Love Ethiopia? Readers share 100 books like Ethiopia...

By Yves-Marie Stranger,

Here are 100 books that Ethiopia fans have personally recommended if you like Ethiopia. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

Jinny Alexander Author Of Claude, Gord, Alice, and Maud

From my list on an unusual take on traditional cozy mystery.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve always adored mysteries. My dad has the entire collection of Agatha Christie books, but even before I read those, I worked through his ancient original hardbacks of Enid Blyton's Famous Five books and the less well-known Malcolm Saville Lone Pine series. I love getting totally engrossed in a series, so I really get to BE the main characterā€“I am one of four siblings, and when I wasnā€™t too busy reading, we were the Famous Five. I was George. I think I still am, to be perfectly honestā€“she was fiery, passionate, loved her dog, and wanted to serve justice and out the bad guys. What a role model!

Jinny's book list on an unusual take on traditional cozy mystery

Jinny Alexander Why did Jinny love this book?

This whole series always makes me smileā€“Mma Ramotswe remains one of the most hilarious main characters in any cozy mystery Iā€™ve ever read. The crimes she comes up against are usually low-key, usually secondary to the backdrop of Botswana, and often solved by accident as much as design.

Precious Ramotsweā€™s commentary on Botswanan life is simply brilliant, but almost even more amusing is her sidekick, Grace Makutsi, who bumbles through her role as secretary-promoted-to-assistant-detective, and the interaction between the characters never fails to give me laugh-out-loud moments.

This whole series has to be the most feel-good series ever, and now Iā€™m rediscovering it as an audio production of the radio series; itā€™s as heart-warming as a bright bunch of flowers on a dull day, a bowl of hot soup when youā€™re sick; a hot bubble bath when itā€™s snowing outsideā€¦I love it, love it, love it!

By Alexander McCall Smith,

Why should I read it?

10 authors picked The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Precious Ramotswe, a cheerful woman of traditional build, is the founder of Botswana's first and only ladies' detective agency. Here is a gentle interpretation of the detective role: solving her cases through her innate wisdom and understanding of human nature, she 'helps people with problems in their lives'. With a tone that is as elegant as that which is unfailingly used by his protagonist, Alexander McCall Smith tenderly unfolds a picture of life in Gaborone with a mastery of comic understatement and an evident sympathy for his subjects and their milieu. In the background of all this is Botswana, aā€¦


Book cover of The Barefoot Emperor

Robert David Author Of Lights, Camera, Jemuru: Ethiopia through the lens of a community film school

From my list on that show you the real Ethiopia.

Why am I passionate about this?

I lived in Ethiopia for 7 years and arrived expecting to find a country beaten down by war and famine, I could not have been more wrong. Ethiopia covers a vast territory and is as deep in history and culture, while its myriad peoples speak over 80 different languages. It remains one of the most mysterious, misunderstood, and least visited countries on the planet, and a paradise for both physical and armchair travelers alike to explore one of the last great largely undiscovered places on earth. I continue to write articles for both national and international newspapers and magazines about Ethiopia and its many wonders. 

Robert's book list on that show you the real Ethiopia

Robert David Why did Robert love this book?

What William Dalrymple is to India, Philip Marsden is to Ethiopia. They are both inspired travel writers and scholarly historians. What I particularly loved about The Barefoot Emperor was that it actually reads like a page-turning thriller. Central to the story is the towering figure of the Emperor Tewedros, a brilliant military commander, political reformer, and charismatic leader, who was both loved and loathed by the warring factions that made up his kingdom. His rise and fall compare with anything achieved by Julius Ceasar or Genghis Khan, and Marsden captures his incredible, true-life story with bravura writing that leaps off the page. He turns a searing searchlight onto one of the most forgotten episodes in African history and captures it all with a breathtaking sense of spirit of place.        

By Philip Marsden,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Barefoot Emperor as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A fascinating narrative excursion into a bizarre episode in 19th century Ethiopian and British imperial history featuring a remote African despot and his monstrous European-built gun.

