Patricia Ferguson The Midwife’s Daughter Penguin Books REVIEW: Ruth Browne In Patricia Ferguson’s latest novel, one of the first and most pervasive images evoked is that of the mirror. Each of her complex, sensitive characters is made to see herself
COLUMN: If all the world’s shelves were empty
By Karin Schimke In Berlin, in a public square in Mitte called Bebelplatz, you can walk right over a memorial, one of the most haunting ones I have ever seen. Sunk into the ground is a chamber lined floor-to-ceiling with
Joburg Jumble
I spent last week in Joburg – and the weekend in Pretoria – for work. I grew up in the latter, and worked for two years in the former, just after democracy came to South Africa. Oddly, I haven’t been
QUICK REVIEW: Mr Phillips
Distinctly odd, sometimes boring, but punctuated by moments of what can only be described as naïve profundity, Mr Phillips did not make me laugh as much as puzzle, in spite of the enthusiastic cover shouts by important literary types. Mr
REVIEW: The Art Book
The Art Book Phaidon REVIEW: Karin Schimke If you’d like to skip the yadi-yada to get to what the book’s about, I have kept the editorialising in black and have highlighted the useful bits in purple. “Art”, like “poetry”, can
REVIEW: The Horologicon
The Horologicon Mark Forsyth Icon REVIEW: Karen Jeynes The Horologicon is, I can confidently say, a…oh, what’s the word? Yes, that’s it, a multivagant celebration of language. Multivagant, as you will learn on page 220, means “wandering hither and thither”,
So many books, so few surfaces
The other day a friend walked into the kitchen and said: “It looks as though a huge family of readers was abducted by aliens in the middle of reading.” Every surface had a book splayed open it. I blinked a
Ga-Zoom or Zike-Bike? Tripping into Dr Seuss
Possibly the most raggedy set of books in the house is the pile of Dr Seuss books on a shelf in the entrance hall. I like the scruffy aesthetic of the yellow and red spines. The other day, my daughter
REVIEW: The Land Within
The Land Within Alistair Morgan Penguin REVIEW BY: Aly Verbaan FORGET about the protracted and meandering opening pages that are often territory of the South African farm novel. Alistair Morgan cuts to the chase with this first line from The
COLUMN: Time to read – but only because I don’t watch TV
BY: Karin Schimke I am often asked when I get time to read so much. Do I have more leisure time than other people? I don’t think so. It took me a while to figure out the answer to this