Independent bookstores are the heartbeat of local literary ecosystems, and their owners are the best guides to the standout South African reads of the year, so Jacana Media reached out to a handful of indie bookshop owners for their 2025 recommendations:

Griffin Shea, Bridge Books

The Chaos Precinct: Johannesburg as a port city by Tanya Zack

It’s not titled The Chaos Precinct for nothing. That part of Joburg is reliably the most congested, the least regulated and the most overwhelming. There are lots of people, traders and food, with all the sights, smells and sounds that go with that. But this book looks beyond chaos to see how the Ethiopian community has transformed a part of the city, building businesses and creating a unique ecosystem. Zack’s research looks at the people who make the community work and shows how much the neighbourhood contributes to the city, its economy and its social fabric.

Kate Rogan, Love Books

Bosadi by Kopano Matlwa

Local fiction needs a lot more love than it gets, and Kopano Matlwa is one of our most talented writers. Kopano does not take the easy way out, though. Her novels are hard-hitting and often shocking, and Bosadi, a story of two scarred women that throws up uncomfortable truths about our society, is no exception. Support local and read this.

The Chaos Precinct: Johannesburg as a port city by Tanya Zack

This book is enlightening, even for most Joburgers, as Zack tells the story of the downtown shopping hub known as The Ethiopian Quarter and how it positions Joburg as a port city. Fascinating stories and stats. This is one of our top sellers of 2025, so for that reason, I love it, too.

Jo Rushby, Ike’s Books

Available Light: Omar Badsha and the Struggle for Change in South Africa by Dan Magaziner
At a time when liberation biographies remain the preserve of the ‘big people’, Available Light delves deep into the life of someone who was happy in the ranks of the foot soldiers and who captured images of ordinary people throughout the apartheid era and beyond. It gives us a different gaze into the anti-apartheid struggle and the wounds, physical and mental, that came with it. A fascinating read of one of SA’s most prolific photographers.

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Ulibambe Lingashoni! A history of Ilanga lase Natal Newspaper, edited by Bongani Ngqulunga
How are public perceptions formed? What was the prevailing sense of the time? How did the working class, Zulu and South African consciousness congeal, contest and contend with each other? Newspapers act as contemporaneous notes, yet so little is written about them. This long-awaited book gives us rare insights into Ilanga’s ways of seeing, their ideologies and their role in not only reflecting but also developing opinion. It is still going, still acting as a loud-hailer and mirror. This edited collection is about the past in the present, about words and worlds that shape who we are and what we could become.

Sewela Langeni, Book Circle Capital

The Comrade’s Wife by Barbara Boswell
This is an unputdownable work of fiction borrowed from reality. It is a political love story that gives us the backstory behind the common news headlines we have seen around corruption in our country. Who are the people behind the headlines and their daily human struggles? And the story does not stop there, but explores the struggles faced by women in the workplace, navigating societal expectations while also shining a light on the beauty of women’s friendship circles and the pivotal role they play in helping women endure the struggles that are life.

Morafe: Person, Family and Nation in Colonial Bechuanaland, 1880s-1950s by Khumisho Moguerane
A work of art, evident in the depth of knowledge and research that went into putting the book together. Moguerane does a good job of transporting us back in time to understand the struggles and joys of black people in the 1880s to 1950s. Through her in-depth study of the Molema family over a number of generations, we understand the value of connectedness and personhood.

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