On one of Addis Ababa's main roundabouts today sits a huge recently installed mortar. This is a replica of 'Sevastopol', a 70-ton lump of ordnance commissioned by one of the most extraordinary leaders Africa has ever produced - King of Kings of Ethiopia, the Emperor Theodore. In 1867, as his kingdom collapsed around him, Theodore retreated to his mountain-top stronghold in Magdala. It took his army six months to haul 'Sevastopol' through the gaugesā€¦


Book cover of Orphaned: One Woman's Mission to Save Africa's AIDS Children

Robert David Author Of Lights, Camera, Jemuru: Ethiopia through the lens of a community film school

From my list on that show you the real Ethiopia.

Why am I passionate about this?

I lived in Ethiopia for 7 years and arrived expecting to find a country beaten down by war and famine, I could not have been more wrong. Ethiopia covers a vast territory and is as deep in history and culture, while its myriad peoples speak over 80 different languages. It remains one of the most mysterious, misunderstood, and least visited countries on the planet, and a paradise for both physical and armchair travelers alike to explore one of the last great largely undiscovered places on earth. I continue to write articles for both national and international newspapers and magazines about Ethiopia and its many wonders. 

Robert's book list on that show you the real Ethiopia

Robert David Why did Robert love this book?

Leader? Hero? Saint? Itā€™s difficult to find the words to define Haregewoin Teferra, the subject of this book, but somehow I feel these still fall short. A woman living in relative comfort in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, her life is turned upside down when she is given two young children to care for whose parents died due to HIV/AIDS. In time Haregewoin becomes a mother to many more just like them. In opening her doors, Haregewoin opened her heart to hundreds of orphaned children and gave them the chance of new and happy lives. This is a book that moved me to tears. Tears of rage at the injustices in the world and tears of relief that people like Haregewoin still exist.    

By Melissa Fay Greene,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Orphaned as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In a tin-walled compound outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a middle-class woman named Haregewoin Teferra suffers terrible personal losses. In grief, she turns to the church, and is presented with two orphans and asked to house them. Haregewoin agrees. Once she opens her gate, she never manages to close it again. Here is a woman who does not run away from HIV-positive and AIDS-orphaned children, brought to her on foot, by bus or by donkey cart. There are over a million AIDS orphans in Ethiopia; "There Is No Me Without You" tells a few of their remarkable stories through the eyesā€¦


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Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctorā€”and only womanā€”on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route upā€¦

Book cover of The Lure of the Honey Bird: The Storytellers of Ethiopia

Robert David Author Of Lights, Camera, Jemuru: Ethiopia through the lens of a community film school

From my list on that show you the real Ethiopia.

Why am I passionate about this?

I lived in Ethiopia for 7 years and arrived expecting to find a country beaten down by war and famine, I could not have been more wrong. Ethiopia covers a vast territory and is as deep in history and culture, while its myriad peoples speak over 80 different languages. It remains one of the most mysterious, misunderstood, and least visited countries on the planet, and a paradise for both physical and armchair travelers alike to explore one of the last great largely undiscovered places on earth. I continue to write articles for both national and international newspapers and magazines about Ethiopia and its many wonders. 

Robert's book list on that show you the real Ethiopia

Robert David Why did Robert love this book?

Ethiopia is a treasure trove of traditional folktales and learning. Elizabeth Laird has travelled the length and breadth of the country digging them out by talking to tribal elders, community leaders, and traditional storytellers. What emerged for me was a fascinating record of an ancient culture and its wisdom that can trace its roots back to the days of the Old Testament but whose lessons still ring true to this today. I loved accompanying Elizabeth on her travels as she went in search of the stories; enjoyed meeting alongside her the storytellers she managed to track down; and most of all was charmed by the stories themselves, which are a match in wit and human insight for anything that was ever penned by Aesop or Hans Christian Andersen. 

