Nkosinathi Sithole – författare

When Father Gumede, known as Priest, loses his job as a farmhand, he realises he can’t afford to love his neighbour as he does himself. Despondent and enraged, Priest cuts off all ties to the church and politics, determined to make a living – at whatever cost. It will take a strange story written by his son Sandile – a comical, terrifying and prophetic tale in which the downtrodden rise up to march on the wealth of a neighbouring suburb – to show Priest the hope and humanity inherent in the human spirit. Beautifully poetic, funny and highly relevant, Nkosinathi Sithole’s debut novel highlights the ongoing plight of many rural South Africans and the power of a community working together to bring about change.

When Father Gumede, known as Priest, loses his job as a farmhand, he realises he can’t afford to love his neighbour as he does himself. Despondent and enraged, Priest cuts off all ties to the church and politics, determined to make a living – at whatever cost. It will take a strange story written by his son Sandile – a comical, terrifying and prophetic tale in which the downtrodden rise up to march on the wealth of a neighbouring suburb – to show Priest the hope and humanity inherent in the human spirit. Beautifully poetic, funny and highly relevant, Nkosinathi Sithole’s debut novel highlights the ongoing plight of many rural South Africans and the power of a community working together to bring about change.

This book was conceptualised prior to the global reckoning with 'this mortal body' unleashed by the Covid pandemic. It is an attempt to (re)turn attention to the body as that through which so much of our humanness is experienced, mediated, enjoyed, suffered, understood and expressed. But Covid forcibly returned us to the body in ways that none of us could ever have imagined. Perhaps Notes from the Body could not be more timely. The variety of possible bodies for which the contributors seek a voice reminds us of the multiple ways in which we may be human. Through various creative forms, the pieces in this volume present the body as, among other things: sick, violated, racialised, healed, performing, ageing, (multiply) gendered, spiritual, abused, 'disabled', broken, sexual, animalised, medical, controlled, interrupted, failing, rejected and abject. Several themes recur: humanisation and dehumanisation; the loss or recovery of agency; dignity and humiliation; violation of the bounds of self; the integrity or wholeness of the body; the body's betrayal; and mourning or celebrating the body.