Djibouti does not have a large travel literature, but a few books are worth seeking out.
The Voyeur by Abdourahman Waberi is the best-known work of fiction by a Djiboutian author. Waberi writes with sharp poetic intensity about identity, exile, and the landscape of the Horn of Africa. His earlier collection The Land Without Shadows paints Djibouti in vivid, hallucinatory prose — desert heat rising from every page.
Djibouti: Pawn of the Horn of Africa by Robert Tholomier (abridged by Virginia Thompson and Richard Adloff) is the standard English-language history, covering the colonial period through independence. It is dated now but remains the most thorough account of how this small territory became a country.
Naval Strategy East of Suez: The Role of Djibouti by Charles W. Koburger explains why so many foreign militaries have bases here. Djibouti's position at the Bab el-Mandeb strait, controlling access to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, has made it strategically important out of all proportion to its size.
For a broader context on the region, The Zanzibar Chest by Aidan Hartley covers the Horn of Africa's recent turbulent history with extraordinary reporting, and touches on Djibouti as part of the wider story of the Somali world.