Allan Kolski Horwitz

There are two birds at my window One of wood one of stonegreen stone of the rocks by the rivershone to shine with its depthshard wood that grows in the mountain earthscented with wind and dust and rainthe birds at my window sing day and night

This collection contains five plays by the South African writer Allan Horwitz: The Pump Room; Comrade Babble; Boykie and Girlie; Jericho; and Book Marks. The plays explore the contradictions and dreams of the new and old South Africa, as well as universal themes that include the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other moral dilemmas.

Short stories from a master of the form, this collection scrapes away superficial assumptions and brings to life a multitude of characters whose concerns have dominated post-1994 South Africa but are in many respects timeless; in particular, they probe the limitations of middle class norms and blinkered identities and grapple with the diverse experiences of the many millions living on the margins of privileged ghettoes.Mixing satire with brutal realism, Kolski Horwitz dissects South African society with a keen and insightful eye.

These poems cover many different states of mind and situations and are deeply rooted in South Africa but also travel to other continents. A strong historical consciousness is mixed with different examples of violence and dispossession as well as an awareness of subconscious associations so that the political and the surreal intermingle - the brutalities of war and exploitation are softened by the tenderness of love. Stylistically inventive, it explores news forms while striving for an overall musicality.

The ten stories in Un/common Ground do, indeed, cover the unusual and generally unwritten about in South Africa with respect to both themes and styles. They range from adult love entanglements to the difficulties of children caught in the dissolution of families; from white supremacist racial murders to utopian societies of the 26th century; from drug induced hallucinations and trade in human body parts to the problems of creating a new identity for anti-apartheid activists faced by a radically changed world order.

This second compilation of work by The Botsotso Jesters has a similar structure to the first but the landscape format of the book with its intensive graphic drawings, doodles, scripts and patterns, and insightful preface by Donald Parenzee, makes it a worthy sequel. Of interest is the carry through of certain themes and styles but also the new turns and tones that justify fresh attention.