By Elizabeth Laird,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Lure of the Honey Bird as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1967, at the age of 23, Elizabeth Laird set off for Addis Ababa to take up her first teaching post. She was introduced to Haile Selassie, made a pilgrimage across the mountains on foot to the ancient city of Lalibela, hitched a ride on an oil tanker across the Danakil Desert, and was arrested for a murder she had not committed. Back in Britain, Laird established herself as a major author of fiction for children and young adults, but she always wanted to return to Ethiopia. Her chance came in the late 1990s, when the British Council in Addisā€¦


Book cover of In Search of King Solomon's Mines: A Modern Adventurer's Quest for Gold and History in the Land of the Queen of Sheba

Andrew Cairns Author Of The Witch's List

From my list on set in Africa that move, uplift, and inspire.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a Scottish writer who enjoys travelling and meeting people of different cultures and beliefs. I have always been a fan of adventure stories, particularly those with a strange or supernatural bent. My travels to The Ivory Coast and North Africa, hearing accounts of various witch stories, and encountering strange events and practices firsthand inspired me to write The Witchā€™s List Trilogy: the first two books published and the third in progress. 

Andrew's book list on set in Africa that move, uplift, and inspire

Andrew Cairns Why did Andrew love this book?

If you havenā€™t discovered Tahir Shahā€™s work yet, then this is a great place to start. It is about a quest the writer sets himself to discover the lost Solomonā€™s Mines in Ethiopia after purchasing an old map in a bazaar in Jerusalem. Shah goes off the beaten track venturing to a cliff-face monastery where the monks pull visitors up on a leather rope, to the ruined castles of Gondar, and to the rock-hewn churches at Lalibela. Most striking of all are his descriptions of an illegal gold mine that he visits where the miners dig with their bare hands. The people he meets, the strange circumstances he finds himself in, and the interesting historical and geographical background he provides all contribute to a rich and compelling account.  

By Tahir Shah,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked In Search of King Solomon's Mines as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

King Solomon, the Bibleā€™s wisest king, possessed extraordinary wealth. The grand temple he built in Jerusalem was covered in gold from the porch to the inner sanctum, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. Long before H. Rider Haggardā€™s classic adventure novel King Solomonā€™s Mines unleashed gold fever more than a century ago, many had sought to find the source of the great kingā€™s wealth. In this new adventureā€”ā€œa hybrid of Indiana Jones and Herodotusā€ (Sunday Times, London)ā€”Tahir Shah tries his hand at the quest. 
Intrigued by a map he finds in a shop not far from the siteā€¦


Book cover of The Shadow of the Sun

Mark Weston Author Of The Ringtone and the Drum: Travels in the World's Poorest Countries

From my list on travel in Africa.

Why am I passionate about this?

Since I first visited Africa in 2004 Iā€™ve found it difficult to tear myself away. Iā€™ve lived in South Africa, Ghana, Tanzania, and Sudan and travelled in all corners of the continent. Iā€™ve participated in a revolution, hung out with the illegal fishermen of Lake Victoria, been cursedā€”and protectedā€”by witch doctors, and learned Swahili. Iā€™ve also read extensively about the place, written three books about it, and broadcast from it for the BBC World Service. In my other life I research and write about international development for universities and global organisations. This too has a focus on Africa.

Mark's book list on travel in Africa

Mark Weston Why did Mark love this book?

This short book is without doubt the best introduction to African travel (and in my opinion one of the greatest travel books ever written).

Ranging across the whole continent, Kapuscinskiā€™s evocative writing, although not always sticking religiously to factual details, captures the essenceā€”and the magicā€”of the place like nobody else can. The book, along with his other great works on Africa Another Day of Life and The Emperor, was a major influence on both why I wanted to get to know Africa and how I write about it. 

By Ryszard Kapuściński,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Shadow of the Sun as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Only with the greatest of simplifications, for the sake of convenience, can we say Africa. In reality, except as a geographical term, Africa doesn't exist'. Ryszard Kapuscinski has been writing about the people of Africa throughout his career. In astudy that avoids the official routes, palaces and big politics, he sets out to create an account of post-colonial Africa seen at once as a whole and as a location that wholly defies generalised explanations. It is both a sustained meditation on themosaic of peoples and practises we call 'Africa', and an impassioned attempt to come to terms with humanity itselfā€¦


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Book cover of The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever

The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier,

The coaching book that's for all of us, not just coaches.

