WORLD LITERARY ATLASBOOKS WITHOUT BORDERS · 2026
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Africa · A READING GUIDE

Liberia

She Would Be King provides a fictional entry that reimagines Liberia’s history through magical realism. The same writer’s The Dragons, the Giant, the Women is a distinct memoir of escape and migration. The House at Sugar Beach examines a lost childhood through Helene Cooper’s perspective. Memoirs by Leymah Gbowee and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf offer different women’s accounts of war, public action and rebuilding.

Books to begin with

An editorial selection · not ranked

Wayétu Moore

She Would Be King

About the book

Three characters with extraordinary powers meet in a reimagining of Liberia's founding.

EnglishOriginal

She Would Be King

Graywolf Press

Edition source ↗

Wayétu Moore

The Dragons, the Giant, the Women

About the book

The author recalls her childhood escape from Liberia, life in Texas and a later return.

EnglishOriginal

The Dragons, the Giant, the Women

Graywolf Press

Edition source ↗
Edition cover: The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood — Helene Cooper
English edition

Helene Cooper

The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood

About the book

Memories of a privileged childhood encompass the 1980 coup and emigration.

EnglishOriginal

The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood

Scribner

Edition source ↗
Edition cover: Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War — Leymah Gbowee i Carol Mithers
English edition

Leymah Gbowee i Carol Mithers

Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War

About the book

Gbowee recounts her path towards organising Liberia’s women’s peace movement.

EnglishOriginal

Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War

PublicAffairs

Edition source ↗

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa’s First Woman President

About the book

Sirleaf’s autobiography follows her education, political life and route to Liberia’s presidency.

EnglishOriginal

This Child Will Be Great: Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa’s First Woman President

Harper

Edition source ↗
Edition cover: Madame President — Helene Cooper
English edition

Helene Cooper

Madame President

About the book

A biography of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf traces her path to leadership in postwar Liberia.

EnglishOriginal

Madame President

Scribner

Edition source ↗

Vamba Sherif

Bound to Secrecy

About the book

An investigation into a police chief’s disappearance exposes a Liberian town’s secrets.

EnglishTranslation

Bound to Secrecy

HopeRoad

Edition source ↗
Context and sources

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