Category: Book Reviews
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A review of Ndumiso Ngcobo’s Eat Drink & Blame The Ancestors
Book: Eat Drink & Blame The Ancestors Author: Ndumiso Ngcobo Publisher: Two Dogs Year of publication: 2014 Number of pages: 287 Genre: Satire, essays In Kenya for many years, the most looked forward read in the newspapers was a column called “Whispers” in the Sunday Nation written by a gentleman called Wahome Mutahi. The column…
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A review of Chimeka Garricks Tomorrow Died Yesterday
Book: Tomorrow Died Yesterday Author: Chimeka Garricks Publisher: Paperworth Books Year of publication: 2010 Number of pages: 428 Genre: Thriller Chimeka Garrick’s debt novel Tomorrow Died Yesterday tracks four characters Doughboy, Amaibi, Kaniye, and Tubo who grew up in the oil-rich Niger Delta and how their lives end up as they deal with the oil…
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A review of Gilbert Muyumbu’s The Noses in Our Family and other short stories
Book: The Noses in Our Family and other short stories Author: Gilbert Muyumbu Publisher: Pangolin Publishers Year of publishers: 2014 Number of pages: 143 Genre: Short story collection Number of stories: 15 The thing with short story collections is that just like a very famous reviewer for the Washington Post, I don’t like them as…
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A review of Diekoye Oyeyinka’s Stillborn
Book: Stillborn Author: Diekoye Oyeyinka Publisher: East African Educational Publishers (EAEP) Publication year: 2014 Number of pages: 262 Genre: Fiction Stillborn is the debut novel from Nigerian writer Diekoye Oyeyinka which was published by Kenyan publisher East African Educational Publishers (EAEP) and launched in Nairobi recently. The book tells the story of two main characters;…
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Zukiswa Wanner reviews A Renegade Called Simphiwe by Pumla Dineo Gqola
Book: A Renegade Called SimphiweAuthor: Pumla Dineo GqolaPublisher: Jacana MediaNumber of pages: 180Year of Publication: 2013 Simphiwe Dana is perhaps one of the better known musicians from South Africa under 40. Often compared to musicians like Ringo Madlingozi and the late Miriam Makeba, the young artist has won many awards with her three albums as…
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A review of Nganga Mbugua’s Different Colours
Book: Different Colours Author: Ng’ang’a Mbugua Publisher: Big Books Publication date: 2011 Number of pages: 260 Genre: Fiction With the Nairobi International Book Fair in town then it’s only fair that I review a book from one of the folks in the running for the Wahome Mutahi Literary Prize. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to…
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A review of Jeremiah Kiereini’s memoirs A Daunting Journey
Book: A daunting JourneyAuthor: Jeremiah Gitau Kiereini (edited by Mutu Wa Gethoi)Publisher: Kenway PublicationsYear of publication: 2014Number of pages: 258Genre: Biography A Daunting Journey is the memoir of Jeremiah Gitau Kiereini one of the most well-known and least-known Kenyans in recent times. This reviewer knew Bwana Kiereini for one reason; he was the big boss at the Kenya Breweries, then East Africa…
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A review of Siphiwo Mahala’s African Delights
Book: African Delights Author: Siphiwo Mahala Publisher: Jacana Media Year of publication: 2011 Number of pages: 243 Genre: Short Story Number of stories: 12 Jacana Media-published African Delights is the second book from Pretoria-based South African writer Siphiwo Mahala. His first was the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal Press 2007 book When a Man Cries about…
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A review of Doreen Baingana’s Tropical Fish
Book: Tropical Fish Author: Doreen Baingana Publisher: Oshun Year of publication: 2005 Number of pages: 147 Genre: Short story anthology A few months ago I mentioned that the Miles Moreland Scholars for 2013 Doreen Baingana, Percy Zvomuya, and Tony Mochama were in the process of giving us new work in English. With a new call…
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A review of Susan Abulhawa’s novel Mornings In Jenin
Author: Susan Abulhawa Book: Mornings in Jenin Publisher: Bloomsbery Year of publication: 2010 Number of pages: 322 Susan Abulhawa’s novel Mornings in Jenin is a revelation. The last few days our TV screens have been inundated with images from a little part of the Middle East called the Gaza Strip as the seemingly unending battle…
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A review of Jeff Koinange’s Through My African Eyes
Book: Through My African Eyes Author: Jeff Koinange Publisher: Footprints Press Kenya Year of Publication: 2014 Genre: Biography I have been watching Jeff Koinange for years. I started watching him when he was working for KTN in 1995 when he would read the news. I also watched him on Africa Review, the Reuters show that screened…
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A review of Sext Me Poems and Stories by the Jalada Collective
Erotica. Written porn. This surely has to be one of my favourite parts of the written word. Xaviera Hollander is the erotica writer who got me hooked many years ago with her The Happy Hooker: My Own Story memoir about her life as a sex worker. That was in high school. Since then I have…
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A review of Mukoma Wa Ngugi’s Killing Sahara (Black Star Nairobi)
Book: Killing Sahara (Black Star Nairobi) Author: Mukoma Wa Ngugi Publisher: Kwela Books Year of publication: 2013 Number of pages: 229 Genre: Crime fiction We have met Ishmael Fofona the African American detective in African literature before. He was introduced to us by Mukoma Wa Ngugi when he wrote his first major book Nairobi Heat…
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A review of Deji Olukotun’s Nigerians In Space
Book: Nigerians in Space Author: Deji Bryce Olukotun Publisher: Unnamed Press Year of publication: 2014 Number of pages: 293 What does it take to get an African country to space? That is the premise of Nigerian writer Deji Olukutun’s debut novel Nigerians in Space. Nigerian Ministry of Environment top official Nurudeen Bello comes up with…
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A review of Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s “I Do Not Come to You By Chance”
Book: I do not come to you by chance Author: Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani Publisher: Phoenix Publishers Year of publication: 2009 Number of pages: 343 Have you ever gotten an email from a person you have never heard of who is promising you that they need your help to access a huge amount of money? Many…