House of Margins

This year I’ve been increasingly drawn to horror novels set around the world, including African horror in particular. House of Margins by Tlotlo Tsamaase piqued my interest for its setting in both Botswana and South Africa, its focus on African literature, and a missing person mystery told through the lens of a true crime podcast.

Anaya Sebeya was one of a select few up-and-coming African authors invited to take part in a prestigious writing residency in Cape Town. Along with the other writers, she will stay at Günter Huis for several months to complete her novel, with mentor guidance, in a competition to win a major publishing deal. But Anaya quickly seems to lose sense of reality, and by the end of the residency, she’s gone missing. Eighteen months later, a true crime podcast sensationalizing her disappearance pops up. Anaya’s sister Ranewa is furious, and along with the emergence of Anaya’s phone and all its secrets, she’s spurred into action. What really happened at Günter Huis? Where is her sister?

What I Liked:

• Mixed media. Beyond having a dual timeline and dual POV, House of Margins also plays with format. Much of what we learn about Anaya’s time at Günter Huis comes from the framing of a true crime podcast. Those podcast portions also show the pricing tiers, comments, and additional posts. Then there are the article excerpts, novel and poem excerpts, and more interspersed throughout. Some of this may work better in the print/ebook format, but regardless, the experimental use of mixed media kept me on my toes throughout my reading.
• Surreal and strange. Maybe it’s intentionally meta that Anaya is an author of surreal fiction, and this novel is, itself, quite surreal! At first it comes across like a typical Gothic novel, with nightmares and a possibly haunted house. But the narrative swiftly becomes more disorienting. Anaya is losing large chunks of time; she’s losing her ability to understand Setswana, her mother tongue; she’s acting out of character. Some passages read like a disturbing descent into madness, repetitive yet intense. It is weird but utterly transfixing.
• Dissecting colonialism, generational trauma, and racism. As the book progresses, certain themes became central to what’s going on with Anaya. I won’t reveal too much here, but there’s a lot about the horrors African (especially southern African) people have endured. From Anaya’s people in Botswana to Mozambique, Namibia, and Angola, this book looks at Africa’s history, how white colonizers have left lasting wounds, and where people stand now. How can past wrongs be righted? What can African people today do to challenge the narrative?
• Discussion of African literature. Related to the above is a debate about what makes a novel impactful. Different people have opposing opinions on what is considered marketable or palatable to a wider audience. Should African authors embrace their native languages or translate every word into English? How should their past be described? What’s the balance between whitewashing or trauma porn or any other number of issues? In this writing residency, with its all-white panel, there’s a lot to unpack.

What Didn’t Work for Me:

• Kind of lost me in the end. This might just be me, or the fact that I was listening to an audiobook, but I didn’t fully get the ending. The beginning was strong, and so many of the themes were impactful, but it lost its edge in the latter half. I may need to reread some parts for the full effect.

Audiobook:

The audiobook for House of Margins comes with a full cast, with narration from Tshego Khutsoane, Didi Khounou, and Kate Liquorish. All three did an exemplary job in bringing this to life, even with its experimental format and use of mixed media. The narrators captured the sense of dread and surrealism in Anaya’s parts, a contrast to the chipper quality of the podcast (incongruous given its own subject matter!). Some parts of this story would benefit from having the physical or ebook handy, but overall, this audiobook did great justice to the novel.

Final Thoughts

House of Margins is a strange and engrossing novel steeped in African culture, with probing questions surrounding painful pasts and what we’re doing now. Though I might need to revisit the ending, the book was thought-provoking and bizarre in the best way. I highly recommend this, and I look forward to more Tlotlo Tsamaase.

Special thanks to Kensington, RBmedia, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy House of Margins here – it’s available as a hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

House of Margins by Tlotlo Tsamaase
Audiobook Narrator	Tshego Khutsoane; Didi Khounou; Kate Liquorish
Audience	Adult
Genre	Horror
Setting	Botswana; South Africa
Number of Pages	432
Format I Read	Audiobook & Ebook (NetGalley ARCs)
Original Publication Date	May 26, 2026
Publisher	Erewhon Books

Official Summary

Serial the podcast meets The Other Black Girl in a haunted house, as young African author disappears after being invited to an exclusive writing residency, and her sister is left only with a true crime podcast to help her uncover the truth about what really happened…

Anaya Sebeya is missing.

Before her disappearance, Anaya was a brilliant writer: a rising star. Invited to a prestigious writing residency at Günter Huis, an eerie colonial mansion on the slopes of Devil’s Peak, Anaya was supposed to craft the next great African literary masterpiece—and so were four other young, emerging writers, all competing for the grand prize. But Anaya never made it home.

When a sensationalized true crime podcast about Anaya emerges, claiming to reveal everything that happened at Günter Huis, her sister Ranewa is both skeptical and furious. But with each surreal episode, Ranewa begins to piece together a truth worse than she ever could have imagined…

At Günter Huis, Anaya’s nightmares consume her. Time slips away from her. Günter Huis inflicts distorted visions and terrible supernatural visitations, pushing Anaya to tell a story no one dares. But exorcising the house’s endless cycle of evil requires a sacrifice that neither Anaya nor her fellows are ready to make.

In House of Margins, award-winning Motswana author Tlotlo Tsamaase delivers a mesmerizing story of a young generation facing colonialism’s cultural legacy in Africa.