Best African American Fiction Literature
Discover the best African American fiction literature with our curated list of must-read books. Explore powerful stories, acclaimed authors, and timeless classics in Black literature.
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Sugar
by Bernice L. McFadden
Set in a small Arkansas town in the 1950s, this tale of loyalty and friendship between two African-American women finds Jude turning to the church …
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Blacker the Berry...
by Wallace Thurman
This widely read, controversial work from the Harlem Renaissance was the first novel to openly explore prejudice within the black community. A young woman, whose …
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Mama
by Terry McMillan
The explosive novel that introduced the world to #1 New York Times bestselling author Terry McMillan. Mildred Peacock is the tough, funny, feisty heroine of …
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The Upper Room
by Mary Monroe
Mama Ruby's known for taking things that aren't rightfully hers, like her best friend's stillborn infant, who she brought back to life and christened Maureen. …
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Lil Mama's Rules
by Sheneska Jackson
Madison Maguire is a modern-day heroine who appears to have it all. She's feisty, gorgeous, smart, and savvy -- a single woman playing the field …
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Destiny's Daughters
by Donna Hill
Separated at birth, three sisters--Leticia, a former call girl; Jamilla, a successful author, and Clarissa, a jazz singer--finally cross paths in adulthood, in this powerful …
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Nowhere is a Place
by Bernice L. McFadden
Traveling across country together, a mother and daughter discover the assorted pieces of their family's past, which--when pulled together--reveal a history of amazing survival and …
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This Bitter Earth
by Bernice L. McFadden
Sugar Lacey returns to her childhood home in Short Junction, Arkansas, where she confronts love, hatred, and black magic, which leads her to St. Louis …
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Your Blues Ain't Like Mine
by Bebe Moore Campbell
"ABSORBING...COMPELLING...HIGHLY SATISFYING." --San Francisco Chronicle "TRULY ENGAGING...Campbell has a storyteller's ear for dialogue and the visual sense of painting a picture and a place....There's a …
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Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime
by J. California Cooper
Whether through her stories or her legendary readings, J. California Cooper has an uncanny ability to reach out to readers like an old and dear …
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Kindred
by Octavia E. Butler
A young black woman is irresistibly drawn into her family's past.
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Tumbling
by Diane Mckinney-whetstone
A beautiful and uplifting debut from one of the,most exciting voices in new black fiction.,.
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Blessings
by Sheneska Jackson
Four women--Patricia, Zuma, Faye, and Sandy--search for happiness in their daily lives as they struggle with such difficult issues as adoption, infertility, abortion, child discipline, …
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Mama Day
by Gloria Naylor
A powerful generational saga at once tender and suspenseful, overflowing with magic and common sense, this book "resonates with genuine excitement … a big, strong, …
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My Soul to Keep
by Tananarive Due
When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is …
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Big Girls Don't Cry
by Connie Briscoe
After Naomi Jefferson's brother is killed in an automobile accident on the way to a civil rights demonstration and the man she loves betrays her, …
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The Piano Lesson
by August Wilson
A powerful exploration of the legacy of slavery in America, The Piano Lesson centres on a brother and sister in 1930s Pittsburgh as they argue …
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Baby of the Family
by Tina McElroy Ansa
Lena, once a charmed little girl with psychic powers, becomes more haunted as she grows older. She has her family's love, but knows she has …
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Miss Ophelia
by Mary Burnett Smith
Part coming-of-age story and part slice of life, this is a literary novel about African-Americans in the rural South. Set in rural Virginia during 1948, …
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Push
by Sapphire
"Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire," directed by Lee Daniels and written by Damien Paul GRAND JURY PRIZE and AUDIENCE AWARD winner at the …
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The Color of Love
by Sandra Kitt
Considered by many to be the foremost African American writer of romance, Kitt presents a sizzling romance that compares to The Bodyguard. Leah Downey is …