The Number: One Man's Search for Identity in the Cape Underworld and Prison Gangs is a non-fiction book written by Jonny Steinberg about South Africa's criminal tradition of prison gangs and published in 2004 by Jonathan Ball Publishers.

[4] The Number is based on 50 hours of interviews with the 43-year-old member of the 28's gang Magadien Wentzel, one of the inhabitants of Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town.

[5][6][7] In a review for Kronos, Andrew M. Jefferson stated that the book can be read two ways: as "a succinct commentary on the racially and socially warped world of Cape Town.

As such, it is a book about marginalization and coping in Cape Town where violence, stigmatization and incarceration are everyday realities for coloured men.

"[8] In 2018, a symposium took place at the MacMillan Center at Yale University to discuss the book.