We want to inform you that the NB Publishers website will be shutting down soon. All our content, resources, and updates will be moving to www.jonathanball.co.za.

Multitudes

Mphuthumi Ntabeni

ISBN:

9780795711572

Publisher:

Kwela

Date Released:

September 2026

Price (incl. VAT):

R 340.00

Format:

Soft cover, 288pp


About this book:

I sip on the wine and taste fear in its warmth. I feel the movements of ancestral imidudo, intlombe, within me, trying to drive the darkness back . . .

Phila Maseti is estranged from his daughters by his late Scottish wife and is adrift. He accepts a commission to write the biography of the journalist Bloke Modisane, but as he pieces together the restless life of this great literary voice, he finds that it mirrors his own unravelling.
He moves between Cape Town and Europe, tracing the footsteps of his dispossessed peoples who once sought justice in a language not their own. In his journey from past to present, Phila carries ancestors, ghosts of former selves and the grief of his wife’s death. The slow return of his daughters also brings the challenge of teaching them about culture and identity in a country still wrestling with its own history. 
Phila is steadied only by his new partner, Kyuri – whose own spiritual inheritance has been shaped by Asian migrations, unhealthy silences, and colonial history. Together, they attempt to build a life attentive to memory without becoming imprisoned by it.

Multitudes is in conversation with Ntabeni’s debut novel, The Broken River Tent, in reconciling the many lives we inherit.
 

RELATED BOOKS

Mermaid Fillet

Mia Arderne

Hell of a Country

David Cornwell

Ashes of Euphoria

Jean-Paul Willemse

Love Marry Kill

Zukiswa Wanner

Making A Killing

Bonnie Espie

The Wildest Beauty

Michiel Heyns

The Resurrection

Sihle Qwabe

Paradise in Gaza

Niq Mhlongo

Crimson Sands

Jeremy Vearey

Why Am I Like This?

Qaanitah Hunter

Red Tide

Irma Venter, Karin Schimke

Sunshine and Shadows

Busisekile Khumalo

Still Breathing

Marita van der Vyver, Annelize Visser

A Library to Flee

Etienne van Heerden

A Soft Landing

Wisani Mushwana

The Queer Book of Revelation

Siya Khumalo

Medusa (English)

Rudie van Rensburg

The City is Mine

Niq Mhlongo

Three Echoes

Marina Auer

How to Stop Being a Naai

Mia Arderne

A Love that Heals

Cathrine Phiri

I Did Not Die

Tebello Mzamo

If You Save Me

Lisa-Anne Julien

Double Edged

Marina Auer

Darlings of Durban

Shafinaaz Hassim

If The Dead Could Talk

Juliette Mnqeta

The Child

Alistair Mackay

Haram

Zubayr Charles

Man Down

Irma Venter, Karin Schimke

It Doesn't Have to Be This Way

Alistair Mackay

The Man Who Loved Crocodile Tamers

Finuala Dowling

Piranha

Rudie van Rensburg, Karin Schimke

Of Fathers and Fugitives

SJ Naudé, Michiel Heyns

A Love that Hurts

Cathrine Phiri

Not Another Samoosa Run!

Nadia Cassim

Lifting The Lid

Bonnie Espie

A Remedy For Death

Sarah Naidoo

The Burfee Seller's Daughters

Shafinaaz Hassim

The Heart Is the Size of a Fist

P.P. Fourie

Nine Hours

Lukhanyo Sikwebu

Raiders

Rudie van Rensburg

Fabrics of Love

Lebo Mazibuko

Wisani and the Bafokeng Brothers

Thandi Moagi

Rubies and Rain

Busisekile Khumalo

Single Minded

Marina Auer

Bantu Knots

Lebo Mazibuko

What's Wrong With June?

Qarnita Loxton

Suitcase of Memory

A'Eysha Kassiem

In the Midst of It All

Thabile Shange

Being Dianne

Qarnita Loxton