it's I think possibly my favorite/the "best" (quote-unquote) book I read in 2020, a year that had some stiff competition, including The Dispossessed, Freshwater, and An Unkindness of Ghosts! I've put it on every hypothetical "intro to sci-fi" syllabus I've mocked up since I read it.

I'm positive there are comparable books, but I'm drawing a blank atm on anything else that's doing what Triangulum does with its two timeframes — i.e., late apartheid Ciskei (one of the two Xhosa "homelands") and near-future dystopian South Africa.

best I can do off the top of my head is some partial overlaps, each of which has some vibe similarities (though some are also very different overall): - Lai, Salt Fish Girl (maybe the closest of these?) - Nuttall, Tauhou - Huchu, The Library of the Dead - Owain, The Last Day - Singh, Club Ded

Cheers, that's interesting! stiff competition for sure. I know the Lai (definitely have the tiger flu kicking around here somewhere as well...), Huchu and Singh, will pop the others on the list and move Triangulum up