edition in October 2026 from Pan Macmillan South Africa, with an international English hardback release from Macmillan (UK) planned for early 2027.