‘A confrontation we see as our birthright’: An excerpt from Sisonke Msimang’s new book Always Another Country
Sisonke Msimang, who grew up in exile, describes her first visit to South Africa in December 1990, the year Nelson…
Sisonke Msimang, who grew up in exile, describes her first visit to South Africa in December 1990, the year Nelson…
Efemia Chela travels to the dirty and dangerous streets of Mauritius with Ananda Devi’s Eve Out of Her Ruins in…
Exclusive to The JRB, an excerpt from the newly published first-ever biography of the Nigerian poet Christopher Okigbo: Christopher Okigbo 1930—67, Thirsting…
American author George Saunders has won the 2017 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo. Saunders…
Open call REM—Malba Writers Residence Annual application: From 5 October to 5 December, 2017 Residences: April-May; September-October, 2018 The Literature…
English author Kazuo Ishiguro has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The announcement was made by the Swedish Academy this…
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is odds-on favourite to win the Nobel Prize in Literature this week. The JRB’s Editor Jennifer Malec…
How streaked we are by what we see: Teju Cole is at his engrossing best in his new book, Blind…
Jennifer Malec sat down with Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ at the recent Open Book Festival in Cape Town to talk about her…
When New York’s pout-fully punk weekly, The Village Voice, announced the end of its print issue last month, Gotham City…
Fran Ross’s wildly funny race satire, Oreo, was originally published in 1974, and instantly forgotten. Mbali Sikakana surveys the novel’s…
The perfect tragic vision of love and collective violence: Francophone & Contributing Editor Efemia Chela travels to Sierra Leone by reading Aminatta…
Author Zukiswa Wanner recounts high jinks and high drama on her way to Lviv, Ukraine. The following is an excerpt…
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. Don’t miss the ten-year retrospective…
Since August, Congolese-French author Alain Mabanckou has been posting enigmatic pictures and tweeting with the hashtag #RevolutionBassinDuCongo (samples below). Known…
Radio France Internationale’s series of radio plays of contemporary Francophone literature, « Ça va, ça va le monde ! »…
As part of the programme for an international congress on ‘The work of John Maxwell Coetzee in Latin America’, JM…
The shortlist for the 2017 Man Booker Prize for Fiction has been announced, with six books described as ‘playful, sincere,…
The JRB Academic Editor Simon van Schalkwyk spoke to Paul Beatty, whose novel The Sellout won the 2016 Man Booker…
Charles van Onselen’s new book offers a gripping narrative, a witty voice dripping with matchless sarcasm, and unparalleled knowledge of…
Petina Gappah sat down with The JRB contributor Bongani Kona. Gappah is a Zimbabwean writer with law degrees from Cambridge, Graz…
bottle i think of the room, the way it separated into definite things…
The JRB is honoured to present a selection of Victor Dlamini’s finest photographs, spanning 2007 to 2017. Publisher’s note: I…
In his three books on Africa–China relations, Howard W French’s thinking is robust—sometimes forcefully so—and yet fundamentally respectful. A…
In the late nineteen-seventies, James Baldwin encountered an ‘extraordinary and illuminating’ Rhodesian book, which influenced his thought around black rage…
Ali Land, the author of Good Me Bad Me—‘one of the most extraordinary, controversial and explosive literary debuts of 2017’—is in…
In her debut collection of essays, One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, Scaachi Koul delivers…
Despite a tone of hopelessness, Salman Rushdie’s latest novel The Golden House carries majesty, from its prose to its world-weary gaze….
The French-language literary tradition distinguishes between ‘French’ or ‘hexagonal’ literature, written by authors born in France (the hexagon), and ‘Francophone’…
The Sellout Paul Beatty One World 2015 The JRB recorded this reading by Paul Beatty during his recent visit to…
Mauritian author Ananda Devi’s Eve Out of Her Ruins has been highly lauded since appearing in English, in late 2016,…
Since her first literary outing at seventeen with the novel Quant au riche avenir, Marie NDiaye has challenged and beguiled both readers…
Main image: Bongani Madondo photographed by JRB Photo Editor Victor Dlamini To celebrate their seventh anniversary, Brittle Paper recently launched the…
18 August 2017 is the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera. He would have been sixty-five….
The fourth issue of The Johannesburg Review of Books has arrived—and not a moment too soon, in our humble opinion….
Men Without Women Haruki Murakami Harvill Secker, 2017 In Haruki Murakami’s collection of seven stories, Men without Women, the characters…
What We Lose Zinzi Clemmons Fourth Estate, 2017 Memory itself is an internal rumour —George Santayana But most of…
Africa has a language problem. We don’t read enough in our indigenous languages, and we don’t read in the same…
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. ~~~ Sisonke Msimang, photographed by Victor Dlamini…
‘Let’s meet at 5 pm at the Big Clock.’ My host Olivier Moreillon’s words are ringing in my head as…