The Dogs of Vivo by Sven Axelrad
If you haven’t discovered Axelrad yet, you’re missing out on a highly original new voice in South African literature. Achingly cool and charming, Axelrad’s writing is clever and marvellously fanciful. He braids serious philosophy with playfulness and affection for his characters. This latest novel is again set in the imaginary town of Vivo, where three friends will be tested by a menacing stranger.
Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old by Mary Beard
The esteemed classicist — one of the surprise breakout stars of recent popular culture — poses the question: what is the point of ancient classics and why should we bother about what people did thousands of years ago? This book more than answers that question, packing the pages with interesting facts (Greek statues were brightly painted, not gleaming white like they are today) and with the ideas of thinkers, writers, generals, architects and so on whose influence is still very much alive.
On the Sponge Islands by Julia Martin
Subtitled Loss and Restoration in the Aegean, this fascinating story takes us to the Greek islands of the Dodecanese. Martin, a fine and elegant writer, chronicles her journey through the five islands, studying the cultural and ecological legacy of sponge diving. She finds that, though the islands bear the scars of war, human and ecological, the Aegean is dazzling and alive.
Land by Maggie O’Farrell
Since the movie Hamnet swept the world earlier this year, more people have discovered the author of the book on which it is based, supernova O’Farrell. Her latest novel, coming out this month, is set in Ireland in the years before and after the Great Hunger. According to her publisher, it is “as spellbinding and varied as the landscape that inspired it”. No doubt it will be enthralling.
Kin by Tayari Jones
Annie and Niecy are “cradle friends” from a small town in Louisiana, and both happen to be motherless, but they are destined to lead starkly different lives. One makes her way to college, joins a sisterhood of powerfully connected black women, and marries into a wealthy family, while the other can never shake off her mother’s abandonment and searches for her relentlessly. Kin is a rich examination of mothers and daughters, deep-set friendships, and the lives of women in the Jim Crow South.
The Invisible People: How a Quarter of Humanity Can Thrive in Africa by 2050 by Phuthuma Nhleko
How can 2.5-billion Africans create viable economies in the coming decades?
Nhleko, former CEO of MTN, challenges the stereotypes surrounding Africa and lays out a convincing vision for a thriving, prosperous future. He bases this renaissance on three pillars: identity; new economic models; and an expansion of the continent’s geopolitical influence. Bound to be a bestseller.
The Light Remains by Samantha Keller
A tender, contemporary plaasroman set in the Lowveld in the 1960s. Strong on atmosphere, it’s an easy, satisfying read that examines family ties and loyalty and obligations that are bred in the bone.
From the June issue of Wanted, 2026
