The Famished Road by Ben Okri (1991) — Okri's Booker Prize-winning novel is set in a nameless Nigerian city that draws heavily on the Niger Delta landscape of his childhood. Its spirit-child narrator moves between the world of the living and the dead, and the book captures the texture of ordinary West African life — the market stalls, the bars, the political upheavals — in a way that resonates with anyone who has spent time in Port Harcourt or the surrounding delta.
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2006) — The defining novel of the Biafra War, which tore through Rivers State with devastating effect. Port Harcourt was a major flashpoint in the conflict, and the novel's account of what the war did to ordinary families gives essential context to the city's complicated relationship with its own history. Not set primarily in Port Harcourt, but essential reading for anyone trying to understand modern Rivers State.
A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe (1966) — Achebe's satirical novel about corruption and political manipulation in post-independence Nigeria is as relevant today as when it was written. It captures the world of Nigerian urban politics — the patronage networks, the oil money, the deals — that Port Harcourt exemplifies more than almost any other city.
Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English by Ken Saro-Wiwa (1985) — Saro-Wiwa was an Ogoni writer and activist who was executed by the Abacha government in 1995 for his opposition to Shell's operations in Rivers State. This novel, written in Nigerian Pidgin English, follows a young soldier through the Biafra War. Saro-Wiwa's execution is still a raw wound in Port Harcourt's civic memory and his work gives you direct access to what is at stake in the Niger Delta.