MULTITUDES

286pp., paperback, Kwela, Cape Town, 2026

ISBN: 9780795711572

Phila Maseti, introduced in Ntabeni's 2018 novel, The Broken River Tent, is older now, and struggling with the death of his Scottish wife and estrangement from his daughters. When he agrees to write the biography of South African journalist Bloke Modisane, he discovers that Modisane's life mirrors his own unravelling, and is forced to grapple with questions around family history, cultural inheritance and belonging, and how to build a life attentive to memory without becoming imprisoned by it.

Political commentator and writer Mphuthumi Ntabeni lives in Cape Town. His novel, The Broken River Tent, won the 2019 University of Johannesburg Debut Prize. His second novel, The Wanderers, was published in 2021.