An elegant study of friendship amid the rootedness of political exile—Shayera Dark reviews Hisham Matar’s novel My Friends
In My Friends, Hisham Matar hones in on the push and pull of friendships, their guiding light and the cushion-like…
Category: Reviews
‘I do not recall reading many novels that linger so pornographically over the matter of eating’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Butter by Asako Yuzuki
Butter is keenly attuned to the many ways the private sphere runs on the disproportionate work of women while deliberately…
The treachery and tenacity of fraternal devotion—Jennifer Malec reviews Sally Rooney’s new novel, Intermezzo
In Intermezzo, sexual tension and spiky wit give way to a deeper sense of tenderness and a lighter brand of…
Ethiopia’s violence in focus—Percy Zvomuya reads regional conflict through the lens of the Tigray War
Percy Zvomuya draws on Martin Plaut and Sarah Vaughan’s valuable new book Understanding Ethiopia’s Tigray War in a reading of…
‘A welcome addition to the growing list of literature centring queer lives in Africa’—Shayera Dark reviews Musih Tedji Xaviere’s debut novel These Letters End in Tears
As a novel centred on lesbian love set in an intensely homophobic country, These Letters End in Tears by Musih…
‘A worthy addition to the Zimbabwean library of the struggle-engaged’—Percy Zvomuya reviews An Outsider Within by Mary E Ndlovu
Percy Zvomuya reviews Mary E Ndlovu’s memoir, An Outsider Within: A Memoir of Love, of Loss, of Perseverance. An Outsider…
‘An open-hearted refusal of the atomised world’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Hedley Twidle’s new collection of essays, Show Me the Place
In Show Me the Place, Hedley Twidle displays an earnest curiosity about how to inhabit a world that seems to…
[Conversation Issue] A palate cleanser in JM Coetzee’s playful late style—Wamuwi Mbao reviews The Pole and Other Stories
JM Coetzee’s late style has often been indifferently received, but The Pole is a beautifully elegant story, writes Wamuwi Mbao,…
[Conversation Issue] The world ends several times for Black people—A conversation with Uhuru Portia Phalafala and critical reading of her book Mine Mine Mine
Kim M Reynolds considers the historical and the personal in Uhuru Portia Phalafala’s new book Mine Mine Mine, in discussion…
‘There is something to be gained in looking at that which resists being looked at’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Black Racist Bitch by Thandiwe Ntshinga
Thandiwe Ntshinga’s Black Racist Bitch is the sort of book some readers will absolutely love, and others will find unreadable,…
A fascinating, if flawed, enquiry—Zikhona Valela reviews Jonny Steinberg’s Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage
Zikhona Valela reviews Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage by Jonny Steinberg. Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage…
‘An excellent example of the reviewer’s least favourite thing’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang
In Yellowface, the contrast is turned up so brightly that the shadows disappear, writes Wamuwi Mbao, but it’s the darkness…
‘Few novels preoccupy me; Decima inhabits me’—Michael Titlestad reviews Eben Venter’s ‘singular and significant’ new novel
Eben Venter’s Decima is a novel in which morality is shown to be an intricately woven fabric of contesting needs…
‘An intsomi, a fable of biblical and mythological proportions’—Mphuthumi Ntabeni reviews Eye Brother Horn by Bridget Pitt
Eye Brother Horn by Bridget Pitt is a South African novel immersed in our oral culture and traditions, writes Mphuthumi…
A novel of many dark nights and unrelenting mishaps—Shayera Dark reviews Bisi Adjapon’s Daughter in Exile
Daughter in Exile by Bisi Adjapon is a pacy, character-driven novel that surveys the many burdens of living as an…
A decolonisation that dare not speak its name—George Hull reviews Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò’s Against Decolonisation: Taking African Agency Seriously
George Hull reviews Against Decolonisation: Taking African Agency Seriously by Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò. Against Decolonisation: Taking African Agency SeriouslyOlúfẹ́mi TáíwòHurst &…
‘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…
‘How does one truly listen, as a writer, in South Africa? How does one write?’ Kyle Allan reviews Kelwyn Sole’s latest collection of poetry Skin Rafts
Kyle Allan reviews Skin Rafts by Kelwyn Sole, a collection of poems that wrestle with a world that is connected…
‘Death walks everywhere with people’—Siphokazi Magadla reviews Mxolisi Mchunu’s Violence and Solace: The Natal Civil War in Late-Apartheid South Africa
Siphokazi Magadla reviews Violence and Solace: The Natal Civil War in Late-Apartheid South Africa by Mxolisi R Mchunu, a book…
‘Where else is history but in the stories people tell?’ Wamuwi Mbao reviews The Inheritors by Eve Fairbanks
The Inheritors by Eve Fairbanks is historical storytelling done well, writes Wamuwi Mbao. The InheritorsEve FairbanksJonathan Ball Publishers, 2023 David…
Portrait of the poet as a genius—Sindi-Leigh McBride reviews Koleka Putuma’s Hullo, Bu-bye, Koko, Come In
Sindi-Leigh McBride reviews Koleka Putuma’s Hullo, Bu-bye, Koko, Come In, a joy to behold even when the subject is devastating….
