Ivan Vladislavic
Agent: Isobel Dixon
Assistant: Finlay Charlesworth
Biography: Ivan Vladislavić was born in Pretoria in 1957 and lives in Johannesburg. His books include the novels THE DISTANCE, THE RESTLESS SUPERMARKET, THE EXPLODED VIEW and DOUBLE NEGATIVE, and the story collections 101 DETECTIVES and FLASHBACK HOTEL. In 2006, he published PORTRAIT WITH KEYS, a sequence of documentary texts on Johannesburg. He has edited books on architecture and art, and sometimes works with artists and photographers. TJ/DOUBLE NEGATIVE, a joint project with photographer David Goldblatt, received the 2011 Kraszna-Krausz Award for best photography book.
His work has also won the Sunday Times Fiction Prize, the Alan Paton Award, the University of Johannesburg Prize and Yale University’s Windham-Campbell Prize for fiction. He is a Distinguished Professor in the Creative Writing Department at Wits University.
‘One of the most imaginative minds at work in South African literature today.’ – André Brink
‘Ivan Vladislavić is the most significant writer in South Africa today.’ – Focus on Africa
‘One of South Africa's most finely tuned observers’ — Ted Hodgkinson, The Times Literary Supplement
THE NEAR NORTH
Literary non-fiction, 264 pages
Picador SA, March 2024
The Near North is a vivid account of life in Johannesburg in times of crisis. From the stony ridges of Langermann Kop in Kensington to the tree-lined avenues of Houghton, we follow the writer through the city's streets, meeting its ghosts and journeying through time and (often circumscribed) space, finding meaning in the everyday and incidental.
At once an echo of Ivan Vladislavić’s award-winning Portrait with Keys and an original work of intense acuity and quiet power, The Near North is both intimate and expansive, ranging from small domestic dramas to great public spectacles. Wryly playful at times, fiercely serious at others, it is certain to move and delight all who accompany the writer through its pages.
THE DISTANCE
Literary, 272 pages
Random House SA, Feb 2019
Archipelago, Sept 2020
A novel on one level about boxing and a writer’s boyhood obsession with Cassius Clay, who became Muhammad Ali, the novel opens up into an unforgettable work on collecting, brotherhood, growing up & the art of writing itself. A multi-layered work, told in the wry voice of a man observing & remembering his younger brother’s fascination with Ali, the novel evokes the power of the boxing ring and the creation of a legend. Deftly, delicately, but with cumulative power, the novel also explores youth & aging, strength & disease, and, of course, questions of race, faith, and politics.
THE FOLLY
Literary fiction, 160 pages.
Archipelago/And Other Stories, Autumn 2015
The publication of THE FOLLY twenty years ago was a literary landmark, the arrival of a unique and surprising voice. It was read then as an evocative allegory on the rise and fall of apartheid, but continues to strike new chords, its haunting characters speaking strange truths to our world. Grimly humorous and playfully serious, Ivan Vladislavić’s classic first novel is a comic and philosophical masterpiece.
DOUBLE NEGATIVE
Literary fiction, 204 pages
And Other Stories, November 2013
Winner of the M-Net Award 2011; Winner of the University of Johannesburg Award 2010/2011; Shortlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize 2011.
Apartheid-era university dropout Neville is sent to learn some perspective from photographer Saul Auerbach. So begins a haunting written exploration of the art of depiction.