Dear President Ramaphosa,

To the pencil pusher in the Union Buildings who came up with the idea for your new book club, a word of kudos. Book clubs are the in thing: you can’t scroll through a timeline for 10 seconds before one pops up, presenting a grinning author and their latest tome, conferring erudition upon all who tap the Like button or comment with a smiley face that has hearts bursting out of its eyes.

These clubs are a bandwagon that – unlike, say, donations from heavily-compromised Strugglistas, or xenophobic restrictions on foreign businesses – we can all happily jump on. Not least because, your colleagues in Treasury’s austerity measures notwithstanding, the government can very likely afford good wine. Wine is an essential component of any book club, as you’ll no doubt have been informed. This is not to imply for one moment that any ulterior motives are at play in your administration.

I’m sure there is a great clamouring in your ear from authors and publishers far and wide, jostling like punters at the races with their hot tips for the books your club should back. Never one to stand aside from the fray when it comes to suggesting who should read what, here are my own Top Five Books for Cyril’s Reading Circle.

1. The freshly-published, crisp and bittersweet Red Apple Dreams and Other Stories by Siphiwo Mahala, who counts as one of South Africa’s top short story writers and is a bona fide literary maven, with bylines across academia, theatre and fiction. The thing about this book, apart from its author’s and contributors’ pedigrees, is that it is independently published. Supporting it will not only make a literary statement, but also an economic one: you’ll help encourage the alternative publishing value chain that’s spreading across SA like wildfire. (Readers, want your own copy? Write to [email protected].)

2. Our Words, Our Worlds: Writing on Black South African Women Poets, 2000–2018, edited by Makhosazana Xaba. If ever there was a time to forward the voices of black women in the national literary conversation, it’s now. This book shows how black women poets have reshaped the landscape of our letters since the turn of the century. Time for some official acknowledgement, don’t you think?

3. Travellers by Helon Habila. Not only would it be the height of tact to include a Nigerian on your list, given the ill-treatment that Habila’s compatriots endure in South Africa, but those in your club pre-disposed to bigotry toward foreigners (do you think Herman Mashaba has joined? Perhaps under a pseudonym?) would learn a thing or two about what it’s like, living as a stranger in a strange land. Want to know more? Here’s a great review.

4. Permanent Record by Edward Snowden. I’m sure you’re as eager to demonstrate your respect for South Africa’s courts as any member of Cabinet, past or present (*cough* Trevor Manuel). What better way than by applauding the High Court decision striking down mass surveillance in South Africa and getting cosy with the father of the anti-surveillance movement himself? Snowden might even Skype in for a book club kuier. Don’t tell the Americans.

5. Eish, we’ve noticed that you included Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist in your initial selection (readers: find the complete list, which laudably also has the likes of Elinor Sisulu, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Gcina Mhlophe, Noël Mostert and Zakes Mda on it, here), so we thought a minor course correction was called for, in terms of international fiction. (Coelho’s just so, well, over-exposed.) Lessee… a fable… a classic… but with more of an African bent… perhaps including a caution or two on the dangers of Western imperialism and domestic tyranny alike… throw in a spicy title that will raise eyebrows among the electorate, who will then laud you for your sly acknowledgment of the corrupting temptations of power… I’ve got it! Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote by Ahmadou Kourouma. Can’t go wrong.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on these suggestions when you get a gap from fending off the various forces of darkness that threaten SA. Better yet, spend the gap reading.

Comradely yours in books

Ben

PS – I can’t resist including a sixth suggestion, in the form of Daily Maverick’s own We Have a Gamechanger: A Decade of Daily Maverick, out shortly. What corruption-busting president wouldn’t want to support an organisation that just won a Global Shining Light award for its courageous reporting on State Capture? I certainly can’t think of any. ML

Ben Williams is the publisher of The Johannesburg Review of Books.