Did you know that Tove Jansson wrote and illustrated her Moomin books and stories from start to finish? Yes, she did. While I’m not comparing myself to her, I too am almost a sole creator, hands-on from conception to the finished book. The reasons are twofold: practicality and creative pleasure. There’s a deep sense of fulfillment that comes with holding the final product and knowing I created it.
Still, as independent authors, we don’t talk much about the exhaustion that comes with wearing so many hats. My newsletter readers have heard me reflect on this already. I took July off, not because there was nothing more to do, but because there would always be more to do. I had to rest. And now, I’m slowing resurfacing.
The Joy of Being a Reader Again
One of the ways I replenish myself is by disappearing into the pages of a good book. There is a particular happiness in losing myself in stories, especially after living in production mode for so long. For me, and always, summer reading is not about conquering a TBR list. Rather it’s about companionship, discovery and restoration.
One quality connected the books I’ve finished through a mixture of reading and listening so far this summer: each, in its own way, made me feel seen—sometimes in ways I have not always been able to explain to others.
Below are four novels whose characters have stayed with me long after reading.
Five words about Bergling’s book: Quiet fury demanding full attention.
Five words about van der Riet’s book: Unraveling, disguised as keeping lists.
Akinmade Åkerström’s novel also has a sequel, Everything Is Not Enough, which I found equally compelling. Riley’s is the third book in an engrossing series, and it was released at the end of June.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know by now that poetry is my first love. So, I was overjoyed when my poet friend, Rajani Radhakrishnan, also released her poetic memoir, No Way Home, this June.
Five words about Radhakrishnan’s book: Vulnerability transformed into devastating beauty.
The Rise of Literary Tourism
Though the term literary tourism is fairly new, books have ignited wanderlust in writers and readers alike for centuries. The journey begins with a book that teaches us how to see a place. A story makes a place feel more intimate than conventional travel guides do.
Nowadays, I feel like a tourist myself when I visit home. A lot is different, yet much remains the same. Still, rather than a tourist’s perspective, my reading of South African literature is rooted in the relationship between memory and place. It’s an act of returning.
Armchair Travel: Three Novels Set in the Eastern Cape, SA
Since physical travel can be expensive and not accessible to everyone, armchair travel is a wonderful alternative. Through books, we can explore unfamiliar territories, historical periods, and different languages, connecting with people from anywhere while in the comfort of our homes. So today I invite you along to explore my world.
1. The Heart of Redness — Zakes Mda
The novel connects history, myth, village politics, environmental conflict, and competing ideas of progress into the conversation.
Here’s what it brings to your armchair travel: Qolora, the Wild Coast, Xhosa history and a community divided over what development should mean.
2. Decima — Eben Venter
Described as a blend of auto-fiction, animal fable, mystery and scientific inquiry, it centres on a black rhinoceros cow while weaving together the lives of conservationists, poachers, and others drawn into the rhino’s endangered world.
Here’s what it brings to your armchair travel: the province’s veld, wildlife and conservation, along with the violence and moral complexity surrounding rhino poaching.
3. All the Saints — Wesley Roodt
This fresh novel carries us into the charged world of a prestigious school, where sport, tradition and school pride shape how young men learn to belong—and what they feel compelled to hide.
Here’s what it brings to your armchair travel: Gqeberha’s gale-force winds, rugby fields and the enclosed world of an elite boys’ school, where gees, masculinity and the struggle to belong shape everyday life.
These novels do not offer a single portrait of the Eastern Cape. Instead, they are literary doorways that take us from the coastal village of Qolorha to the province’s wildlife reserves and the enclosed world of an elite boys’ school, revealing a landscape shaped by history, conservation, privilege, masculinity, belonging and change.
Of course, my own Distorted Is The View with 1980s setting, contributes an additional time period, demographic, and another part of the province to the journey. By the way, Jane van der Riet is also a South African author, though her book (above) is set in Western Cape.
This all is part of what literary travel can offer: not simply the illusion of having visited a place, but a deeper awareness of the many lives and histories held within it.
Now, your turn. 🙂 Literary tourism encompasses various activities; which do you take part in? Or which place have you travelled to through a book, even if you have never visited it in person?
PS: The feature image is a throwback photo from last year’s trip to Andorra.
