Books from Ghana

At twenty-two, Nana-Ama Danquah becomes a mother while struggling with a depression she cannot bring herself to name. Expected to embody the strength and resilience demanded of Black women, she hides her suffering behind silence until it threatens to overwhelm her life. Through therapy, friendships with other women facing similar struggles, and a painful confrontation with childhood trauma, Danquah begins to understand the roots of her despair. Both deeply personal and culturally revealing, this groundbreaking memoir challenges the stigma surrounding mental illness and questions why some women are expected to care for everyone else while suffering alone.

Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born in eighteenth-century Ghana, their lives divided by the forces of slavery and colonialism. Effia marries a British slave trader and lives in comfort above the dungeons of Cape Coast Castle, unaware that her sister Esi is imprisoned below before being sold into slavery in America. From the villages of Ghana to the plantations of the American South and the streets of modern Harlem, their descendants inherit the consequences of choices, violence, and histories they never experienced themselves. Spanning eight generations and three centuries, Homegoing is a powerful exploration of how slavery reshapes families, how trauma travels across generations, and how the past continues to influence the present.

Set in contemporary Ghana, His Only Wife follows Afi Tekple, a young seamstress from a small town whose life changes when she agrees to marry Elikem Ganyo, a wealthy businessman she barely knows. Encouraged by her mother and Elikem’s influential family, Afi accepts the marriage partly to secure financial stability for her family. However, she soon discovers that her husband is emotionally involved with another woman, and that she has been chosen in the hope that she will change his affections. After moving to Accra, Ghana’s bustling capital, Afi begins to discover a world of new opportunities, fashion, and independence. As she navigates the expectations placed on her as a wife and daughter, she gradually questions the compromises she has made for others. With warmth, humour, and social insight, Peace Adzo Medie explores marriage, class, family obligations, and the pressures placed on women. Afi’s journey becomes a story of self-discovery and the courage to define her own future.

Growing up in Ghana, cousins Selasi and Akorfa are inseparable. Outgoing and playful Selasi contrasts with the quiet, studious Akorfa, but their differences only strengthen their bond. They share their secrets, dreams, and private jokes, convinced that nothing can come between them. However, as they enter adolescence, Selasi becomes increasingly withdrawn and hostile, creating a distance that neither girl fully understands. Eventually, their once-close relationship breaks apart, leaving both with painful questions about what went wrong. As adults, their lives take different paths. Akorfa moves to the United States to pursue her education and become a doctor, later building a career in international development and starting a family. Yet her hopes for a better life are complicated by the racism she encounters as a Black African woman in America. Selasi, meanwhile, remains in Ghana, where she becomes a successful restaurateur in Accra despite the hardships and family disappointments she has endured. When a dangerous incident at Selasi’s restaurant brings the estranged cousins back into one another’s lives, they are forced to confront the secrets and childhood experiences that shaped their separation. As their memories reveal different versions of the same events, both women must reconsider their assumptions about one another and acknowledge their own roles in the breakdown of their relationship. Moving between the perspectives of the two women, Nightbloom explores female friendship, family expectations, social class, and the lasting effects of childhood trauma. Medie examines how silence and misunderstanding can fracture even the closest relationships, while showing how confronting painful truths can create the possibility of reconciliation.

American journalist Danielle “Dani” Moreau arrives in Accra, Ghana, hoping to revive her career by investigating corruption in the country’s oil industry. Still reeling from a personal tragedy, she expects to uncover a conventional political scandal. Instead, an encounter with James Aidoo, the idealistic son of a prominent Ghanaian politician, draws her into a far more dangerous story. Dani discovers a covert struggle between American and Chinese intelligence agencies over control of the underwater fibre-optic cables that carry the world’s digital communications. As she investigates, she encounters double agents, corrupt officials, and operatives with violent pasts. What begins as a journalistic investigation becomes a fight for survival, with the consequences reaching far beyond Ghana’s borders. Set against the bustling streets and political complexities of West Africa, The Silver Fish combines espionage with contemporary geopolitical intrigue. Connor Martin explores the hidden infrastructure of global power, examining how technology, intelligence, and competing national interests shape the modern world—and the personal cost of pursuing the truth.

Dzifa has spent much of her life feeling out of place. Haunted by difficult family relationships and exhausted by repeated cycles of burnout, unstable employment, and housing insecurity, she struggles to find a sense of safety and belonging. Her closest source of support is Tatiana, her charismatic best friend, whose confidence and determination often help Dzifa navigate life’s challenges. Despite their differences, the two women share a desire to live authentically and free themselves from the expectations imposed on them as Black women. Their friendship faces its greatest test when tragedy strikes Tatiana’s family. After the sudden death of Tatiana’s infant son, Luca, Dzifa returns to Boston to support her friend and help prepare for the funeral. But grief soon gives way to a bitter family conflict. Tatiana’s partner and his parents begin questioning her ability to care for her surviving daughter, Maddie, threatening to turn an already devastating loss into a custody battle. Caught between two opposing families, Dzifa must decide how far she is willing to go to protect her friend. When Tatiana asks her for an extraordinary favour, Dzifa faces an impossible choice between loyalty to someone she loves and the need to protect her own well-being. With humour, emotional honesty, and an unflinching look at complicated family relationships, Somewhere Soft to Land explores female friendship, grief, motherhood, and the burden of respectability politics. It asks whether unconditional loyalty is always an act of love—and whether true friendship sometimes requires the courage to establish boundaries.