Book reviews
Renowned food writer, Julia Turshen, and Somali chef, Hawa Hassan, present 75 recipes and stories gathered from bibis (grandmothers) from eight African nations: South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Comoros, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, and Eritrea. We meet women such as Ma Shara, who helps tourists “see the real Zanzibar” by teaching them how to make her famous ajemi bread; Ma Vicky, a real-life princess from Tanzania, who now lives in suburban New York and makes a mean matoke (stewed plantains with beans and beef); and Ma Gehennet from Eritrea who shares her recipes for kicha (Eritrean flatbread) and shiro (ground chickpea stew). Through Julia and Hawa’s writing and the accompanying evocative photography, the women, and the stories behind the recipes, come to life in this transporting cookbookmeets-travelogue.
Daniel Pitt has seen a lot of action. He was an RAF fighter in the First World War and an espionage agent for the SOE in the second. Now the conflicts he faces are closer to home. Daniel and Rosie’s marriage has fractured beyond repair and Daniel’s relationship with their son, Bertie, has been a failure since Bertie was a small boy. But after his brother Archie’s death, Daniel is keen for new perspectives. First he first travels to Peshawar to bury Archie, and then finds himself in Canada, avoiding his family and friends back in England. But some bonds are hard to break. Daniel and Bertie’s different experiences of war, although devastating, also bring with them the opportunity for the two to reconnect. If only they can find a way to move on from the past.
Joburg Noir is a collection of writings about memories, legends, loss, jokes, stories, myths and experiences of Johannesburg by 22 gifted and versatile authors. It makes the reader experience present-day Joburg as if one were in the past. The stories seek to understand, reconstruct, reinvent and recover this city space of loss, joy, deprivation, resistance and possibility by revealing its complex dynamics.They are funny, shocking, violent, absurd, strangely tender and memorable. Their lasting resonance lies in the fact that they evoke the joys and traumas of the past and present, making the two co-exist, thereby helping readers to delve into their own memories in search of pictures of their own childhoods and identities.
Ava is sick of online dating. She’s always trusted her own instincts over an algorithm, anyway, and she wants a break from it all. So when she signs up to a semi-silent, anonymous writing retreat in Italy, love is the last thing on her mind. Until she meets a handsome stranger… All she knows is that he’s funny, kind and great in bed. He’s equally smitten, and after a whirlwind affair, they pledge their love without even knowing each other’s real names. But when they return home, reality hits.They’re both driven mad by each other’s weird quirks and annoying habits, from his eccentric family to her terribly behaved dog.As disaster follows disaster, it seems that while they love each other, they just can’t love each other’s lives. Can they overcome their differences to find one life, together?