Top reads of 2015

Sunday Times book reviewers look back at 2015 and name their books of the year.

Ben Williams, Books Editor

My find of the year is Parker Bilal, which is the name the Anglo-Sudanese author Jamal Majoub uses when he writes crime fiction. His detective hero, Makana — an expat Sudanese living in Cairo who lacks a first name — shines light in dark Cairene places in The Burning Gates (Bloomsbury, R305). And if readers missed Henrietta Rose-Innes’s Green

Lion (Umuzi, R240) or Rehana Rossouw’s What Will People Say? (Jacana, R195), they’d best not let 2015 expire without acquainting themselves with these two fine books.

Jennifer Platt

Pleasantville, Attica Locke (Profile Books, R320). A political thriller set in the late ’90s in an affluent African-American town in Texas. Locke makes one nostalgic about the past and hopeless about the future. Modern Romance, Aziz Ansari (Penguin Random House, R365). Funny and filled with info to impress friends over drinks, like the fact that two billion swipes happen on Tinder every day.

Michele Magwood

The Magistrate of Gower, Claire Robertson, (Umuzi, R230). Subtle, absorbing, affecting. Robertson is in a league of her own. 101 Detectives, Ivan Vladislavic, (Umuzi, R220). Mordantly funny, acutely perceptive and exquisitely styled, this collection of short stories is a definitive showcase of Vladislavic’s talents. From Venice to Istanbul, Rick Stein (Penguin Random House, R525). A glorious mix of recipes, images and anecdotes from the Eastern Mediterranean.

Samantha Gibb

Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery, Sally Andrew (Umuzi, R220). The quintessential feel-good SA whodunit, complete with recipes and advice. A must read.

Aubrey Paton

Adeline, Norah Vincent (Little, Brown, R310). You don’t have to like Virginia Woolf or the Bloomsbury Group to be enthralled by this fictional biography delivered in an elegant pastiche of Woolf’s own style.

Diane Awerbuck

Jumani Clark’s short story, “Lift Club”, in the Incredible Journey anthology (Mercury, R190) is fantastic: full of detail that starts off in a familiar place and ends up in the underworld. Let Me Be Frank with You, Richard Ford (Bloomsbury, R280). Ford is vital; self-aware but not self-conscious. Florence and Watson and the Sugarbush Mouse, Dani Bischoff, Rob van Vuuren, illustrated by Lauren Fowler-Kierman (www.lostisaplacetoo.com, R165). Local, beautiful and meaningful.

Steven Sidley

Quicksand by Steven Totlz (Hodder & Stoughton, R325). A look at the unbroken catastrophe of a life of one hapless loser; funny, poignant and sizzling with originality. All Involved by Ryan Gattis (Picador, R240). An LA-set story about an event among Latino gangs during the Rodney King riots. One Mid-Life

Crisis and a Speedo, Darryl Bristow Bovey (Zebra Press, R180). Moving, funny and clever.

Tiah Beautement

Cat Hellisen turns an old fairytale on its head with The Beastkeeper (Henry Holt & Company, Inc, R160 on loot.co.za) and it’s been a hit with my young writers club. Jenny Lawson’s memoir Furiously Happy (Pan Macmillan, R275) is hilarious and contains the best description of mental illness I’ve read. Raj Kamal Jha’s surreal novel She Will Build

Him a City (Bloomsbury, R250) is unforgettable in its complexity, ingenuity and beauty.

Ekow Duker

Chigozie Obioma’s

The Fishermen (Faber Factory Plus, R275). This haunting tale is deserving of its Man Booker 2015 nomination. H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald (Penguin Random House, R315). I listened to the audio book during my commute by train into Joburg. Macdonald’s speaking voice (she narrates the story) is as beautiful as her literary one.

Yvonne Fontyn

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler (Serpent’s Tale, R290). The story leads you to a great philosophical dilemma.

Sweet Caress, William Boyd (Bloomsbury, R320). Fiction and nonfiction are intertwined to tell the story of photographer Amory Clay, who covered World War 2 and the Vietnam War. An inspiring chronicle of a woman in an eventful era. The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan (Random House, R295). A riveting account of Australian prisoners of war in Burma.

Margaret von Klemperer

What Will People Say?, Rehana Rossouw. Rossouw delivers humour, happiness and tragedy in her story of a family’s struggle to survive on the Cape Flats. The Fetch, Finuala Dowling (Kwela, R220). A sparkling comedy of manners, but under the froth there are serious issues, and it is Dowling’s sensitive handling of them that makes this such a lovely book. H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald. A non-fiction triumph.

