Two vast countries of weird violence: Olivia Rose Walton contemplates Turkey and South Africa by train
Olivia Rose Walton considers loss and erasure across two landscapes, traversed by train. 1. Kayseri station, Turkey On the steps…
Category: International
Translation as nuclear arms race: David van Schoor reviews Sarah Ruden’s bold interpretation of Augustine’s Confessions
David van Schoor reviews Sarah Ruden’s bold new translation of Augustine’s Confessions. Confessions Sarah Ruden Modern Library, 2017 1. Sine…
‘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…
[Temporary Sojourner] All About Eve: Efemia Chela reviews Ananda Devi’s Eve Out of Her Ruins
Efemia Chela travels to the dirty and dangerous streets of Mauritius with Ananda Devi’s Eve Out of Her Ruins in…
Read an excerpt from the first full-length biography of Christopher Okigbo, a cult hero for a new wave of young African writers
Exclusive to The JRB, an excerpt from the newly published first-ever biography of the Nigerian poet Christopher Okigbo: Christopher Okigbo 1930—67, Thirsting…
[The JRB Daily] George Saunders wins the 2017 Man Booker Prize for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo
American author George Saunders has won the 2017 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo. Saunders…
[The JRB Daily] Open call for applications for the Malba Writers Residency in Buenos Aires
Open call REM—Malba Writers Residence Annual application: From 5 October to 5 December, 2017 Residences: April-May; September-October, 2018 The Literature…
[The JRB Daily] Kazuo Ishiguro wins the Nobel Prize in Literature
English author Kazuo Ishiguro has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The announcement was made by the Swedish Academy this…
[The JRB Daily] Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is the favourite to win the Nobel Prize in Literature—again
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is odds-on favourite to win the Nobel Prize in Literature this week. The JRB’s Editor Jennifer Malec…
Disrupting the solipsism of the personal photograph: Wamuwi Mbao reviews Teju Cole’s new book, Blind Spot
How streaked we are by what we see: Teju Cole is at his engrossing best in his new book, Blind…
Professional writers need to be professional readers: Jennifer Malec chats to Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ about her debut novel, Stay With Me
Jennifer Malec sat down with Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ at the recent Open Book Festival in Cape Town to talk about her…
A stranger in ‘the Village’: Bongani Madondo remembers the magic of The Village Voice in print
When New York’s pout-fully punk weekly, The Village Voice, announced the end of its print issue last month, Gotham City…
Brilliant, hilarious, eerily contemporary: Mbali Sikakana reflects on Fran Ross’s forgotten black feminist novel Oreo
Fran Ross’s wildly funny race satire, Oreo, was originally published in 1974, and instantly forgotten. Mbali Sikakana surveys the novel’s…
[Temporary Sojourner] False memories and true love in Sierra Leone: Efemia Chela reads Aminatta Forna’s The Memory of Love
The perfect tragic vision of love and collective violence: Francophone & Contributing Editor Efemia Chela travels to Sierra Leone by reading Aminatta…
‘Page 19’: A border tale of visas and Eastern Europe by Zukiswa Wanner
Author Zukiswa Wanner recounts high jinks and high drama on her way to Lviv, Ukraine. The following is an excerpt…
[Photo Editor] Original portraits of Rafique Gangat and Aja Monet by Victor Dlamini
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. Don’t miss the ten-year retrospective…
‘The youth cannot be fooled’: Alain Mabanckou believes a Sub-Saharan African Spring is imminent
Since August, Congolese-French author Alain Mabanckou has been posting enigmatic pictures and tweeting with the hashtag #RevolutionBassinDuCongo (samples below). Known…
New Ça va, ça va le monde! radio play features The Belly of the Atlantic by Senegalese author Fatou Diome
Radio France Internationale’s series of radio plays of contemporary Francophone literature, « Ça va, ça va le monde ! »…
[The JRB Daily] JM Coetzee reads a new story, ‘The Glass Abattoir’, and announces a new book to feature Elizabeth Costello
As part of the programme for an international congress on ‘The work of John Maxwell Coetzee in Latin America’, JM…
[The JRB Daily] 2017 Man Booker Prize shortlist announced
The shortlist for the 2017 Man Booker Prize for Fiction has been announced, with six books described as ‘playful, sincere,…