It's the best-selling book on coaching this century, with 15k+ online reviews. BrenƩ Brown calls it "a classic". Dan Pink said it was "essential".

It is practical, funny, and short, and "unweirds" coaching. Whether you're a parent, a teacher,ā€¦

Book cover of Travels with Herodotus

Gary Geddes Author Of Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things: An Impossible Journey from Kabul to Chiapas

From my list on for would-be travellers.

Why am I passionate about this?

After writing and editing fifty books and being the recipient of a dozen national and international literary awards, itā€™s obvious that Iā€™m not so much a travel writer as a writer who travels a lot and is sometimes compelled to share what he discovers, or fails to discover, along the way. Iā€™m not one of those ā€œlonely tourists with their empty eyes / Longing to be filled with monuments,ā€ that poet P.K. Page describes. I constantly ask myself: ā€œWhat compels you to abandon the safety and comforts of home for the three Ds of travel: Danger, Discomfort, and Disease?ā€ Itchy feet, insatiable curiosity, or the desire to step outside the ego and the routines of daily life? All of the above. I avoid the Cookā€™s Tour, travel light, and live on the cheap. 

Gary's book list on for would-be travellers

Gary Geddes Why did Gary love this book?

I admire the way this brilliant Polish journalist has been able to get inside the head of an ancient traveller and show us not only the incredible insights of this peripatetic predecessor, but also what travel really means. ā€œA journey neither begins in the instant we set out, nor ends when we have reached our doorstep again. It starts much earlier and is really never over, because the film of memory continues running inside of us long after we have come to a physical standstill.ā€ Even more important, he offers one great truth about all writing, but especially history, that there is no truth with a capital T. ā€œThe subjective factor, its deforming presence will remain impossible to strain out . . . however evolved our methods, we are never in the presence of unmediated history, but history recounted, history as it appeared to someone, as he or she believesā€¦

By Ryszard Kapuściński,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Travels with Herodotus as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Travels with Herodotus records how Kapuscinski set out on his first forays - to India, China and Africa - with the great Greek historian constantly in his pocket. He sees Louis Armstrong in Khartoum, visits Dar-es-Salaam, arrives in Algiers in time for a coup when nothing seems to happen (but he sees the Mediterranean for the first time). At every encounter with a new culture, Kapuscinski plunges in, curious and observant, thirsting to understand its history, its thought, its people. And he reads Herodotus so much that he often feels he is embarking on two journeys - the first hisā€¦


Book cover of Understanding Contemporary Ethiopia: Monarchy, Revolution and the Legacy of Meles Zenawi

John Binns Author Of The Orthodox Church of Ethiopia: A History

From my list on the ancient Christian faith of Ethiopia.

Why am I passionate about this?

I had visited many Eastern Orthodox churches across Eastern Europe and the Middle East for a research project, and finally came to Ethiopia. Here I encountered a large and thriving Christian community which reached back to the earliest days of the church. Its location between the Middle East and East Asia and Africa as well as Europe has given it a distinctive way of living and worshipping which is unique in the Christian world ā€“ and overlooked by other churches. Iā€™ve spent the last twenty years exploring this tradition which gives the rest of us a radically different understanding of faith.

John's book list on the ancient Christian faith of Ethiopia

John Binns Why did John love this book?

Ethiopian society has gone through radical changes and transformations during the last century ā€“ and which continue into an uncertain future. The medieval-style empire of Haile Selassie was toppled by a Marxist dictatorship in 1974, which in turn fell to an alliance of northern peoples who set up a federalist system in 1991, which is now showing signs of tension. This collection of sixteen essays by some of the best-known authorities in their fields, outlines the political history and economic changes. It also tells about the arrival of Pentecostal churches, the growth of militant Islam, and the adaptation of the Orthodox church to a changing world. 