A book about embrace, but also about the chokehold of segregation—Carina Venter reviews Mr Entertainment: The Story of Taliep Petersen by Paula Fourie
Carina Venter reviews Paula Fourie’s Mr Entertainment: The Story of Taliep Petersen, finding a life that encompasses a country and…
‘Hope is a potent drug’—Jerry Chiemeke reviews Sylva Nze Ifedigbo’s Chinua Achebe Prize-winning novel Believers and Hustlers
Believers and Hustlers by Sylva Nze Ifedigbo, winner of the Chinua Achebe Prize for Literature, explores the sinister underbelly of…
One part magical realism, one part crime thriller, one part romance, rendered entirely in patois—Shayera Dark reviews Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s When We Were Birds
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s debut novel When We Were Birds makes compelling work of how a world in which the living…
‘It is heartening to read introspective characters who don’t believe everything they think is interesting’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Elif Batuman’s new novel Either/Or
Elif Batuman’s Either/Or is a new and worthy entry into the well-populated gallery of erudite books about people learning how…
‘Unapologetic, evocative and darkly humorous’—Dimakatso Sedite reviews Bury Me Naked, the debut collection of poetry from Teamhw SbonguJesu
Teamhw SbonguJesu’s debut collection of poetry, Bury Me Naked, delivers a conscientious, humorous, much-needed lesson in a poetics of voice…
Every time a black woman writes their story they are resisting marginalisation—Athambile Masola reviews Barbara Masekela’s memoir Poli Poli
Poli Poli by Barbara Masekela is a memoir that exemplifies the paradox of the ordinary and the spectacle in black…
Those who haunt inner city Johannesburg have their own ways of being—Wamuwi Mbao reviews The Blinded City by Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon
The Blinded City by Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon is a lucidly fascinating immersion into the world of the people who occupy the…
‘An important collective political work’—Fungai Machirori reviews The Sex Lives of African Women by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah’s The Sex Lives of African Women is an important addition to writing that resists the fetishisation of…
Interrogating the tensions and contradictions around questions of identity—Shayera Dark reviews If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga
Shayera Dark reviews Noor Naga’s experimental debut novel If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English, winner of the Graywolf Press Africa…
Kei Miller ‘alchemises the personal experience of Blackness into something deeply transportive’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews the award-winning Things I Have Withheld
Kei Miller’s collection of essays Things I Have Withheld takes the measure of what it means to read and be…
‘Your story told by someone else might in the end be richer’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Culture and Liberation, the first dedicated collection of Alex La Guma’s exile writing
Culture and Liberation: Exile Writings, 1966–1985Alex La GumaEdited by Christopher J LeeSeagull Books 1966 was an interesting year. Future Trump…
‘Recitatif is cunning in its ability to expose us’—Masiyaleti Mbewe reflects on Toni Morrison’s only short story
To respect this text is to revisit it: Masiyaleti Mbewe reviews the new standalone edition of Toni Morrison’s Recitatif. RecitatifToni…
‘Time moves as slowly as it likes and then faster than you can make sense of’—Wairimũ Murĩithi reviews Okwiri Oduor’s debut novel, Things They Lost
Entering a world the author has long been building, Wairimũ Murĩithi reviews Things They Lost, the debut novel from 2014…
Tales from Mombasa—Carey Baraka speaks to Khadija Abdalla Bajaber about her award-winning debut novel, The House of Rust
Carey Baraka reviews The House of Rust, the latest tale from Mombasa, land of fables, and chats to its author,…
‘Thank goodness, this book offers no lessons and neither soothes nor comforts’—Michael Gardiner reviews Jane Fox’s Letters to Lionel
Michael Gardiner reviews Letters to Lionel, a series of letters written to the late poet, novelist and teacher Lionel Abrahams…
‘No reprieve from the myriad invisible cuts inflicted by a society hostile to the colour of their skin’—Shayera Dark reviews Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström’s In Every Mirror She’s Black
Shayera Dark reviews In Every Mirror She’s Black by Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström. In Every Mirror She’s BlackLọlá Ákínmádé ÅkerströmHead of Zeus,…
‘Startlingly good’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Misfits: A Personal Manifesto by Michaela Coel, creator and star of the hit TV show I May Destroy You
Michaela Coel’s Misfits blends an effervescent sense of social realism with a beguiling clarity, writes Wamuwi Mbao. Misfits: A Personal…
‘This is the voice of contemporary South African fiction’—Joanne Ruth Davis reviews Mphuthumi Ntabeni’s new novel The Wanderers
Mphuthumi Ntabeni’s The Wanderers is a novel that indicates a storyteller in love with the art of telling tales, writes…
Even for women brave enough to reclaim their lives, external forces stand ready to keep them confined—Shayera Dark reviews Ukamaka Olisakwe’s Ogadinma: Or, Everything Will Be All Right
Shayera Dark reviews Ogadinma: Or, Everything Will Be All Right by Ukamaka Olisakwe. Ogadinma: Or, Everything Will Be All RightUkamaka…