Welcome to Vol. 4, Issue 4 of The Johannesburg Review of Books

‘The majority of writers in Africa, of us, confine ourselves, rather than having great ambition’—An interview with Nuruddin Farah, by Lebohang Mojapelo

JM Coetzee’s ‘late style’—Angelo Fick reviews The Death of Jesus, the ‘masterful, spare and beautiful’ final book of the Jesus trilogy

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Writing Athlone—Gabeba Baderoon’s latest poetry collection The History of Intimacy maps the small hurts of apartheid, writes Toni Giselle Stuart

[Exclusive] ‘Sorry! Hand Sanitizer Sold Out!’—Read an excerpt from Lauren Beukes’s prescient new novel Afterland

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[City Editor] The search to find a new vocabulary for the new city—Lidudumalingani muses on literature and lockdown Joburg

‘If I had power over the lexical landscape, I would get rid of the word immigrant’—Nana Oforiatta Ayim talks to Wamuwi Mbao about her debut novel The God Child

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A lockdown playlist, 60 songs to see you through, compiled by Tymon Smith

[Travel] Kinshasa, a Love Story—Zukiswa Wanner encounters beauty and brutality on her visit to the Congolese capital for the Fête du livre de Kinshasa

[Sponsored] Read an excerpt from Peter Church’s thriller Crackerjack, part of LAPA’s Quarantine Reading List of ebooks

[Photo Editor] Original portraits of Keorapetse Kgositsile and Nadine Gordimer by Victor Dlamini

[Poetry] ‘Matsephe’s Dance’, a new poem by Isobel Dixon

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As a coronavirus ravages the world, cigarettes become currency—read an excerpt from Deon Meyer’s prophetic post-apocalyptic thriller Fever

[Obituary] Credo Mutwa, 1921—2020, RIP

[The JRB Daily] Humanities and Social Sciences Awards winners announced, including Fiona Snyckers and Gabeba Baderoon

[The JRB Daily] 2020 Windham–Campbell Prizes winners announced, including Zambian writer Namwali Serpell

[The JRB Daily] ‘A story luminously told’—Marguerite Poland’s A Sin of Omission shortlisted for prestigious Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

[The JRB Daily] ‘A delightfully queer treatment of everyday life’—Jarred Thompson wins Afritondo Short Story Prize for ‘Good Help is Hard to Find’

[The JRB Daily] ‘Discomforting and elating encounters with selves in a state of transition’—2020 International Booker Prize shortlist announced