Russell Clarke

Guantánamo Diary, Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Canongate, R295). America’s shameful incarceration of terrorism suspects brought to life. The Magistrate of Gower, Claire Robertson. The Anglo-Boer war and the rise of Afrikaner nationalism appear at the centre of this elegant, finely-filigreed novel.

William Saunderson-Meyer

Tightrope, Simon Mawer (Little, Brown, R310). A spy thriller that delves beyond the easy conventions of the genre. The Thing of

Darkness, Harry Bingham (Orion, R310). The disturbed, devious and brilliant Fiona Griffiths is the most fascinating police detective since Lisbeth Salander. The Root of All

Evil, Roberto Constantini (Quercus, R335). Set in Italian-controlled Libya on the eve of independence, Constantini’s second novel in the Evil trilogy is a masterful portrayal of guilt and atonement.

Annetjie van Wynegaard

The Raft, Fred Strydom (Umuzi, R250). Strydom blurs genre lines and leaves you with a story that lingers in the back of your mind. Wasted, Mark Winkler (Kwela, R220). There’s a moment in the book that punches you in the gut and makes you realise, wow, this guy can write. One of Us, Åsne Seierstad (Little, Brown, R335). A raw, in-depth account of the massacre that took place in Norway in 2011, when Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people, 69 of them children.

David Pike

John Boyne’s agonising novel confronting child abuse in the Irish Catholic Church, A History of Loneliness (Black Swan, R146 on loot.co.za), was mesmerising. Simon Mawer’s The Girl Who Fell from the Sky (Little, Brown, R220) and its

sequel Tightrope would challenge even le Carré.

Fiona Snyckers

The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B, Teresa Toten (Walker Books, R169). My young adult read of the year. It is written with a warmth, compassion and sincerity that are rare in any genre. The Fetch, Finuala Dowling. Comparisons with Jane Austen are not misplaced. Green Lion, Henrietta Rose-Innes. Rose-Innes goes from strength to strength, refining her craft with each new book.

Craig Higginson

Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life, Jonathan Bate (William Collins Publishing, R572 on loot.co.za). A rigorous examination of a poet whose life attracted more scandal than any other English poet since Lord Byron. John le Carré: The Biography, Adam Sisman (Bloomsbury, R385). David Cornwell, aka le Carré, emerges as elliptical, brilliant and fundamentally humane. Reunion, Fred Uhlman (The Harvill Press, R157 on loot.co.za). I haven’t been so moved by a piece of fiction in ages.

Hamilton Wende

Eugene De Kock, Anemari Jansen (Tafelberg, R250). A gripping reminder of how twisted apartheid was and how deeply it affected our society. Another Man’s

War, Barnaby Philips (Oneworld, R215). A fascinating look at the West Africans who fought for Britain against the Japanese in Burma during World War 2. An account of an almost forgotten campaign. Jan Smuts: Unafraid of Greatness, Richard Steyn (Jonathan Ball, R250). This is the book to read on Jan Smuts.

Nick Mulgrew

The Seed Thief, Jacqui L’Ange (Umuzi, R220). A poetry-infused whirlwind of Southern Hemisphere mysticism and botanical espionage. An understated triumph.

Reliquaria, RN Villanueva (University of Nebraska Press, R247 on loot.co.za). The FilipinoAmerican’s debut collection is the best book of poems I’ve read for a couple years.

Kholofelo Maenetsha

Away from the Dead, Karen Jennings (Holland Park Press, R160). This collection of short stories stands out not only because of Jennings’s rich and poignant writing, but also for how she portrayed the chilling realities of those left behind as death lingers and finds its place within us.

Kate Sidley

What Will People Say?, Rehana Rossouw. I loved this book for its gritty, descriptive language and poignant evocation of life on the Cape Flats. On the Move by Dr Oliver Sacks (Macmillan, R299). A brilliant polymath with consuming enthusiasms and odd eccentricities. Dept. of

Speculation by Jenny Offill (Granta Books, R160 on loot.co.za). The narrator is frazzled by motherhood, the dissolution of her marriage, and her struggles to be a writer.

Sally Partridge

Trigger Warning, Neil Gaiman (Headline, R310). A strange assortment of stories by one of the world’s greatest fantasists. Three Moments of an Explosion, China Mieville (Del Rey Books, R390 on loot.co.za). Exquisitely crafted, reflecting the skill of a master of the written word. Vanessa and

Her Sister, Priya Parmar (Bloomsbury, R279). A sumptuous read that depicts the tempestuous relationship between sisters Virginia (Woolf) and Vanessa Stephen, who were at the centre of the Bloomsbury Group.

