BY: Karin Schimke I have a confession to make: I have not read Anna Karenina. I have no explanation. I haven’t avoided it, but it has somehow never crossed my path either. Every now and again someone does that sigh
QUICK REVIEW: Cape Town
Cape Town Kate Noakes Eyewear Publishing REVIEW BY: Sarah Rowland-Jones Anyone who has looked beyond Cape Town’s tourist traps will smile in recognition at these closely observed poems about the city and wider environs. A five-month work stint in early
QUICK REVIEW: Swimming Home
Swimming Home Deborah Levy Faber & Faber REVIEW BY: Aly Verbaan PLUNGING right in, Deborah Levy presents a small ensemble of holiday-makers convened around a pool in the south of France — world-famous poet Joe and his frosty wife, Isabel,
REVIEW: Endings & Beginnings
Endings & Beginnings – A Story of Healing Redi Thlabi Jacana REVIEW BY: Jennifer Crocker Endings & Beginnings is a joy of journalistic and personal discovery, written by popular radio talk show host Redi Thlabi, and it takes the reader
THREE QUICK REVIEWS
The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Bloomsbury) I was moved by something in this book that I have not read quite in this way before: the relationship of the individual to their country when that country is
TOP TEN 2011
Because of the popularity of my post on the top ten South African books of 2012 – as published by The Star newspaper – I’ve decided to also post my other lists. The list for 2010 can be found here:
REVIEW: The Sea of Wise Insects
The Sea of Wise Insects Terry Westby-Nunn Jacana REVIEW BY: Aly Verbaan Once in a bluish moon a reader is treated to a run of good books, which naturally sets the bar for the next one higher and higher, eventually
REVIEW: The Dinner
The Dinner Herman Koch Atlantic Books (Translated from the Dutch by Sam Garrett) REVIEW BY: Aly Verbaan NOTHING says bourgeois quite like the Western five-course dinner. A metonymic drama in five acts — aperitif, appetiser, main course, dessert and digestif
REVIEW: Silent House
Silent House Orhan Pamuk Faber & Faber (Translation from the Turkish by Robert Finn) REVIEW BY: Aly Verbaan CRACKING the spine of Orhan Pamuk’s second novel, Silent House, we are required to read through the overlay of time and translation:
REVIEW: Flight Behaviour
Flight Behaviour Barbara Kingsolver Faber & Faber REVIEW BY: Karin Schimke Tiny Dellarobia Turnbow, with her head of fire and restless wandering heart and restless wondering brain, carries a heavy load – a fact her clunky name reveals amply. In