Collector’s memory

● Jonny Steinberg’s latest book, One Day in Bethlehem, is published by Jonathan Ball (R270).

● His four previous SA-based books — Midlands, The Number, ThreeLetter Plague, and A Man of Good Hope — have simultaneously been republished in new paperback editions (R195 each) to coincide with the release of the new book.

● A Man of Good Hope, first published in 2014, tells the story of Somalia-born Asad Abdullahi, a survivor of more calamities than most people ever dream of facing, including the 2008 xenophobic attacks in Cape Town. In that chapter, Steinberg writes: “Drawing their blood becomes a fashion. It starts because it is possible, and it keeps happening because nobody stops it. During those weeks in May, the fashion became a carnival. One hundred thousand people were chased from their homes. When the last one had left, the crowds went home.

“And then they started coming back, first the bravest, then the more cautious. They began selling again. People shook their hands and said sorry. And the game resumed.”