By GĆ©rard Prunier, Ɖloi Ficquet,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Understanding Contemporary Ethiopia as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When we think of Ethiopia we tend to think in cliches: Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, the Falasha Jews, the epic reign of Emperor Haile Selassie, the Communist Revolution, famine and civil war. Among the countries of Africa it has a high profile yet is poorly known. How- ever all cliches contain within them a kernel of truth, and occlude much more. Today's Ethiopia (and its painfully liberated sister state of Eritrea) are largely obscured by these mythical views and a secondary literature that is partial or propagandist. Moreover there have been few attempts to offer readers a comprehensiveā€¦


Book cover of Black Dove, White Raven

Christine Kindberg Author Of The Means That Make Us Strangers

From my list on the third-culture kid experience.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™m a second-generation TCK. I was born in Peru and grew up in Chile and Panama, as well as the US. My YA novel, The Means That Make Us Strangers, explores some of my own experience moving crossculturally as a teenager.

Christine's book list on the third-culture kid experience

Christine Kindberg Why did Christine love this book?

Iā€™ve been a fan of Elizabeth Weinā€™s since I read her bestselling YA thriller Code Name Verity, and I was thrilled to discover she herself is a TCK. In this novel, two adopted siblings (one white, one Black), move from the US to Ethiopia in the 1930s, just before Ethiopiaā€™s war with Italy. TCKs will relate to Teo and Emā€™s struggle with not feeling fully at home in any one place. Like all of Elizabeth Weinā€™s books, there is plenty of airplane-flying adventure to keep readers on the edge of their seats!

By Elizabeth Wein,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Black Dove, White Raven as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

"Think of the sky!" Delia gave Momma's hands a shake. "Think of the sky in Ethiopia! What will it be like to fly in Africa?"

This New York Times bestseller is a story of survival, subterfuge, espionage and identity.

Rhoda and Delia are American stunt pilots who perform daring aerobatics to appreciative audiences. But while the sight of two girls wingwalking - one white, one black - is a welcome novelty in some parts of the USA, it's an anathema in others. Rhoda and Delia dream of living in a world where neither gender nor ethnicity determines their life. Whenā€¦


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Book cover of Dormice & Moonshine: Falling for Slovenia

Dormice & Moonshine by Sam Baldwin,

When two brothers discover a 300-year-old sausage-curing cabin on the side of a Slovenian mountain, it's love at first sight. But 300-year-old cabins come with 300 problems.

Dormice & Moonshine is the true story of an Englishman seduced by Slovenia. In the wake of a breakup, he seeks temporary refugeā€¦

Book cover of The Best Beekeeper of Lalibela: A Tale from Africa

Christine Ieronimo Author Of A Thirst for Home: A Story of Water across the World

From my list on stories from Africa with strong protagonists.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am passionate about writing books for children that create windows to the world, teaching empathy. Children that are empathic grow up to be kind and compassionate adults. I write because I long for a world that is more accepting and compassionate.  

Christine's book list on stories from Africa with strong protagonists

Christine Ieronimo Why did Christine love this book?

This is a story about a young girl named Almaz who dreams of becoming a beekeeper in Lalibela, Ethiopia. When she is told that beekeeping is a manā€™s job and that she should go back to cooking, cleaning, and gathering wood, she doesnā€™t give up. Instead, with the encouragement of a local priest, she becomes determined to continue toward her dream overcoming many obstacles. This is a story that is culturally accurate and gently explores gender roles in Ethiopia. In the end, Almazā€™s perseverance pays off and she is welcome at the market, where she sells the best honey. I love this story also because of my love for Ethiopia, where women and girls are very strong, determined, and must overcome tremendous obstacles in daily life. I am in awe of their beauty and strength.  

By Cristina Kessler, Leonard Jenkins (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Best Beekeeper of Lalibela as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 5, 6, 7, and 8.

What is this book about?

In the Ethiopian mountain village of Lalibela, famous for its churches and honey, a young girl determines to find a way to be a beekeeper despite being told that is something only men can do.


Book cover of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Book cover of The Barefoot Emperor
Book cover of Orphaned: One Woman's Mission to Save Africa's AIDS Children

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