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Read a collection of travel inspired poetry about Turkey’s Bodrum Peninsula, travel to the Ivory Coast and get drawn into a world of strange beliefs and practices, visit Cape Town with Silly Willy, or explore the African Savannah while questioning everything you’ve ever thought about love.

Confront the daily challenges of being an educator in an Egyptian school, train for war in Kuwait, read a riveting psychological thriller set in South Africa, or search for an ancient shipwreck off the coast of Cape Town.

Travel from Scandinavia to the Middle East with a young woman on a journey of self-discovery, learn what it takes to run your own production company in South Africa, or share an uneasy friendship on a remote sisal plantation in 1953’s Zimbabwe.

Travel By Book to Africa and the Middle East with mystery, fantasy, romance, travel memoir, and thriller authors Jay Artale, Andrew Cairns, Robbie Cheadle, Stephanie Smith Diamond, Lucinda E. Clarke, Jill Dobbe, Sarah Key, Paul Russell Parker III, Michael Smorenburg, M.P. Tonnesen and Rossandra White.

The complete list of books set in Africa and the Middle East can be found here on Facebook.

Travel By Book is a Facebook group dedicated to travel fiction and non-fiction. If you love to read or write books strong in setting, consider joining us!

Turkey Tales: A Bodrum Travel Memoir in Verse by Jay Artale

Travel Memoirs can transport you to a destination, and enable you to visualise people, cultures & experiences from another person’s perspective. I’ve created this collection of travel inspired poetry to draw you into Turkey’s Bodrum Peninsula. After writing travel guides about the area, I wanted to show the personal side of the location I now call home.

My poetry writing style is designed as an easy read. The rhymes should trip off your tongue and embed in your brain. I’ve created lines that will stick in your memory banks and come to you in a flash, much like the words of a favourite song.

If you like Travel Memoirs, this poetry memoir is for you. Ideal for reading on your mobile phone when you’re lining up for your morning coffee, or during your commute. Even better when enjoyed on location in Turkey. Although the experiences and people I’ve encountered are all based in Bodrum, some of the behaviour and interaction is relevant in other parts of the Mediterranean or Aegean, like Spain, Greece or Italy.

The Witch’s List by Andrew Cairns

Sandy Beech doesn’t believe in witches and the supernatural. However, certain strange events occur which put his scepticism to the test: a burning book, a falling crucifix, a mysterious illness, and a fire in a convent which kills all twelve nuns. On her deathbed, Bernadette, the last surviving nun, warns him to control his lusts and avoid African women. Sandy finds this difficult, since he is attracted to exotic, dark-skinned women and after his hedonistic university exchange year in Paris, marries Rocky from the Ivory Coast. Five years later, childless and with the marriage souring, they decide to visit Rocky’s home country. Sandy is drawn into a world of strange beliefs and practices: he finds out about the Witch’s List – a list of people destined to die, and is attacked by various animals starting with a ferocious dog in Abidjan. He delves further and further into the realm of African witchcraft, but the horrific truth remains obscure… The Witch’s List is the first of a trilogy.

Silly Willy Goes to Cape Town by Robbie Cheadle

When the George family go on holiday to Cape Town, Cautious Craig cannot believe what he has to endure at the hands of his naughty and wilful younger brother, Silly Willy. Willy throws tantrums at the most embarrassing and inappropriate times, causes a commotion on the aeroplane and tries to steal a chameleon from Butterfly World.

What is a poor older brother expected to do in these situations?

Mountains Never Meet by Stephanie Smith Diamond

When Maggie has second thoughts about getting married, she thinks an exotic vacation will bring her and Thomas closer together. Thomas agrees but he isn’t thrilled with her choice of a destination – Mount Kilimanjaro. Their rocky relationship becomes even more strained, however, and Maggie finds herself in an unexpected situation.

Maggie hates asking for help but she finds it in the form of an unlikely stranger. Against the magnificent backdrop of the African savannah, Maggie starts to question everything she’s ever thought about love, life, and where to call home.

Kids, Camels & Cairo by Jill Dobbe

Traveling across the globe to work in an international school in Cairo, Egypt, was not exactly the glamorous lifestyle I thought it would be. I cherished my travels to the Red Sea, delighted in visiting the Pyramids, and appreciated the natural wonders of the Nile River. However, I also spent days without electricity or internet, was leered at by rude Egyptian men, breathed in Cairo’s cancerous black smog, and coaxed school work from rich, apathetic students.

Why the heck did I do it? So I could experience the unexpected, explore the extraordinary, and bask in the thrill of adventure!

Whether you’re a traveler or not, you will be astounded at this honest and riveting account of learning to live in an Islamic society, while confronting the daily challenges of being an educator in a Muslim school.

Truth, Lies & Propaganda: in Africa by Lucinda E. Clarke

Lucinda ‘fell’ into writing by chance, moving from radio to television, to running her own production company in South Africa. She lifts the lid on what really goes on behind the scenes in the media, often hilarious and not at all glamorous.

