ON BOOKS AND 2026
So once I started relaxing, I started reading ferociously. In the last two weeks I have been reminded as to why we read, why we must read – fiction and non-fiction – as we move into a 2026 that has already struck us sideways with both local and international politics, leaving the ground shifting like an episode of StrangerThings (a perfect metaphor for the current status quo.)
First I dived into the Asian writers – SusanChoi’s superlative Flashlight is a must-read if you want to understand that geopolitical triangle – Japan, South Korea and North Korea. In Flashlight you have a sprawling novel that covers both geography and family silence, absence and anger. This is a novel that will leave you shocked by what you learn, but it will also touch you. Flashlight is about the loss and secrets of families, stories that struggle to be heard, and so much more. From there I jumped into Madeleine Thien’s The Book of Records – again, another address on migration, this time through a playful but moving lens of time, memory and the future.
Taking reprieve from these stories, I turned back in time to F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby – oh, when words hold their strength over time. That we could write like that, understand the delicate thread that you sew from one word to the next, joining them in a perfect necklace of words. “These were careless people”. How prescient.
A quick return to South Africa and Kopano Matlwa’s powerful Bosadi, a desperate journey into gender based violence in our country.
Summer holidays are the soapy bubble blown into the air by a small child, a bubble in which we float, cogniscent of the bursting that will come. And boy, did it burst. We came back into the new year, with a news cycle that tasted like a bitter bitter cup of burnt coffee. Matlwa’s story highlights the endless challenge for women globally. A perfect segue into the news that artist GabrielleGoliath’s work has been dropped from the Venice Biennale. Those of us who are outraged by the actions of the DSAC Minister (and all those involved in this silencing of an artist) we say – you do not represent us. If you don’t know Goliath’s ongoing work Elegy – and I would ask the Minister whether he has ever seen this Arts StandardBank Artist’s work – her use of audio, visuals, film, is profound, and moving. It reminds us of what it means to be woman and to be human. Gabrielle, we stand behind you, and all the women your work represents globally.
Breathe. Take pause. I’m currently reading The Interpretation of Cats and their Owners by French veterinarian ClaudeBeata. It’s has been an investigation into the mind of my cat Sylvester the Handsome. He couldn’t wait to get his teeth into this book, and responded, leaving a very clear message.
