MARK GEVISSER, ROGER COHEN AND OTHER SOUTH AFRICAN WRITERS

Mark Gevisser's recent book "Lost and Found in Johannesburg" was published by Granta Books in 2015.

Roger Cohen's recent book "The Girl From Human Street" also relates to Johannesburg and was published by Bloomsbury in 2015.

Both these books are by South African writers and the publishers are international publishers.

Mark Gevisser has been involved with gay and lesbian issues for many years and his writing  reflects these.

Roger Cohen, also of Jewish origins has been, and is currently, a journalist with the New York Times.

Should one wish to contact the writers of books, and in the absence of the ability to obtain addresses, email or residential, the easiest way, one assumes, would be to write to the publishers and request that they pass on your message to the authors. If the publishers accede to your request, one trusts that the author will show you the courtesy of answering you or acknowledging receipt of your email.

This has happened to me in the past with other writers who have been South Africans or written on South African themes or issues, both fiction and non-fiction. In general authors respond because we are their audience and they write - and publish - because they want to be read.

I have recently finished reading the above books and have written to each of the authors about each of them.

There has been no response, no feedback, and no suggestion that they have even bothered to acknowledge receipt of the emails.

I find this offensive in the extreme, because it seems to suggest that it would be a waste of time to respond to comments which are meant to be constructive, appreciative, or critical of some aspects of what they have written.