Book Reviews

It’s the tabloid sensation of the year: two well-known footballers standing in the dock, charged with sexual assault, a series of vile text messages pointing towards their guilt. As the trial unfolds, Evan Keogh reflects on the events that have led him to this moment. Since leaving his island home, his life has been a lie on many levels.

It is 2005, a time of silent anticipation and hidden possibilities in the rugged Cederberg mountains. Cameron Coal is embroiled in a desperate fight to save his family’s rooibos farm, which is a hair’s breadth from bankruptcy, while wrestling overwhelming grief after his wife’s death and trying to build a relationship with his blind daughter.

How have the character and technology of war changed in recent times? Why does battlefield victory often fail to result in a sustainable peace? What is the best way to prevent, fight and resolve future conflict? The world is becoming a more dangerous place. Since the fall of Kabul and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US-led liberal international order is giving way to a more chaotic, contested and multipolar world system.

Brace yourself for a thrilling journey into the heart of black life and culture through the philosophy of Hibirism. Hibirism, (noun): Derived from the social greeting ‘hibiri’, made famous by the South African song Sister Bethina (a hit by musician Mgarimbe in 2006), Hibirism adds depth and meaning to the salutation and signifier ‘hibiri’.

The book tells the unknown stories of the innovation and ingenuity of Africans who are solving African problems for African people. These stories include heart-rending accounts of African American inventors at the turn of the 20th century who struggled to have their inventions recognised under relentless racism, and, in the modern era, inventors from the African continent who found inspiration and answers to issues faced every day that are particular to their situations.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) is a flagship South African public health organisation, and this book, by its first executive director and virologist Dr Barry Schoub, paints a portrait of its development, despite many challenges, towards becoming an internationally renowned partner in the struggle for global health.

Gabriel Laucus has lost his job and his parent’s home is about to be repossessed. Desperate and on the brink of financial ruin, he devises a risky insurance scam to salvage his crumbling life. This sets in motion a catastrophic chain of events. Soon, Gabriel and his friends have a psychopathic hitman, a ruthless drug lord, and a relentless investigator on their tail.

When an unusual building appeared overnight in a remote northern Cape community in the 1970s, and disappeared a few weeks later, it seemed to point to a series of baffling existential overlaps. Some individuals claimed that occasionally they found themselves on the other side of a restive civil war divide, in identity embodiments that were highly contrary versions of themselves.

Patient 12A is Lesedi Molefi’s absorbing memoir, reflecting on his time spent in a psychiatric clinic in 2016. With vulnerability and candour, Lesedi reflects on the moments, large and small, that led him there. The book is at once a personal history, an observation of how childhood experiences can have a profound effect on the adults we become, and a commentary on how mental illness remains a difficult conversation in black families.

Sociopath: A Memoir is at once a jaw-dropping tale of a life lived on the edge of the law, and a moving account of one woman's battle to gain a deeper understanding of people who, like her, are sociopaths.