Here's a curated a list of books that should be on your to-buy or to-read list.
House of Stone by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
Atlantic Books
384 pages
R295
Winner of the Edward Stanford Prize for Fiction with a Sense of Place, House of Stone is easily one of the best debut novels you will ever read. Novuyo Rosa Tshuma’s novel is both entertaining and shocking, filled with compassion, anger and hopelessness. This Zimbabwean novel is not for the faint-hearted.
During the turmoil of modern Zimbabwe, Abednego and Agnes Mlambo’s teenage son goes missing. Their enigmatic tenant, 24-year-old Zamani, who has lived in the spare room for years, seems to be their only hope for finding him.
As he weaves himself closer into the fabric of the grieving community, it’s as if quiet, polite, well-read and well-heeled Zamani is part of the family.
Wheedling, persuading and coercing Abednego and Agnes into revealing their sometimes tender, often brutal life stories, Zamani aims to steep himself in borrowed family history so that he can fully inherit and inhabit its uncertain future.
Written with dark humour, wit and seduction, House of Stone is a sweeping epic that spans the fall of Rhodesia through to Zimbabwe’s turbulent beginnings, exploring the persistence of the oppressed in a nation seeking an identity.
Understanding South Africa by Carien du Plessis and Martin Plaut
Jacana Media
316 pages
R195
When Nelson Mandela emerged from decades in jail to preach reconciliation, South Africans appeared to many as a people reborn as a rainbow nation.
Yet, a quarter of a century later, the country sank into bitter recriminations and rampant corruption under former president Jacob Zuma. Why did this happen and how was hope betrayed?
President Cyril Ramaphosa, hoping to heal these wounds, was re-elected in May last year with the ANC hoping to claw back support lost to the opposition in the Zuma era.
This book looks at this election, shedding light on voters’ choices. With chapters on all the major issues at stake, from education to land redistribution, Understanding South Africa offers insights into Africa’s largest and most diversified economy, closely tied to its neighbours’ fortunes.
Unbecoming to Become by Ayanda Mangubane Borotho
Protea Boekhuis
390 pages
R255
In this personal memoir, actress Ayanda MaNgubane Borotho tracks her journey back to self in a bid to return to her true self and to redefine her worth.
Borotho shares intimate details of her most profound experiences as a young girl in the township in a toxic relationship with a high-flying gangster.
She zooms into and challenges the social expectations, cultural conditioning and social perceptions which set the narrative that dictates the self-worth of girls and women.
By unlearning and reflecting on the untrue narratives girls and women are told and taught about themselves, and learning a different truth, girls and women can begin the Unbecoming to Become journey of restoring their identity, reclaiming their power and redefining their self-worth.
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