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DECEMBER '22 LIBRARY REVIEWS

CULTURE / PHOTOGRAPHY (CONTINENT-WIDE AND DIASPORA)

Africa State of Mind: Contemporary Photography Reimagines a Continent by Ekow Eshun, 2018
R1175 from Clarke’s Bookshop

Featuring the work of more than 50 contemporary photographers, and more than 250 photographs, this overview of current photographic practice from the African continent is simply mesmerising. Divided into four sections: Hybrid Cities; Zones of Freedom; Myth and Memory; and Inner Landscapes, Africa State of Mind opens a fresh and polyvalent conversation about what it means to live in Africa today. RA

CONTEMPORARY FICTION (NIGERIA)

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi, 2020
R235 from The Book Lounge

Since their debut novel in 2018, award-winning Nigerian writer Emezi has published prolifically. ‘The Death of Vivek Oji’ is a genre-defying murder mystery and a dramatic story of love and transcendence, set in Nigeria where to be gay is a crime. GB

CONTEMPORARY FICTION (NIGERIA)

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi, 2020
R235 from The Book Lounge

Since their debut novel in 2018, award-winning Nigerian writer Emezi has published prolifically. ‘The Death of Vivek Oji’ is a genre-defying murder mystery and a dramatic story of love and transcendence, set in Nigeria where to be gay is a crime. GB

CONTEMPORARY FICTION (ZANZIBAR)

The Last Gift by Abdulrazak Gurnah, 2011
R255 from Clarke’s Bookshop

Abbas collapses at the age of 63 (the same age as the author at the time of writing) and, bedbound in England, tells his wife and children about his past. A novel of identity and immigration, memory and family secrets, from the UK based-Zanzibari winner of the 2021 Nobel prize for Literature – the first black writer in 35 years to have won the world’s top writing award. GB

ARCHITECTURE (SOUTH AFRICA)

RSA 365 by Shaun Gaylard, 2022
R850 from The Book Lounge

Architect Shaun Gaylard’s 2020 challenge to himself was to draw 365 South African buildings, bridges and towers in a year. The results have now been published in this book, which chronologically combines Gaylard’s beautiful drawings with essential factual details and in most cases, a short history of the structure. From the unique story of Tuynhuys to the charming details of the Yeoville Water Tower, this is a wonderful record of – and introduction to – the complex history of South Africa’s built environment. RA

ARCHITECTURE (SOUTH AFRICA)

RSA 365 by Shaun Gaylard, 2022
R850 from The Book Lounge

Architect Shaun Gaylard’s 2020 challenge to himself was to draw 365 South African buildings, bridges and towers in a year. The results have now been published in this book, which chronologically combines Gaylard’s beautiful drawings with essential factual details and in most cases, a short history of the structure. From the unique story of Tuynhuys to the charming details of the Yeoville Water Tower, this is a wonderful record of – and introduction to – the complex history of South Africa’s built environment. RA

MEMOIR (KENYA)

One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina, 2011
R260 from The Book Lounge

A compelling and often hilarious coming-of-age memoir about growing up as an outsider in middle-class Kenya, and becoming a writer. Author Wainaina became famous for his provocative 2005 Granta essay “How to Write About Africa”, and was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. GB

VINTAGE FICTION (BOTSWANA)

When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head, 1968
R195 from Clarke’s Bookshop

Bessie Head’s first novel combines her characteristically evocative, descriptive style with a direct, powerfully opinionated narrative voice. When Rain Clouds Gather is the story of Makhaya, who goes into exile in Botswana from apartheid South Africa (as Head herself did in 1964). His new life in the village of Golema Mmidi is fraught with challenges both personal and political – and at the intersection of the two. RA

VINTAGE FICTION (BOTSWANA)

When Rain Clouds Gather by Bessie Head, 1968
R195 from Clarke’s Bookshop

Bessie Head’s first novel combines her characteristically evocative, descriptive style with a direct, powerfully opinionated narrative voice. When Rain Clouds Gather is the story of Makhaya, who goes into exile in Botswana from apartheid South Africa (as Head herself did in 1964). His new life in the village of Golema Mmidi is fraught with challenges both personal and political – and at the intersection of the two. RA

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