Book Reviews – The Johannesburg Review of Books

Hiding in Plain Sight: Cold War Interventions into African Literature—Bhakti Shringarpure reviews Monica Popescu’s At Penpoint: African Literatures, Postcolonial Studies, and the Cold War

April 15, 2021April 15, 2021Bhakti ShringarpureLeave a Comment

Monica Popescu’s At Penpoint: African Literatures, Postcolonial Studies, and the Cold War is a steadfast engagement with the cultural Cold…

Fiction

To move about in an unkind world under the mark of racial blackness—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Scatterlings, the debut novel by Rešoketšwe Manenzhe

February 18, 2021February 19, 2021Wamuwi Mbao2 Comments

Wamuwi Mbao reviews Rešoketšwe Manenzhe’s novel Scatterlings, winner of the 2020 Dinaane Debut Fiction Award. ScatterlingsRešoketšwe ManenzheJacana Media, 2020 There…

Academic

African literature should be free to remain ‘a question to itself’—Lebohang Mojapelo reviews The Rise of the African Novel by Mukoma Wa Ngugi

February 18, 2021February 18, 2021Lebohang Mojapelo1 Comment

In The Rise of the African Novel, Mukoma Wa Ngugi traces the way African literature has been a space to…

Book excerpts

A Cape tragedy—Stephen Langtry reviews Martin Plaut’s new book Dr Abdullah Abdurahman: South Africa’s First Elected Black Politician

February 18, 2021February 18, 2021Stephen Langtry1 Comment

Whether we have learnt from the story of Dr Abdullah Abdurahman remains to be seen, writes Stephen Langtry. Martin Plaut’s…

History

Board the Eastern Main Line and go to work in Hell—Richard Poplak reviews The Night Trains, Charles van Onselen’s finest book yet

November 4, 2019November 19, 2019Richard PoplakLeave a Comment

Richard Poplak reviews The Night Trains by Charles van Onselen, a book grounded in the hard work of scouring the…

Literary

Welcome to The Johannesburg Review of Books

April 30, 2017June 12, 2020Ben Williams9 Comments

It gives me great pleasure to introduce The Johannesburg Review of Books, a new literary review from southern Africa. Our…