Africa

A powerful contribution towards the creation of a vitally needed counter-narrative of England—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Manchester Happened by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s new book Manchester Happened reflects the here-and-there double consciousness of living between Uganda and England, writes Wamuwi…

Art & Architecture

[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…

Academic

[The JRB exclusive] ‘This is not a game of football, it is a slaughter of the innocents!’—Read an excerpt from JM Coetzee’s new novel The Death of Jesus

The JRB presents, exclusively in South Africa, an excerpt from The Death of Jesus, the newly published final novel of…

Children

[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…

Africa

[Conversation Issue] ‘I won’t be polite, because there’s nothing polite about patriarchy’—Mona Eltahawy inspires (and triggers) at the Abantu Book Festival, reports Itumeleng Molefi

As part of our January Conversation Issue, Itumeleng Molefi reflects on Mona Eltahawy’s keynote address and conversation with Pumla Dineo…

Fiction

[Conversation Issue] ‘I wanted to throw back the curtain on some of the things and places that “nice” people avoid talking about’—Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan talks to Ben Williams about her bestselling Singlish novel Sarong Party Girls

As part of our January Conversation Issue, The JRB Publisher Ben Williams chats to Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan about her debut…

Fiction

[Conversation Issue] ‘I seek out women who make unpopular decisions in my writing because they’re more interesting to me’—Nicole Dennis-Benn chats to Wamuwi Mbao about her bestselling novel, Patsy

As part of our January Conversation Issue, Wamuwi Mbao chats to Nicole Dennis-Benn about her work, the process of writing…

Africa

[Conversation Issue] ‘Appropriation is not in and of itself a bad thing, but the way it’s invoked in the culture makes it seem like it is’—Lauren Michele Jackson talks to Khanya Mtshali about her book, White Negroes

As part of our January Conversation Issue, Lauren Michele Jackson talks to Khanya Mtshali about her new book, White Negroes:…

Fiction

[Conversation Issue] ‘Dispossession is the backdrop to every South African story’—Henrietta Rose-Innes in conversation with Gail Fincham about her forthcoming novel, Stone Plant

As part of our January Conversation Issue, Gail Fincham interviews Henrietta Rose-Innes about her work, including her forthcoming fifth novel,…

Africa

[Fiction issue] Read ‘A Family History in a Passport’ by Yovanka Paquete Perdigao, excerpted from Bakwa 09: Taxi Drivers Who Drive Us Nowhere and Other Travel Stories

The JRB presents an excerpt from Bakwa 09: Taxi Drivers Who Drive Us Nowhere and Other Travel Stories. The excerpted story…

Fiction

A depth charge aimed at the submerged wreckage of slavery—Wamuwi Mbao reviews The Water Dancer, the debut novel by acclaimed writer Ta-Nehisi Coates

Between Baldwin, the world and the Old South—Wamuwi Mbao reviews The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The Water DancerTa-Nehisi CoatesHamish…

Africa

[The JRB exclusive] Read an excerpt from Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other—‘One of my aims as a writer is to explore the hidden narratives of the African diaspora’

The JRB presents an excerpt from Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, co-winner of the 2019 Booker Prize. Girl, Woman,…

Fiction

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…

Africa

[The JRB Daily] Listen to the new episode of our audio show Read This! featuring Efemia Chela on Wayétu Moore’s novel She Would Be King and an interview with Sarah Ladipo Manyika

The new episode of our books show Read This! is out now—find out what’s hot in the world of literature!…

Africa

[The JRB Daily] How is the Nobel Prize in Literature decided? The Nobel Committee reveals new, less ‘Eurocentric’ and ‘male-centred’ criteria

Every year, speculation abounds about which author will win the Nobel Prize in Literature. This year, the Nobel Committee have…

Biography & Memoir

Jia Tolentino is a moral voice for the secular world—Khanya Mtshali reviews Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion, a collection of essays that explores how we survive our late-capitalist hellscape

In Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion, Jia Tolentino presents her cosmopolitan obsessions with piercing insight and authority, writes Khanya Mtshali. Trick…

Africa

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…

Book excerpts

[The JRB exclusive] ‘It had happened when I was nine years old, the day after my mother was taken and sold’—Read an excerpt from The Water Dancer, the debut novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The JRB presents an excerpt from The Water Dancer, the debut novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the critically acclaimed author of…

Africa

Southern Africa throws its hat into the millennial fiction ring—Mphuthumi Ntabeni reviews The Eternal Audience of One, the debut novel by Rwandan–Namibian author Rémy Ngamije

With prose that sparkles and pops, Rémy Ngamije’s The Eternal Audience of One is a millennial novel that intricately traces…

Africa

[Temporary Sojourner] Liberia, the original African escapist fantasy—Efemia Chela reviews Wayétu Moore’s sweeping and poetic debut novel She Would Be King

Fantastic Returns and Where to Find Them—The JRB Francophone and Contributing Editor Efemia Chela travels to Liberia with Wayétu Moore’s…

Africa

‘I can’t attach the word “iconic” to baobab trees and sunsets’—Sarah Ladipo Manyika chats to Jennifer Malec about African publishing, Toni Morrison and writing older women

Nigerian–British author Sarah Ladipo Manyika was in South Africa recently, and took some time out from the Open Book Festival…

Africa

‘I will always love Africa, because from the minute I arrived it treated me like a white girl.’—Author Adam Smyer reflects on his visit to the Open Book Festival

The following is an edited excerpt from a work in progress by American author Adam Smyer, whose debut novel, Knucklehead,…

Academic

The quest to establish a world-class African philosophical tradition—Sanya Osha reviews Paulin Hountondji: African Philosophy as Critical Humanism

On Paulin Hountondji’s Universalist philosophy—Sanya Osha reviews Paulin Hountondji: African Philosophy as Critical Humanism, by Franziska Dubgen and Stefan Skupien….