Six of the best

1. VERY BAD PEOPLE: THE INSIDE STORY OF THE FIGHT AGAINST THE WORLD’S NETWORK OF CORRUPTION

Patrick Alley

Patrick Alley is the co-founder of Global Witness, one of the world’s leading investigative organisations, which chases down a dizzying array of arms traffickers, warlords, mega con men, and blood-diamond dealers — the vile and the villainous — and takes on the shadow networks that enable them. More riveting than any fiction.

(Octopus)

2. BRAZEN: MY UNORTHODOX JOURNEY FROM LONG SLEEVES TO LINGERIE

Julia Haart

The subtitle says it all: this is the astonishing story of how a woman left her ultra-conservative Jewish community in New York and founded a fashion empire. The basis for the Netflix series My Unorthodox Life, Haart’s story goes way deeper into her experiences. It’s a cry to women everywhere to find their freedom. And their lacy lingerie.

(Endeavour)

3. THE CANDY HOUSE

Jennifer Egan

Jennifer Egan’s follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad has been worth the wait. She brings back some of the characters from that landmark book, but now in a very changed world. Egan is brilliant at examining how the internet and social media have refashioned us. You’ll be thinking about this audacious story long after you put it down.

(Scribner)

4. BETTER CHOICES: ENSURING SOUTH AFRICA’S FUTURE

Edited by Greg Mills, Mcebisi Jonas, Haroon Bhorat, and Ray Hartley

Some of South Africa’s top thinkers and observers outline sit-up-and-think solutions to overwhelming problems that, if implemented, could halt the country’s downward trajectory. Each chapter ends with three critical actions to fix problematic areas.

(Picador Africa)

5. AN UNUSUAL GRIEF

Yewande Omotoso

Yewande Omotoso is settling in as one of Africa’s stellar writers. Her third outing takes place in Joburg, where distraught mother Mojisola is trying to find answers to her daughter Yinka’s suicide. As she burrows into Yinka’s life she starts to shed the layers and labels of her own life, to emerge new and resolute. A wise and affecting novel.

(Cassava Republic)

6. ELON MUSK: RISKING IT ALL

Michael Vlismas

Author and sports broadcaster Michael Vlismas attended the same school as Elon Musk and is well placed to drill into the billionaire’s early life. He then widens the lens to take in Musk’s astounding business ambitions in the US, showing a man “Utterly uncowed by risk who is driven to preserve the optimism he sees in humanity”.

(Jonathan Ball Publishers)

• From the June edition of Wanted, 2022.