She spent more time on rubbish dumps than in banqueting halls, although she got to meet many famous people.

The Dandelion Clock by Sarah Key

Silent Helene Van den Bergh has wandered the city since her release from a psychiatric hospital fifteen years earlier. Horrified when her friend is murdered, she knows the bullet was meant for her ‒ but why?

On Devil’s Peak, on the spring equinox, Helene waits for the gibbous moon to rise, unaware that two killers stalk her. The Dark Man, and Etienne Craig, The Diabolical Creation, a depraved lunatic whose lust for violence has reached its zenith. But something infinitely more evil tracks the hunters on the charred mountainside. Its depravity knows no bounds and its form cannot be predicted. Evil men set on slaughter may themselves become its prey.

Flash Peterson, Honey Esack and Petra Montgomery, the Sisters of Light, unite in a desperate scramble against the clock. Can they conquer the darkness in time to save their friend? In this gripping psychological thriller, Sarah Key, author of Tangled Weeds, weaves the supernatural with crime to stunning effect.

The Buildup to Operation Intense Freedom by Paul Russell Parker III

If tossed out to survive on your own, would you rise to the occasion? Overwhelmed with confusion. Newly arrived in Camp Commando, Kuwait.
John Gabriel Warden has no clue why he’s in the Middle East. He and his team were told they would be temporarily assigned duty to the 1st Marine Division, but he assumed they’d fly to California. Nothing prepared Warden to find themselves driving off of a C-5 at Kuwait International Airport.

Not only are they in a new country, but all conventional rules are thrown out of the window. Warden and his team find themselves training for war in an allied country, and driving around Kuwaiti highways with fully loaded weapons during peace time.

In this military thriller novella, Warden is a US Marine tasked to lead a team of Marines with the 1st Marine Division. He needs to ensure that his team is ready to go to war if the call is given. Warden feels left in the dark, and out of his element while he struggles through setback after setback that would drive others insane during this buildup to a potential combat operation.

Can Warden ensure that his team will be ready to fight? Warden continues to hope so, even though everything that could go wrong, does go wrong.

The Praying Nun by Michael Smorenburg

Come along on a gripping saga of adventure, intrigue and discovery of an ancient shipwreck that has no identity; until 30 years pass and the Smithsonian fills in the missing pieces — then leap back two centuries to witness a sometimes disturbing tale of brutality, exhilarating and the triumph of human courage… The Praying Nun will leave you shocked, surprised and pondering human nature in all its forms. Mostly, it will inject elation into your day.

In 1985 an uncharted shipwreck was discovered off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. Two divers, the author and his friend, salvage artifacts from the ocean floor and try to identify the ship’s identity and cargo. In 2015 the mystery was finally solved by the Smithsonian Museum of Washington. The ship was the São José de Africa, a slaver that ran aground in 1794 with 400 slaves aboard, half lost on that day, the other half salvaged and sold the next day to defray costs. At this time, the recovered artifacts reside in the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the US, in 2027 they will be returned to the Iziko museum in Cape Town.

Desert Skies, Rebel Souls by M.P. Tonnesen

A journey into the unknown. A rebellion against family, culture and society. A love against all odds.

From Scandinavia to the Middle East, a young woman travels to discover herself and finds a world of passion and history, war and peace. A whirlwind romance takes a dramatic turn, leaving Olivia caught between countries, belonging nowhere, and with the love of her life in danger far away.
From the award-winning author of The Cosmopolitan Islander comes an uplifting tale of adventure, conflict and reconciliation that never shies away from brutal reality, yet sparkles with the sheer love of life.
Desert Skies, Rebel Souls is a bittersweet coming-of-age story set under the desert sky against the backdrop of music of the nineties and stunning scenery – to be enjoyed by adventurous globetrotters and readers longing to escape.

Monkey’s Wedding by Rossandra White

Adolescents Elizabeth and Tururu–she’s white, he’s black–share an uneasy friendship on a remote sisal plantation in 1953’s Zimbabwe. Resentment to white rule erupts throwing them into the crossfire of political change and ancient ritual.

To make matters worse, a clash between Tururu’s witchdoctor grandmother and her apprentice unleash ancient fire spirits that will make the British overlords look like saints. Will their friendship survive?

The novel’s dual viewpoints afford an intimate glimpse into the two faces of a country at a crucial time in its history.

You can find our growing list of Travel By Book fiction and non-fiction titles set in Africa and the Middle East here on Facebook.

Be sure to stop back next month to learn about Travel By Book titles set in Australia and Oceania!

And don’t forget to check out the Travel By Book to Asia, Travel By Non-Fiction Book to Europe, Travel By Book to Latin American & the Caribbean, Travel By Book to Europe Fiction, Travel By Book to North America posts to find even more great books to read.