Zoe Hinis

My Fight Your Fight, Ronda Rousey (Century, R281 on loot.co.za). Rousey, the martial artist cage fighter, shares hard-won lessons in an honest and unapologetic voice. The Art of Asking or How I Learned to Stop

Worrying and Let People Help, Amanda Palmer (Little, Brown, R360). The kind of book I wish I’d read as a teen. Just take the doughnuts! Mrs. Hemingway, Naomi Wood (Picador, R250). The story of the four women who wanted to be Mrs H.

Helené Prinsloo

The characters from The

Fetch by Finuala Dowling haunted my dreams. The story led me to a garden cottage in the deep south where I kept waiting to happen upon someone like William. Piggy Boy’s Blues, Nakhane Touré (Blackbird, R195). Touré made me feel like I was reading both a familiar and utterly foreign story at the same time.

Pearl Boshomane

The Strange Library, Haruki Murakami (Harvill Secker, R285). Any book lover adores that new book smell, but this book will please more than your olfactory senses: it’s a feast for the eyes, too. Illustrated by Suzanne Dean, it is a beauty from cover to cover. The story is just as beautiful, turning an old library into a place of adventure and danger.

Noluthando Ncube

Mistborn Trilogy: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of

Ages, Brandon Sanderson (Gollanz box set, R544 on loot.co.za). Sanderson delivers something new — if you like fantasy with minimum violence, excellent world-building and superb character development.

Tinyiko Maluleke

Memoirs of a Born Free: Reflections on the Rainbow

Nation, Malaika wa Azania (Jacana, R175). Anyone who read this heartfelt book, whose author was 22 at the time of writing, would not have been surprised by the #RhodesMustFall, #OpenStellenbosch and #FeesMustFall movements. The Book of Forgiving: The fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and our World, Desmond and Mpho Tutu (HarperCollins, R210). Father and daughter use personal stories to fashion a philosophy of forgiveness.

Girl at War, Sara Novic (Little,

Brown, R305). What is the most authentic perspective from which to look at war? Through the eyes and experiences of a 10year-old girl caught up in it.

Jacqui L’Ange

George Monbiot’s treatise on rewilding ourselves and our landscapes, Feral (Penguin, R208 on loot.co.za), is timeous and evocative. I couldn’t read another book for a month after Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All

Completely Beside Ourselves. Trust me: just dive in. Sindiwe Magona makes the political intensely personal in Chasing the

Tails of My Father’s Cattle (Seriti sa Sechaba, R249), a magical story of how one family defies both tradition and modernity to take care of their own.

Jennifer Malec

Green Lion, Henrietta Rose-Innes’s fourth book, is masterful. Ivan Vladislavic’s 101

Detectives is witty, enthralling and pleasurably disorientating. But my book of the year is The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma. It’s deceptively simple — although political undertones are there for you if you need them — and wholly engrossing.

Nikki Temkin

H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald. A captivating meditation on grief. A God in Ruins, Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, R285). The prequel to the wonderful Life After Life, with Atkinson’s unique turn of phrase and unforgettable characters. Vanessa and Her Sister, Priya Parmar. Jealousy, intrigue, madness and sexual awakening characterise this fascinating story of Virginia and Vanessa.

Bruce Dennill

Why You Were Taken, JT Lawrence (PULP Books, R332 on loot.co.za). Thrilling sci-fi. My Grandmother Sends Her Regards And

Apologises, Fredrik Backman (Hodder & Stoughton, R300). The narrative is clever and creative, but its real power is in the way it highlights the importance of storytelling in helping people process grief, dreams, ambition and relationships.

101 Detectives, Ivan Vladislavic. The stories are bewildering in their refusal to provide a clear resolution, but this is to their credit, in that each leaves a mystery to be solved. Homeless Wanderers: Movement and mental illness in the Cape Colony in the Nineteenth Century by Sally Swartz (UCT Press, R245). Swartz’s portrait of lunatic asylums is an interdisciplinary feat. The Good Story: Exchanges on truth, fiction and psychotherapy by JM Coetzee and Arabella Kurtz (Penguin Random House, R285). There is a tension between Coetzee and psychoanalyst Kurtz, which hinges on their differing conceptions of truth.

Rustum Kozain

Robert McLiam Wilson’s Ripley Bogle (Minerva, R186 on loot.co.za). Ripley ends up wandering the streets of London. It’s

Ulysses updated for Thatcher’s UK. Damon Galgut’s Arctic Summer (Umuzi, R180) is a remarkable novel. Galgut has a fine hand when it comes to turning words we see every day into sentences that shimmer.

Tymon Smith

Sophy Kohler

A Brief History of Seven Killings, Marlon James (Oneworld, R230). Loosely focused around the assassination attempt on Bob Marley in 1976. Earning its author comparisons with everyone from Faulkner to Tarantino, this year’s Man Booker winner gives you faith in the power of literature.