Keletso Mopai • Byron Loker • Wamuwi Mbao •
Sebastian Murdoch • Jarred Thompson • Richard de Nooy •
Khaddafina Mbabazi • Kelwyn Sole • Masande Ntshanga •
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim • Zaina Arafat • TJ Benson •
Yamen Manai • Yaa Gyasi • Adekeye Adebajo •
Lester Walbrugh • Helen Moffett • Angela Makholwa •
Victor Dlamini • Tymon Smith

Welcome to the tenth issue of Volume 4 of The Johannesburg Review of Books—our fourth annual Fiction Issue!

In this edition, read new short fiction from Keletso Mopai, Byron Loker, Sebastian Murdoch, Jarred Thompson, Richard de Nooy and Khaddafina Mbabazi.

We also delighted to present an excerpt from a work-in-progress from our regular contributor Wamuwi Mbao.

Better things are surely to come in 2021, including new novels from TJ Benson, Yamen Manai and Adekeye Adebajo, which you can sample in this issue.

You can also dip into hot-off-the press work by Masande Ntshanga, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Yaa Gyasi, Lester Walbrugh, Helen Moffett and Angela Makholwa.

Kelwyn Sole also graces this edition, with his new poem ‘One breath, away’.

From our Photo Editor Victor Dlamini this month, feast your eyes on a portrait of Lerato Mogoatlhe, and treat your ears to a Joburg summer playlist, compiled by Tymon Smith.

Enjoy the issue, and let us know what you think on Facebook or Twitter.

Here’s the complete breakdown of Vol. 4, Issue 10, which you will also find on our issue archive page:

New short fiction

• ‘Loyalty’, a new short story by Khaddafina Mbabazi
• ‘The Reservoir’, a new short story by Sebastian Murdoch
• ‘Six Girls’, a new short story by Keletso Mopai
• ‘Koe(k)sisters’, a new short story by Jarred Thompson
• ‘Cobbled Together—A Lockdown Story’, new writing by Byron Loker
• ‘Five Parables About My Personality’ by Richard de Nooy

Work in progress

• ‘In Search of an Exit’, an excerpt from a work-in-progress by Wamuwi Mbao

Forthcoming works

• ‘This is my house! I just paid the money. I showed you the receipt.’—Read an excerpt from TJ Benson’s highly anticipated debut novel, The Madhouse
• ‘Oyinbo pepper, leave the Bush of Ghosts! Muzungu, go back to England!’—Read an excerpt from The Trial of Cecil John Rhodes by Adekeye Adebajo
• ‘That’s how evenings in Nawa went.’—Read an excerpt from The Ardent Swarm, the English debut from award-winning author Yamen Manai

Excerpts

• ‘Were there places in the world where neighbours would have greeted us instead of turning away?’—Read an excerpt from Yaa Gyasi’s new novel Transcendent Kingdom
• ‘i feel like my heritage is obstinate’—Read an excerpt from Masande Ntshanga’s new book, Native Life in the Third Millennium
• ‘Yho mme we! What am I going to do with you two? You look like a farmer going to his first business meeting.’—Read an excerpt from Angela Makholwa’s Critical But, Stable
• ‘No one knew what to call the place that was halfway between dreams’—Read an excerpt from Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s book, Dreams and Assorted Nightmares
• ‘But what if I give birth to a girl?’—Read an excerpt from Helen Moffett’s debut solo novel, Charlotte
• ‘Like his mother, Emile Oliphant has always collected men.’—Read an excerpt from Lester Walbrugh’s debut short story collection Let It Fall Where It Will
• ‘I enjoyed occupying blurred lines. Ambiguity was an unsettling yet exhilarating space.’—Read an excerpt from Zaina Arafat’s debut novel, You Exist Too Much

Poetry

• ‘One breath, away’, a new poem by Kelwyn Sole

Photography

• A portrait of Lerato Mogoatlhe by Victor Dlamini

Music

• See you on the other side—a playlist for a Joburg December, compiled by Tymon Smith

The JRB Daily

• ‘I’m absolutely stunned, I didn’t expect that’—Douglas Stuart wins the 2020 Booker Prize for Fiction, for his novel Shuggie Bain

Header image: Joburg from Ponte Tower, by Efemia Chela