Ten bookshelf must-haves for 2021

Leading in the 21st century: The Call for a New Type of African Leader

Professor Tshilidzi Marwala

Just because the Oval Office looks set to be a little less orange next year (inshallah), doesn’t mean the global leadership crisis is making a dramatic recovery. That’s the bad news. The good news is that you can do something about it. The digital age presents us all with opportunities for leadership, and lucky for us, we get to draw on lessons from people like Charlotte Maxeke and the Rain Queen Modjadji, to Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe, Eric Molobi and Richard Maponya – all of which are neatly captured here by Marwala.

January 2021/Tracey McDonald Publishers

The Prophets 

Robert Jones Jr

There has been a great deal of hype around this novel, which tells the story of the forbidden union between Isiah and Samuel, two enslaved men who work on a plantation in the American Deep South. With deeply evocative lyricism that has been compared to Toni Morrison, this tale of intimacy and betrayal amid a backdrop of injustice will feel poignantly and painfully familiar to South African readers. Author Robert Jones Jr is the creator of Son of Baldwin, a social justice online community that pays tribute to author James Baldwin.

Quercus (Distributed in SA by Jonathan Ball Publishers)/February 2021

Precarious Power: Compliance and discontent under Ramaphosa’s ANC

Susan Booysen

As South Africa’s ruling party continues to haemorrhage legitimacy, President Cyril Ramaphosa walks a well-documented tightrope between serving the needs of the organisation and those of the nation. The COVID-19 crisis has further highlighted existing inequalities in South Africa and discontent is growing. Political commentator Susan Booysen’s analyses ANC power – as party, as government, as state – in a way that will appeal to all who take an interest in current affairs.

February 2021/Wits University Press

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need

Bill Gates

It is interesting that Gates’ title refers to ‘avoiding’ climate disaster: many might argue that this is not a distant prospect, but an unfolding reality. Yet his message is one of hope, and that’s worth nurturing. Drawing on a decade of research, Gates sets out practical ways to minimise the emissions of greenhouse gases, showing us not only what we can do as individuals, but also what policymakers ought to be doing, and how we should hold governments to account.

February 2021 Allen Lane/Penguin

Klara and the Sun

Kazuo Ishiguro

What does it mean to love? That is the central question in the story of Klara, an ‘Artificial Friend’ who waits patiently in a store hoping that one day a customer will choose her. This is the first novel by Kazuo Ishiguro since he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2017. While the themes around artificial intelligence invite us to reflect on the deeper quandaries of our digital age, like all good thought experiments, this novel also offers its readers a series of timeless truths.

March 2021/Faber & Faber (Distributed in SA by Jonathan Ball Publishers)

Female Fear Factory
Professor Pumla Dineo Gqola

The scourge of sexual- and gender-based violence affects not only those individuals who bear wounds and scars, but has traumatised a nation. This is the follow-up to the 2016 Sunday Times Alan Paton award winner Rape: A South African Nightmare. Female Fear Factory fuses intellectual rigour and extensive research, and offers an even bolder vision for collective action against all cultures of sexual violence.

May 2021/Melinda Ferguson Books (NB Publishers)

Heal – begin with food

Melissa Delport

The COVID-19 pandemic has, in many ways, revealed deep limitations in our understanding of well-being, health and immunity. One of the simplest and most powerful ways of taking control of your health is by improving your relationship with food. Delport encourages readers to live a life of

energy and abundance through beautiful, whole-food cooking. The close to 100 recipes in this book are delicious, and will nourish mind, body and soul.

February 2021 /Struik Lifestyle

 How many ways can I say goodbye?

Refiloe Moahloli

In How Many Ways Can You Say Hello?, Sara and her friends galivanted around the country in a hot-air balloon and learnt to say howzit in all the local languages. In this book, they are making a return trip to drop off the friends, and in the process learn how to say goodbye in all of the country’s 11 official languages. If parents/grandparents/carers aren’t sure how to pronounce the words, there is a digital link to guide readers.

March 2021/Penguin Random House

Walking safaris of South Africa

Hlengiwe Magagula and Denis Costello

Need to slow down? Cut down on screen time? Spend more time in nature? Here’s a wonderful way to do all those things: explore some of our country’s most beautiful big game areas on foot. Magagula and Costello describe more than 50 guided walks across 21 parks and reserves. From short walks to multi-day wilderness trails, they cover everything from the ultra-luxurious to experiences that’ll have you sleeping under the stars – which means you’ll find something to suit your preferred level of difficulty, convenience and comfort.

February 2021/Struik Travel & Heritage

African Europeans: An Untold Story

Olivette Otele

By tracing a long African European heritage through the lives of individuals both ordinary and extraordinary, Professor Otele explores a history that has been long overlooked. She uncovers a forgotten past – from Septimius Severus, Rome’s first African emperor, all the way to present-day migrants moving to Europe’s cities, and – and one presents us with timely insights on the fraught interplay between race, power, identity and, above all, resilience.

Release date TBC/Jacana

All release dates are subject to change.