Sean Jacobs reviews Slow Poison by Mahmood Mamdani, a rich and textured account of Ugandan and postcolonial African politics, and…
Wamuwi Mbao • Makhosazana Xaba • Simon van Schalkwyk • Khadija Tracey Heeger • Sean Jacobs • Barbara Boswell •…
Cursed Daughters—the highly anticipated new novel from Oyinkan Braithwaite—is out now from Jonathan Ball Publishers! Braithwaite is a Nigerian–British novelist…
Kevin Goddard reviews What is Owed? by Kelwyn Sole—a poet’s summing up of a life dedicated both to verse and…
Barbara Boswell reviews Elleke Boehmer’s Ice Shock, a novel saturated with extremes of love and increasingly calamitous climate events. Ice…
Penguin Random House SA has shared an excerpt from Mafia Land: Inside South Africa’s Darkest Cartels, in which multi-award-winning journalist Kyle…
This is the tenth in a series of long-form interviews by Patron Makhosazana Xaba to be hosted on The JRB,…
Muthi Nhlema and Ivor W Hartmann discuss trust, inspiration, writer’s block, and Nhlema’s latest work ‘Piss Corpse’, which was selected…
Song of the Slave Girl, the new novel from Ashraf Kagee, is out now from Jacana Media. Kagee is a…
Sean Jacobs honours the late Zöe Wicomb (1948—2025). Zöe Wicomb was a significant influence on me, a presence in my…
Cameroon is both exceptional and inexplicable. Like much of Africa, it suffered horrendous colonial afflictions and atrocities, yet its heart…
The JRB presents an excerpt from Robert Lowell’s Imitations and the Cold War: Containment, Leakage, Anarchy, the new book by…
The JRB presents an excerpt from Morafe: Person, Family and Nation in Colonial Bechuanaland, 1880s–1950s by Khumisho Moguerane, winner of…
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. See this ten-year retrospective of his portraits. View this…
Ah, 2025—the Year of the Cassowary—a hideous, deadly, reprehensibly indifferent shit-show intent on ripping your guts out or chasing you…
The Johannesburg Review of Books presents previously unpublished poetry by Sandile Ngidi. ~~~ Let someone hold saliva, go slow on broken souls Three…
The JRB presents an excerpt from The Consulting Room by Dawn Garisch. The Consulting Room Dawn GarischKaravan Press, 2025 ~~~…
The JRB presents an excerpt from Magnitude by Deborah Seddon. MagnitudeDeborah SeddonDryad Press, 2025 ~~~ Visitations Sliding for cover right…
The JRB presents new short fiction by Mehita Iqani. Double Flash Professor Fisher stands at the tea station, stirring his…
The JRB presents new short fiction by Eckard Smuts. The Fog ‘Been gone, but now I’m way gone.’—Kurt Vile Fingers…
The JRB presents new short fiction by Duane Jethro. Perdjie He had not expected the traffic official to grant the…
The JRB presents new short fiction by Wamuwi Mbao. Runs in the Family Things started to go wrong the summer…
The JRB presents new flash fiction by Abbey Khambule. ~~~ New Year’s Eve Up in Moulin Rouge, Joel tucks a…
The JRB presents new short fiction by Shayera Dark. Bitter Sweet Symphony Late 1980s/early 1990s The knots in his stomach…
The JRB presents an excerpt from Muthi Nhlema’s ‘Piss Corpse’, the debut short story of the ZamaShort imprint series of…
The JRB presents an excerpt from Bosadi, the new novel by Kopano Matlwa. BosadiKopano MatlwaJacana Media, 2025 Naledi I killed…
The JRB presents an excerpt from Werner Pretorius’s debut collection of short fiction, Lone Wolf Living. Lone Wolf Living Werner…
The JRB presents Dyondzo Kwinika’s DALRO Can Themba Merit Award-winning short story, excerpted from When Water Wants To. When Water…
The JRB presents an excerpt from Olufemi Terry’s debut novel, Wilderness of Mirrors. Wilderness of MirrorsOlufemi TerryLes Fugitives (UK), March…
The JRB presents an excerpt from Darker Shade of Pale: Shtetl to Colony by Deborah Posel. Darker Shade of Pale:…
The JRB presents an excerpt from Adéwálé Májà-Pearce’s forthcoming book Shine Your Eye: In Search of West Africa. Adéwálé Májà-PearceShine…
The JRB presents an excerpt from The Overthrow of Robert Mugabe: Gender, Coups, and Diplomats by Blessing-Miles Tendi. The Overthrow…
Zoë Wicomb, the pioneering South African author and academic, has died in her home of Glasgow, Scotland. She was 77…
Zanta Nkumane • Shayera Dark • Wamuwi Mbao • Karen Jennings • Makhosazana Xaba • Thabile Makue • Rustum Kozain…
Zanta Nkumane reviews Ocean Vuong’s The Emperor of Gladness, a novel not intent on building a new national myth, but…
Penguin Random House SA has shared an excerpt from The Immortalites, the highly anticipated new novel by Claire Robertson! The Immortalites follows…
Shayera Dark reviews the newly published reissue of Andrée Blouin’s autobiography, My Country, Africa, a book that dazzles with insightful…
Wamuwi Mbao reviews Blood’s Inner Rhyme by Antjie Krog, a book preoccupied with a lifelong, struggling conversation between a mother…
This week on Pagecast, the podcast from Jonathan Ball Publishers, Janine Jellars interviews Nadia Cassim about her new book, Not Another…
The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec chats to Karen Jennings about her new novel, Crooked Seeds, and making your reader’s skin crawl….
