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Book excerpts

[Fiction Issue] ‘What’s Nigeria got to do with us? … They hate us there.’—Read an excerpt from Okechukwu Nzelu’s novel Here Again Now

The JRB presents an excerpt from Here Again Now by Okechukwu Nzelu. Here Again Now Okechukwu NzeluLittle, Brown, 2022 Ekene…

Africa

[Fiction Issue] Read an excerpt from Victor Forna’s short story ‘They Will Fly with Blooded Wings’, from the Caine Prize anthology A Mind to Silence and Other Stories

The JRB presents an excerpt from Victor Forna’s short story ‘They Will Fly with Blooded Wings’, excerpted from A Mind…

Book excerpts

[Fiction Issue] ‘As if with an invisible thread, they were bound together by their circumstances’—Read an excerpt from Shevlyn Mottai’s debut novel Across the Kala Pani

The JRB presents an excerpt from Across the Kala Pani, the debut novel by Shevlyn Mottai. Across the Kala PaniShevlyn…

Book excerpts

[Fiction Issue] ‘You’ll appeal more to audiences who’ve never seen people like you’—Read an excerpt from Laila Manack’s debut novel Sisters of the Circus

The JRB presents an excerpt from Sisters of the Circus, the debut novel by Laila Manack. Sisters of the CircusLaila…

Book excerpts

[Fiction Issue] ‘You need a plan … To lose your temper is to lose the battle’—Read an excerpt from Maggie O’Farrell’s novel The Marriage Portrait

The JRB presents an excerpt from The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell. The Marriage PortraitMaggie O’FarrellHeadline, 2022 Venison baked in…

Fiction

One part magical realism, one part crime thriller, one part romance, rendered entirely in patois—Shayera Dark reviews Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s When We Were Birds

Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s debut novel When We Were Birds makes compelling work of how a world in which the living…

Sponsored

[Sponsored] ‘I swear you can’t make stuff like this up’—Read an excerpt from Tshidiso Moletsane’s Sunday Times Fiction Prize-winning novel Junx

Penguin Random House has shared an excerpt from Junx, the debut novel from Tshidiso Moletsane, winner of the 2022 Sunday Times Fiction…

Fiction

‘It is heartening to read introspective characters who don’t believe everything they think is interesting’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Elif Batuman’s new novel Either/Or

Elif Batuman’s Either/Or is a new and worthy entry into the well-populated gallery of erudite books about people learning how…

Poetry

‘Unapologetic, evocative and darkly humorous’—Dimakatso Sedite reviews Bury Me Naked, the debut collection of poetry from Teamhw SbonguJesu

Teamhw SbonguJesu’s debut collection of poetry, Bury Me Naked, delivers a conscientious, humorous, much-needed lesson in a poetics of voice…

Fiction

‘When the Booker longlisting happened, I thought, oh, I’m going to have to start writing again’—Karen Jennings chats to Jennifer Malec about writing, fame and loneliness (Plus: exclusive audio)

Author Karen Jennings was in conversation with The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec at the Origins Centre in Johannesburg recently, as…

Features

Helping new perspectives and worlds of experience be heard—Karin Schimke visits Paulet House, home of the Jakes Gerwel Foundation writer’s residency

The R335 curves around the eastern border of Addo Elephant Park and spools north through the cushiony green hills of…

Sponsored

[Sponsored] The Unaccountables: The Powerful Politicians and Corporations who Profit from Impunity—an urgent and passionately argued call to action

The Unaccountables: The Powerful Politicians and Corporations who Profit from Impunity, edited by Michael Marchant, Mamello Mosiana, Ra’eesa Pather and…

Africa

[The JRB exclusive] ‘Over the months, we found more and more of Wayne’s drawings, those bundles of thin lines on the walls’—Read an excerpt from Namwali Serpell’s new novel The Furrows

The JRB presents an excerpt from The Furrows: An Elegy, the new novel from award-winning author Namwali Serpell. The FurrowsNamwali…

Book excerpts

[The JRB exclusive] ‘The first wound for all of us who are classified as “black” is empire’—Read an excerpt from Tsitsi Dangarembga’s new book Black and Female

The JRB presents an excerpt from Black and Female by Tsitsi Dangarembga. Black and FemaleTsitsi DangarembgaFaber & Faber, 2022 Read…

Book excerpts

‘I danced a saraband with my parents. Their love dissolved my old fear’—Read an excerpt from Abdourahman A Waberi’s award-winning novel Why Do You Dance When You Walk

The JRB presents an excerpt from Why Do You Dance When You Walk by Djiboutian novelist Abdourahman A Waberi, winner…

Biography & Memoir

‘I was an identity-less person at the mercy of apartheid officials’—Read an excerpt from Cleaner’s Boy: A Resistance Road to a Liberated Life by Patric Tariq Mellet

The JRB presents an excerpt from Patric Tariq Mellet’s autobiography Cleaner’s Boy: A Resistance Road to a Liberated Life. Cleaner’s…

Biography & Memoir

‘There was a heated discussion about me going to work for this “native” paper’—Read an excerpt from Freedom Writer, the memoir of legendary journalist Juby Mayet

The JRB presents an excerpt from Freedom Writer: My Life and Times by the late Juby Mayet. Freedom Writer: My…

Awards

[The JRB Daily] ‘An afterlife noir that dissolves the boundaries of life and death, east and west’—Shehan Karunatilaka wins 2022 Booker Prize for The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Shehan Karunatilaka has won the 2022 Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. Karunatilka…

Academic

[The JRB Daily] Shortlists announced for 2022 UJ Prizes for South African Writing in English (Plus: winners of Creative Writing in isiZulu and Sesotho sa Leboa, and Literary Translation)

The shortlists for the annual University of Johannesburg Prizes for South African Writing in English have been announced. The 2022…

Sponsored

[Sponsored] ‘Hearing that collective clamour for change reminded me that I did not walk alone’—NoViolet Bulawayo chats about her Booker-shortlisted novel Glory

Zimbabwean novelist NoViolet Bulawayo has just been shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize for her new novel Glory. Glory is…

Fiction

‘What happens when you have a crime committed against a person that never ever comes to an end?’—Margie Orford talks to Jennifer Malec about her new novel The Eye of the Beholder

The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec sat down with Margie Orford to talk about the challenges of writing about sexual violence, the politics…