REVIEW | Love You Madly is a delightful tale of the 1990s, told in letters and voicemails

The novel, by two authors, is constructed of letters, text messages and fridge notes – telling the story of two sisters coming of age in...

29 Apr

REVIEW | A Saudi woman’s voice that is no longer silenced

Saudi Arabia is no country for those who are not cis heterosexual males. The theocratic monarchy rules by the combination of ancient...

28 Apr

DOUBLE REVIEW | These Cape Town thrillers both have appealing protagonists – plus violence and intrigue

The Heist Men and Hammerman have much in common. Both are crime novels written by masters in the field. Both are parts of a series,...

26 Apr

REVIEW | Junior Khanye’s story has ambition, bad behaviour, disappointment and triumph

Ghetto Ninja: The Junior Khanye Story is a biography of soccer star Junior Thabo Khanye, but written as though it were a novel. It shares...

21 Apr

REVIEW | Veronique Tadjo's book about Ebola offers a useful parallel with Covid-19

As we totter out of the Covid-19 pandemic, this story provides a useful parallel. We see the disbelief, the anger, the fear, the...

19 Apr

REVIEW | Noah Hawley’s dystopian thriller Anthem is an uncanny reflection of the world as we know it

The complexity of the novel is, at once, its driving force and potential downfall. It’s hard to keep track of all the characters, some of...

15 Apr

REVIEW | A father’s death drives a wide-ranging investigation by Liz McGregor

The death of a parent can be devastating – more so when it results from a brutal attack. It took journalist Liz McGregor nearly a decade...

14 Apr

REVIEW | A startling novel about being a girl at school in Rwanda

In this highly unusual and fast-moving novel, Scholastique Mukasonga shows us how much is invested in our daughters.

12 Apr

REVIEW | Omotoso novel of grief goes deep into intimate places as it uncovers secrets

In her third novel Yewande Omotoso explores the way a mother’s grief leads to the revelation of awkward secrets, and how it can lead to a...

06 Apr

REVIEW | Esi Edugyan’s five essays feel like a dream and read like an impressionist painting

Out of the Sun centres little-known stories of race through five pieces of travelogue/memoir/history lessons that have also formed part...

05 Apr

REVIEW | Inventive retribution makes Serpent Crescent a highly enjoyable read

Retired English teacher Megan Merton describes herself as a sociopath. Maybe she is, and maybe she isn’t, but she’s definitely peculiar.

31 Mar

REVIEW | Yanagihara’s long and detailed novel offers three alternate realities

To Paradise is a 2022 novel by American novelist Hanya Yanagihara. The book, Yanagihara's third, takes place in an alternate version of...

29 Mar

REVIEW | Reacher and Killing Floor: The series versus the book

Actor Alan Ritchson as Reacher is as large and muscled in the series as he is in the novels, but he's a bit more bland on the small...

23 Mar

REVIEW | This book is perfect, and you can be two

While reading How to Be Perfect, I thought, "They should send a copy of this book in the mail to every person who opens a Twitter...

18 Mar

REVIEW | Love Marriage: Monica Ali’s thoughtful novel is expressed through expert storytelling

This novel is a delightfully digestible offering that covers the themes of faith and feminism, a blend of religious and cultural...

17 Mar

REVIEW | Khoisan history is interesting but feels rather too academic in new book First People

The intriguing first chapter, and the tragic last one, titled “How Did the Khoisan Lose Their History?”, bookend overly academic analyses...

16 Mar

REVIEW | Boiling a Frog Slowly: Memoir of intimate crimes offers hope of healing

The title of Cathy Park Kelly’s memoir, Boiling Frog Slowly, borrows from the urban legend that when a frog is placed in water that is...

03 Mar

REVIEW | Queer characters walk the future city of Cape Town in this dystopian tale

Spanning from present day until the near future, this novel tells the story of three men facing the rapid unravelling of their world, due...

09 Mar