October Newsletter - African Review of Books

New on the African Review of Books are the latest in the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency and a series of art monographs from South Africa.

This year's winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Maathai has written of the work which led to her being awarded the prize in The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the approach and the experience. It is available for sale at our bookshop.

In Reviews:
Mma Ramotswe in her latest adventure, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, has been compared with other great detectives of English literature, but here we compare her to another great English literary figure, Winnie-the-Pooh.

Achmat Dangor is in line to win this year's Man Booker prize. The announcement of the winner is to be made on October 19. Bitter Fruit, the shortlisted title, focuses on the life of one family whose past was defined by the individual evils of a grandiose system, and whose cohesion is unravelling as history clambers beyond the confines of neatly constructed judicial processes. It is set against the background the the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Niq Mhlongo creates a character who travels to Cape Town to try and get a publisher interested in his personal diaries, which makes Dog Eat Dog a somewhat biographical novel, and it works.

The Taxi art series from David Krut Publishing is a series of 10 monographs, so far. We review the latest two which cover the works of Kagiso Pat Mautloa and Deborah Bell. All 10 are available for sale and are sourced from South Africa.

Agenda Setting and Public Policy in Africa provides an integrated account of the theoretical and practical aspects of public policy challenges in developing societies. It points toward the need to infuse novelty into public policy-making processes to reflect indigenous societal interests. Contributors to the book tackle critical policy issues that have emasculated the growth of policy objectives that are sensitive to African needs.

From Angola comes a collection of short stories by João de Melo. The Serial Killer (written in Portuguese) offers a particularly well drawn view of Luanda, a rich blend of old and new practices, of the cloying nostalgia for days gone by and of the permissive, often corrupt ways of the present. Melo's writing has a lightness of touch that at once provokes and seduces us into laughing with him while simultaneously being teased into thinking beyond the more superficial level of the work.

In News:
This year's Africa Visions tour highlights 10 years of democracy in South Africa. Among the writers present will be Andre Brink, Gcina Mhlope and Achmat Dangor.

From Cape Town, the IBBY conference on children's books took place last month. Lara Scott takes an irreverant view of the adult proceedings.

Ngugi wa Thiongo's latest novel has been launched in Kenya, but English readers will have to wait until 2006.

Nadine Gordimer has brought together 20 world-renown writers, including many Nobel prize winners, in Telling Tales, an anthology whose proceeds will go to help victims of HIV/Aids. The book will be available from November.

In Essays:
If you haven't seen it already, Nelson Mandela delivered this year's Steve Biko memorial lecture.

All this is available at www.africanreviewofbooks.com and please remember that all books highlighted on our site can be bought through our shop. If you can't find what you're looking for or prefer not to use the internet to buy books, then give us a call on +44 (0)8707128932.

Thanks for your support

Raks and Richard