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Tag Archives: south africa
Book review: Between Two Worlds by Miriam Tlali (South Africa)
Ground-breaking critique of apartheid by a black woman writer
Music review: South African late 20th century classics
Miriam Makeba by Miriam Makeba (1960) I couldn’t spend a month ‘in’ South Africa without listening to some South African music, and this album by Miriam Makeba (who to this point I only knew for ‘Pata Pata’) features in the 1001 albums list, which describes it thus: “traditional Xhosa wedding songs swing into airy African …
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Book review: Down Second Avenue by Es’kia Mphahlele (1919-2008, South Africa)
Down Second Avenue is a work of non-fiction, sometimes sub-titled “Growing Up in a South African Ghetto”, that documents the formative years of Es’kia (Ezekiel) Mphahlele, dubbed the “father of black South African writing”. The book was first published in the UK in 1959, and in the USA in 1971, and I read the Penguin …
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Book review – Dreaming the Karoo: A People Called the /Xam by Julia Blackburn
A mixture of memoir and historical study, reflecting on what is lost – and what remains
Book review: The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut (South Africa)
Moral uncertainties abound in this excellent novel by Booker-winning South African author Damon Galgut
Reading plans for the beginning of 2023
The picture at the top of this post isn’t of my home, sadly, but it’s something to aspire to! As I mentioned in my first post of the year yesterday I’m going back to deep-diving into books and other areas of culture from individual countries, month by month. I didn’t keep this up very well …
Book review: Summertime by J. M. Coetzee (South Africa)
Highly entertaining, often quite funny, and neatly erudite reflection on issues of authorship, identity and memory by the South African Nobel laureate
The Promise by Damon Galgut (South Africa)
Damon Galgut’s Booker-winning ‘The Promise’ was without a doubt one of my books of the year.
Book review: Deborah Levy’s ‘Real Estate’
Deborah Levy’s wonderful work of almost-memoir, ‘Real Estate’