Our regular Book Digest segment spotlights new books from Athambile Masola, Do Nsoseme, Xolisa Guzula, Diana Evans, and Lauren Francis-Sharma.
Ngambo Ya Congo by Do Nsoseme
Publisher: Editions Mesdames
Date: January 23, 2025
Genre: Poetry
Language: French
Where to find it: Editions Mesdames
Do Nsoseme
Do Nsoseme is a Congolese spoken word artist, poet, and photographer, born in 1994 in Kinshasa. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kinshasa and after a career in events, communication, and design, she has devoted herself to poetry, the practice of spoken word, and photography since 2015. Holder of a master’s degree in media management from École Supérieure de Journalisme de Lille and a diploma in Graphic Arts with a visual communication option from the Academy of Fine Arts in Kinshasa, Do also holds a state diploma (bachelor’s degree) in Latin-Philo since 2011 from Mgr Bokeleale Institute.
Ngambo Ya Congo
This collection of poems explores and exposes the evils that are eating away at Congolese society. It is intended to be a challenge, a call to consider the social problems of the DRC with a view to eradicating them. It makes young people aware of their role to play, of the struggles they must undertake so that the Congo is transformed. It places particular emphasis on our land, the DRC, the only place where we can plant our dreams and shout our joys, the only portion of the earth that truly belongs to us.
Together Apart: The Story of Living in Apartheid by Athambile Masola and Xolisa Guzula
Publisher: Jacana Media
Date: February 2025
Genre: Nonfiction
Language: English
Where to find it: Jacana Media
Xolisa Guzula
Xolisa Guzula is a senior lecturer in Applied Language and Literacy Studies at the University of Cape Town. She specialises in multilingual and multiliteracies education, teaching children to speak, read and write in two or more languages. She is one of the founders of a network of reading clubs – Vulindlela Reading Club, Nal’ibali Reading Clubs and the Stars of Today Literacy Club. She has written several children’s books, including co-authoring the Imbokodo: Women who shape us series with Dr Athambile Masola. She has translated many children’s books from English to isiXhosa including books by award-winning authors Astrid Lindgren, Niky Daly, Sihle-isipho Nontshokweni, Refiloe Moahloli and Nicholas Maritz. She won an IBBY/Exclusive Books Award for best translation of The Elders at the Door to Iinkonde eMnyango by Shayle and Maryanne Bester. Her translation of Wendy Hartmann’s book, The Singing Stone/Ilitye Eliculayo made the international honour list of IBBY 100 recommended books. Recently, she released her translation of Sello Duiker’s book The Hidden Star into Inkwenkwezi efihlakeleyo. Xolisa is a member of Bua-lit Language and Literacy Collective (www.bua-lit.org.za), focusing on social justice in language and literacy education. She is Chair of the Western Cape Committee of the Literacy Association of South Africa (LITASA).
Athambile Masola
Athambile Masola is a teacher, writer, and poet. She is a lecturer in the Historical Studies Department at the University of Cape Town. She has published a collection of poems in isiXhosa titled Ilifa (2021, Uhlanga Press), which won the Humanities and Social Science (HSS) Award in 2022. She is the co-author of the children’s history book series, Imbokodo: Women who shape us (Jacana Media, 2022), with Dr Xolisa Guzula. Her latest book is a collaboration with Makhosazana Xaba, a collection of Noni Jabavu’s columns from 1977, A Stranger at Home (Tafelberg, 2023).
Together Apart: The Story of Living in Apartheid
Discover the gripping tale of Together Apart: The Story of Living in Apartheid, that explores South Africa’s struggle against one of history’s most notorious systems of racial segregation. Through the reflections of an elder who lived through it, this book invites readers to dive into the complex and heartbreaking history of apartheid, a time when courage and resilience shone brightly in the face of oppression.
What was life like under apartheid? How did colonisation erase the rich histories and cultures of the indigenous people? From the denial of voting rights to the harsh segregation laws that controlled people’s daily lives − where they lived, worked, and even who they could marry − it spread through every aspect of life from education to sports. In the world of work, apartheid created a system of migrant labour and domestic slavery.