‘With any luck people will be reading The Sellout fifty years from now’ – an interview with Man Booker Prize-winning author Paul Beatty
The JRB Academic Editor Simon van Schalkwyk spoke to Paul Beatty, whose novel The Sellout won the 2016 Man Booker…
A rollicking tale: Alex Lichtenstein reviews Charles van Onselen’s new book The Cowboy Capitalist: John Hays Hammond, the American West and the Jameson Raid
Charles van Onselen’s new book offers a gripping narrative, a witty voice dripping with matchless sarcasm, and unparalleled knowledge of…
Exclusive interview: Petina Gappah speaks about the highs and lows of her writing career, and reveals details of her next book
Petina Gappah sat down with The JRB contributor Bongani Kona. Gappah is a Zimbabwean writer with law degrees from Cambridge, Graz…
Two new poems by Nii Ayikwei Parkes
bottle i think of the room, the way it separated into definite things…
Ten years, thirty portraits: A Victor Dlamini retrospective
The JRB is honoured to present a selection of Victor Dlamini’s finest photographs, spanning 2007 to 2017. Publisher’s note: I…
A guide for writing from the outside in: Sisonke Msimang on how Howard W French maps the road between the Africa of her childhood and the China of her imagination
In his three books on Africa–China relations, Howard W French’s thinking is robust—sometimes forcefully so—and yet fundamentally respectful. A…
James Baldwin in Rhodesia: Percy Zvomuya picks out a thread from the forgotten war book Black Fire!
In the late nineteen-seventies, James Baldwin encountered an ‘extraordinary and illuminating’ Rhodesian book, which influenced his thought around black rage…
[Sponsored] An interview with bestselling author Ali Land ahead of her South African tour
Ali Land, the author of Good Me Bad Me—‘one of the most extraordinary, controversial and explosive literary debuts of 2017’—is in…
‘A writer utterly in control of her medium’: Wamuwi Mbao reviews Scaachi Koul’s glittering collection of essays, One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter
In her debut collection of essays, One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, Scaachi Koul delivers…
Salman Rushdie’s finest writing in many years: CA Davids reviews The Golden House
Despite a tone of hopelessness, Salman Rushdie’s latest novel The Golden House carries majesty, from its prose to its world-weary gaze….
From the fringe to the centre: Meet ‘The New French’ in the latest issue of Words Without Borders
The French-language literary tradition distinguishes between ‘French’ or ‘hexagonal’ literature, written by authors born in France (the hexagon), and ‘Francophone’…
Listen to Paul Beatty read from The Sellout
The Sellout Paul Beatty One World 2015 The JRB recorded this reading by Paul Beatty during his recent visit to…
Mauritian author Ananda Devi wins the 2017 Firecracker Award for Fiction for Eve Out of Her Ruins
Mauritian author Ananda Devi’s Eve Out of Her Ruins has been highly lauded since appearing in English, in late 2016,…
New translation of Marie NDiaye’s psychological drama My Heart Hemmed In
Since her first literary outing at seventeen with the novel Quant au riche avenir, Marie NDiaye has challenged and beguiled both readers…
[The JRB Daily] JRB Contributing Editor Bongani Madondo up for Brittle Paper Literary Award
Main image: Bongani Madondo photographed by JRB Photo Editor Victor Dlamini To celebrate their seventh anniversary, Brittle Paper recently launched the…
[The JRB Daily] Tribute to the extraordinary Dambudzo Marechera, thirty years after his death
18 August 2017 is the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera. He would have been sixty-five….
The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 1, Issue 4 (August 2017)
The fourth issue of The Johannesburg Review of Books has arrived—and not a moment too soon, in our humble opinion….
‘The place you return to is always slightly different’: Imraan Coovadia reviews Haruki Murakami’s new book, Men Without Women
Men Without Women Haruki Murakami Harvill Secker, 2017 In Haruki Murakami’s collection of seven stories, Men without Women, the characters…
A shared secondhand experience of South Africa: Mbali Sikakana reviews Zinzi Clemmons’s What We Lose
What We Lose Zinzi Clemmons Fourth Estate, 2017 Memory itself is an internal rumour —George Santayana But most of…
Literary activism in Côte d’Ivoire: Edwige-Renée Dro explains the Abidjan Lit phenomenon
Africa has a language problem. We don’t read enough in our indigenous languages, and we don’t read in the same…