"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."
~ Dr. Suess
"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."
~ Anton Chekhov
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
~ Douglas Adams
Star Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5 Oil on Water Helon Habila Penguin Books, September 2011 Online Price: R206 Helon Habila takes you on a chase through an underworld of investigative journalism in a war-locked country, and his pace is impeccable. Two journalists are recruited to find the kidnapped wife of a British oil engineer. There’s […]
The thing with this time of the year is not the weather. It’s not the lengthening days. Nor is it the thought of the summer holidays fast approaching or the overwhelming slog to get beach fit. It is the annual glut of the best books of the year all jostling for attention, popping through letter […]
Star Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3/5 Freshwater Akwaeke Emezi Faber & Faber, March 2018 Online Price: R244 A strange debut novel, Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centres around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves as a result of being born “with one foot on the other […]
Imagine my delight when a publisher heading a large international publishing house confided that he woke up every morning around four thirty, brushed his teeth, slipped his feet into slippers if it was winter, wrapped himself up in his dressing gown, made himself a cup of tea and settled down in a chair and began […]
Star Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5 The Terrible Yrsa Daley-Ward Penguin, April 2018 Online Price: R198 Poet, model and actor Yrsa Daley-Ward, best known for her debut poetry collection, Bone, and her spoken-word performances, has written a heartbreaking memoir in The Terrible, where she talks readers through a tale of a dark-skinned girl growing up […]
Barack Obama does them frequently. Bill Clinton occasionally does as well. And to my great delight Michael Jordaan (former highly innovative head of FNB and now involved in launching an online bank, wine and so much more) decided to announce his winter holiday one. Yes: we’re talking about reading lists, usually coinciding with a longish […]
Star Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5 The Fatuous State of Severity Phumlani Pikoli Pan Macmillan SA, January 2018 Online Price: R177 Phumlani Pikoli is one of the ascending young literary voices. The Fatuous State of Severity, a series of short stories and illustrations, marks his debut in the literature landscape. The author made a brave […]
So there we are. It’s done and it’s dusted and a great deal of bubbly has been consumed. Of course, I am talking (finally) about the Sunday Times Literary Awards. In case you haven’t heard, the prestigious Alan Paton Award went to Bongani Ngqulunga for The Man Who Founded the ANC: A Biography of Pixley […]
Star Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5 The Ones with Purpose Nozizwe Cynthia Jele Kwela Books, April 2018 Online Price: R244 The writing in this heartbreaking novel is nothing short of impeccable. Nozizwe Cynthia Jele, author of Happiness is a Four-Letter Word, awards us with her second offering – it is as if we didn’t wait […]
It’s not a late night – the Sunday Times Literary Awards shortlist announcements. The room, in an eyrie above Empire Road, was abuzz, though, because it’s an evening that rocks. And she saw me before I saw her. There’s no mistaking Yewande Omotoso. She is over six foot and she towers over me. “I haven’t […]
