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JULY '25 LIBRARY REVIEWS

CONTEMPORARY FICTION (SOUTH AFRICA)

The Unwoven Warrior by Jon Keevy (2025)
R360 from The Book Lounge

John Keevy’s Afrofantasy debut, The Unwoven Warrior, blends biology, technology and fantasy as he takes the reader on a journey at the heart of which is a critique on colonialism and empire building. It questions whether the human condition is one which inevitably shifts towards war and conflict – whether to gain resources or power. A South African reader is likely to feel a resonance with the world Keevy has crafted, as he has drawn on the spaces and people that make up the fabric of this country, but it doesn’t ring of appropriation. Rather, it echoes Keevy’s own identity. There is a lot going on in the novel, from the performance of leadership, through to the loss of identity, through to the guilt associated with survival. And the good news for its many instant fans is that this novel is the first in a series. Frankie Murrey

CONTEMPORARY NONFICTION (SOUTH AFRICA)

The Interpreters: South Africa’s New Nonfiction edited by Sean Christie and Hedley Twidle (2025)
R370 from The Book Lounge

The Interpreters is a collection of some of the absolute best South African literary nonfiction published since the end of apartheid. Its editors have done an amazing job of making this book as varied, odd and crazy as South Africa itself, all tied together by an ineffable thread of lived realities. The book’s small independent publisher, Soutie Press, lists the range of subjects as “from the underworld of zama-zama gold miners to the tragicomic closure of a Cape Town Zoo, from stick fighting to punk rock, game lodges to fruit farms, cricket pitches to mermaids”, and that just scrapes the surface. Every reader will find their own entry point from which they can chart their particular understanding of the country’s meaning, and then branch off from there into a dizzying array of perspectives. It’s a book to savour, and one that will have you marvelling at the talented writers who have worked to chart South Africa’s uneasy and ongoing gestation, and point toward what we might become. Chris Roper

CONTEMPORARY NONFICTION (SOUTH AFRICA)

The Interpreters: South Africa’s New Nonfiction edited by Sean Christie and Hedley Twidle (2025)
R370 from The Book Lounge

The Interpreters is a collection of some of the absolute best South African literary nonfiction published since the end of apartheid. Its editors have done an amazing job of making this book as varied, odd and crazy as South Africa itself, all tied together by an ineffable thread of lived realities. The book’s small independent publisher, Soutie Press, lists the range of subjects as “from the underworld of zama-zama gold miners to the tragicomic closure of a Cape Town Zoo, from stick fighting to punk rock, game lodges to fruit farms, cricket pitches to mermaids”, and that just scrapes the surface. Every reader will find their own entry point from which they can chart their particular understanding of the country’s meaning, and then branch off from there into a dizzying array of perspectives. It’s a book to savour, and one that will have you marvelling at the talented writers who have worked to chart South Africa’s uneasy and ongoing gestation, and point toward what we might become. Chris Roper

CONTEMPORARY ART (CONTINENT-WIDE & DIASPORA)

African Art: The ARAK Collection, essays by Ashraf Jamal, artist and artwork selection by Nneoma Angela Okorie (2025)
R1850 from Jonathan Ball

Framed via erudite yet marvellously readable essays by Cape Town-based writer and cultural analyst Ashraf Jamal, the ARAK Collection of contemporary art from Sub-Saharan Africa emerges in this book as a provocative challenge to many of the trends that have characterised the way African art has been seen over the past couple of decades. Put together since 2016 by AbdulRahman AlKhelaifi and located in Doha, Qatar, the ARAK Collection currently includes more than 4000 works. The vast majority of “art star” names are entirely absent from the collection, and its breadth means that just casually paging through this visually beautiful book will inevitably result in the discovery of exceptional work by many artists who are new to you. The section about African Abstraction is a particularly special highlight in this regard, and indeed overall. Robyn Alexander

CONTEMPORARY FICTION (SOUTH AFRICA)

Black Widow Society by Angela Makholwa (2013)
R250 from Clarke’s Bookshop

There is a particular kind of joy reserved for reading a fast-paced book – the kind that keeps you hooked in the same way that a bingeable series does. Black Widow Society is a book for long winter nights when you have no responsibilities that require you to put it down. It is the throat burn of something dark, bitter and compelling. It is darkly funny in parts and just darkly dark in others, transmuting an all-too recognisable South African landscape of escalating violence and misogyny into psychologically satisfying vengeance and humour. Shivani Ranchod

CONTEMPORARY FICTION (SOUTH AFRICA)

Black Widow Society by Angela Makholwa (2013)
R250 from Clarke’s Bookshop

There is a particular kind of joy reserved for reading a fast-paced book – the kind that keeps you hooked in the same way that bingeable series does. Black Widow Society is a book for long winter nights when you have no responsibilities that require you to put it down. It is the throat burn of something dark, bitter and compelling. It is darkly funny in parts and just darkly dark in others, transmuting an all-too recognisable South African landscape of escalating violence and misogyny into psychologically satisfying vengeance and humour. Shivani Ranchod

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