Books by Daniel Hahn (translator)
“This book is brilliant. It’s set during the time when Angola was getting its independence. One woman locks herself in a room and then she looks outside at the world as she meditates on the past, on the present, and on the future. That’s the plot, but the way it is written, in a wonderful stream of consciousness, you will not believe. And what she does is she plants vegetables on the balcony. She never goes out of the room. She never goes anywhere. She’s just waiting for everything to subside…She suspects she’s not going to make it. You are rooting for her, but she does not care if she’s going to make it or not. She’s okay with whatever happens, which is where the ‘oblivion’ in the title comes from, I think.” Read more...
The Best African Contemporary Writing
Mphuthumi Ntabeni, Novelist
Interviews where books by Daniel Hahn (translator) were recommended
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1
Season of Migration to the North
by Tayeb Salih -
2
The Land Is Ours: Black Lawyers and the Birth of Constitutionalism in South Africa
by Tembeka Ngcukaitobi -
3
Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa
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4
A Library to Flee
by Etienne van Heerden -
5
A General Theory of Oblivion
by Daniel Hahn (translator) & José Eduardo Agualusa
The Best African Contemporary Writing, recommended by Mphuthumi Ntabeni
The Best African Contemporary Writing, recommended by Mphuthumi Ntabeni
The emphasis in new African writing is away from politics towards how the individual responds to events, says South African novelist Mphuthumi Ntabeni, author of The Broken River Tent and The Wanderers. He picks out five outstanding books of African writing, including novels that paved the way for new genres, a book of short stories from across Africa, and a work of nonfiction that he recommends to “anybody who wants to know what is happening in South Africa.”
