‘A superb macaron of darkly satirical fiction’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Helen DeWitt’s new novella The English Understand Wool
Wamuwi Mbao reviews The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt, a book that contains ‘one of the most alarmingly enjoyable…
Tag: New York
The party has a purpose—Carey Baraka considers the influence of literary get-togethers on Kenya’s writing scene
Sleeping Poet: That Party at Frank’s At 7.30 or 8 or 8.30 p.m., somewhere along in there, on 30 June…
‘They wrote to each other frequently, exchanged intellectual banter, confided in each other’—Siphiwo Mahala chats about his new play, Bloke and His American Bantu
The JRB presents an interview with Siphiwo Mahala about his new play, Bloke and His American Bantu. Bloke and His…
‘Wouter Basson didn’t reply to my queries’—Imraan Coovadia chats to Jennifer Malec about his new book The Poisoners: On South Africa’s Toxic Past
Award-winning author Imraan Coovadia chats to The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec about the mechanisms of good and evil, emailing Wouter Basson, and his…
‘Nothing, virtually no project, no cultural initiative, was left unbrushed by the CIA reptilian coils’—Wole Soyinka. Read an excerpt from White Malice: The CIA and the Neocolonisation of Africa
The JRB presents an excerpt from Susan Williams’s new book White Malice: The CIA and the Neocolonisation of Africa. White…
‘You can have all the cathedrals’—Raven Leilani chats to Efemia Chela about her debut novel, Luster
Contributing Editor Efemia Chela speaks to Raven Leilani about desire, contradictions, intimacy, and her debut novel Luster. LusterRaven LeilaniPicador, 2020…
[City Editor] Conjuring his images out of darkness—Lidudumalingani reflects on how the late Santu Mofokeng’s photographs are a kind of visual metaphor for Johannesburg
Johannesburg is a city that dances on the edges of elusive, and yet somehow Santu Mofokeng managed to contain it…
[Conversation Issue] ‘I know what lurks in the bushes. And that’s how I write the stories’—Jason Reynolds talks to Tony Eprile about resistance and the imagination
As part of our January Conversation Issue, author and Editorial Advisory Panel member Tony Eprile is in conversation with Jason…
Fragments, explorations and variations—Jennifer Malec reviews Zadie Smith’s debut collection of short stories, Grand Union, her most American book to date
Zadie Smith, the accomplished, experimental New Yorker—The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec reviews Grand Union. Grand UnionZadie SmithHamish Hamilton, 2019 Read an…
American Spy reimagines the American spy, bringing gender and race into the war room—Jennifer Malec reviews Lauren Wilkinson’s new Cold War thriller
The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec reviews Lauren Wilkinson’s debut novel American Spy, a thriller that exposes the human drama that plays out…
A 1960s summer in New York with Lewis Nkosi—Read an excerpt from Vintage Love and Other Essays by Jolyon Nuttall
The JRB presents an excerpt from Vintage Love and Other Essays by Jolyon Nuttall. Vintage Love Jolyon Nuttall Jacana Media, 2018 …
[The JRB Daily] [World Aids Day] Two Koos Prinsloo short stories translated into English for the first time—among the first fictional texts about HIV/Aids in South Africa
In The JRB’s forthcoming Fiction Issue, we will feature two short stories by Koos Prinsloo, published for the first time…
What would happen if the super-rich spent all their money? Jennifer Malec reviews Patrick deWitt’s new novel, French Exit
It’s a strange time to be writing a comedy of manners about moneyed New Yorkers, but Patrick deWitt’s French Exit…
A glorious mixture of low and high culture—Loftus Marais reviews Robin Robertson’s Man Booker Prize-longlisted book, The Long Take
The Long Take by Robin Robertson is longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize. Here is poet Loftus Marais’s short…
Reading social reality in the writhing surface of the city—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Colson Whitehead’s The Colossus of New York
Colson Whitehead’s The Colossus of New York, reissued fourteen years after its first publication, endures in the quality of its writing and…
‘Writing is sometimes like a thread that weaves all our hearts into one’: Lidudumalingani reflects on his Caine Prize visit to the United States
Lidudumalingani won the 2016 Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story ‘Memories We Lost’. As part of the…