Meet the brave individuals and organisations that fought tirelessly for equality and justice and whose stories of strength, love and revolution are woven together showing the triumph of the human spirit against overwhelming odds.
While apartheid may have officially ended, its impact still resonates today. This book serves as a vital reminder of the sacrifices made and the ongoing journey toward a truly inclusive society. Together Apart is more than just a history book − it’s a call to action for a new generation to understand the past and shape a better future.
I Want To Talk You by Diana Evans
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Date: February 6, 2025
Genre: Nonfiction
Language: English
Where to find it: Penguin
Diana Evans
Diana Evans is the author of the novels 26a, The Wonder, Ordinary People and A House for Alice. She was the inaugural winner of the Orange Award for New Writers for 26a, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel, the Guardian First Book, the Commonwealth Best First Book and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Ordinary People won the 2019 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, for which A House for Alice was also a finalist. A former dancer, she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, her journalism and nonfiction appearing in Time magazine, the Guardian, Vogue and the Financial Times among others. She lives in London.
I Want To Talk You
Crafted over twenty-five years, I Want to Talk to You invites you into a conversation about literature, art and music, identity, grief and everything in between
As a young journalist, Diana Evans was catapulted overnight into the role of culture editor, going on to interview a roster of stars including Lauryn Hill, Viola Davis, Alice Walker and Edward Enninful.
In these portraits of contemporary icons, the author remains the observer. Alongside them, in pieces collected here for the first time, we also see her turning the lens on herself. We watch as she dances on stages in London and travels through Cuba. We sit beside her desk as she develops her voice as a writer, shaped by her love for Jean Rhys, James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. We walk by her side as she navigates the world – her family and the midlife sandwich, reflections on fashion, yoga, the British monarchy and lockdowns, and the lasting impact of George Floyd and Grenfell.
Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Date: February 11, 2025
Genre: Fiction
Language: English
Where to find it: Grove Atlantic
Lauren Francis-Sharma
Lauren Francis-Sharma is the author of Book of the Little Axe, a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the critically acclaimed novel ’Til the Well Runs Dry. She was a MacDowell fellow and is the Assistant Director of Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference at Middlebury College. She resides near Washington, DC, with her family.
Casualties of Truth
From the author of Book of the Little Axe, nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the critically acclaimed ‘Til the Well Runs Dry, a riveting literary novel with the sharp edges of a thriller about the abuses of history and the costs of revenge, set between Washington, D.C., and Johannesburg, South Africa
Prudence Wright seems to have it all: a loving husband, Davis; a spacious home in Washington, D.C.; and the former glories of a successful career at McKinsey, which now enables her to dedicate her days to her autistic son, Roland. When she and Davis head out for dinner with one of Davis’s new colleagues on a stormy summer evening filled with startling and unwelcome interruptions, Prudence has little reason to think that certain details of her history might arise sometime between cocktails and the appetizer course.
Yet when Davis’s colleague turns out to be Matshediso, a man from Prudence’s past, she is transported back to the formative months she spent as a law student in South Africa in 1996. As an intern at a Johannesburg law firm, Prudence attended sessions of the Truth and Reconciliation hearings that uncovered the many horrors and human rights abuses of the Apartheid state, and which fundamentally shaped her sense of righteousness and justice. Prudence experienced personal horrors in South Africa as well, long hidden and now at risk of coming to light. When Matshediso finally reveals the real reason behind his sudden reappearance, he will force Prudence to examine her most deeply held beliefs and to excavate inner reserves of resilience and strength.
Lauren Francis-Sharma’s previous two novels have established her as a deft chronicler of history and its intersections with flawed humans struggling to find peace in unjust circumstances. With keen insight and gripping tension, Casualties of Truth explosively mines questions of whether we are ever truly able to remove the stains of our past and how we may attempt to reconcile with unquestionable wrongs.
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