Durban North, 1997. Following two shocking and insidious incidents of violence, nineteen-year-old Mary Da Costa is flying to Auckland ahead of her parents to make a new start. She is riddled with reservations – New Zealand is where her late brother was supposed to move – and all she really wants to do is keep to herself and work on her art.

On arrival, Mary comes under the wings of the South African ex-pat community, struggling with its own tensions between homesickness and belonging. Finding work at a local dairy, she meets self-appointed Māori leader Nepukaneha Cooper – Buck, as he’s better known. He and his family have some history with these rugby-mad lovers of apartheid, even more now that they’re encroaching on his turf. If only he had the means to fight them off and realise his life-long dream of establishing a marae on the beautiful strip of coast he has always called home.

Meanwhile, adrift between past and present, Mary is forced to dig deep in order to find her own truths and place in the world.

Nick Mulgrew’s long-awaited debut novel – of grand metaphors, silences, absences, and two cities and countries in flux – is a delightfully innovative, surprising, and warm-hearted meditation on family, loss, and home, as well as a deft examination of dislocation, dispossession, and the cultural blind spots of two very different (and in some ways similar) communities.

DJ Sbu is not your ordinary entrepreneur. He was born to be great and refuses to settle for less.

Have you ever wondered what, exactly, goes on inside a successful entrepreneur’s head – how they came up with their ground-breaking ideas, how they turned them into a business, how they handle failure and what it took to get them where they are today? Billionaires Under Construction answers these questions, and more, as it charts the rise and rise of Sibusiso Leope, one of South Africa’s most dynamic entrepreneurs. From his childhood in Tembisa to the global stage as a best-selling DJ, from music mogul and co-owner of TS Records – the label behind some of South Africa’s brightest young stars – and, more recently, the force behind the country’s first black-owned energy drink, Sbu’s story is one of courage, resilience, inspiration and a refusal to let the put-downs stop him. In his own words, "you just can’t stop his go".

Billionaires Under Construction is a blueprint of Sbu’s success; an honest and direct account of the setbacks he’s encountered, including his high profile dismissal from two of South Africa’s most prominent radio stations and his equally notorious run-in with Forbes. Sbu’s handling of these situations shows the triumph of his entrepreneurial spirit and the tenacity of a man who does, indeed, consider himself a billionaire under construction – and won’t stop until his goal has become a reality.

More than this, it’s a handbook to show other entrepreneurs how they can do the same; a slice of motivation to show them that it can be done, and a tool-kit to show them how.

Speurder-kaptein Alek Strauss van die FSO word saam met sy span uitgeroep na ’n raaiselagtige moordtoneel. Die liggaam van ’n vrou is in ’n afgeleë bouval in Pretoria-Oos gevind. Advokaat Lynn Rawlins is skynbaar verwurg. Teen die muur staan in bloed geskrywe: Sprich nichts Böses.

Doktor Nadiya Patel, forensiese sielkundige, is vas oortuig die moordenaar se modus operandi is ’n waarskuwing dat nog lewens in gevaar is.

’n Meesleurende spanningsroman deur Marie Lotz, die skrywer van Roofdier.

This book reads like a war-time thriller.

We hear for the first time from internationalists who secretly worked for the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK), in the struggle to liberate South Africa from apartheid rule. They acted as couriers, provided safe houses in the neighbouring states and within South Africa, helped infiltrate combatants across borders, and smuggled tonnes of weapons into the country in the most creative of ways. Driven by a spirit of international solidarity, they were prepared to take huge risks and face danger which dogged them at every turn. At least three were captured and served long terms of imprisonment, while others were arrested and, following international pressure, deported. They reveal what motivated them as volunteers, not mercenaries, who gained nothing for their endeavours save for the self-esteem in serving a just cause.

Against such clandestine involvement, the book includes contributions from key role players in the international Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) and its public mobilisation to isolate the apartheid regime. These include worldwide campaigns like Stop the Sports Tours, boycotting South African products, and black American solidarity.

The Cuban, East German and Russian contributions outline those countries’ support for the ANC and MK. The public, global AAM campaigns provide the dimension from which internationalists who secretly served MK emerged.

This is an invaluable historic resource, explaining in highly readable style the significance of international solidarity for today’s youth in challenging times.

In A Coat of Many Colours, award-winning author Fred Khumalo presents a patchwork of various vibrant stories befitting the collection’s title.

A boy plays detective, investigating the case of a goat and a coat; a woman takes revenge; an inhlabi bites off more than he can chew; teenage enmity rears its head in a prestigious school for girls; a man is cursed with an ever-growing sexual appetite; and more thoughtful stories with an entertaining zing!

Elephants are arguably Africa’s most charismatic animals, and among the biggest drawcards to our game reserves. While the burgeoning game-park industry may be increasing our access to these magnificent creatures, rising human-elephant encounters are an inevitable outcome – sometimes, sadly, fatal. Such encounters could likely have been avoided had those involved understood elephant behaviour, and particularly how these intelligent animals interface with traffic through their territory.

This book describes elephant family life, from rearing of infants to establishing dominance within a herd; it unpacks regular elephant behaviour, the matriarchal system, the particular dangers of males in musth, and many other aspects of their lives. Most of all, it provides guidelines for ensuring safe and enjoyable encounters with these majestic animals.

This is an essential guide for those planning visits to reserves: aside from the interest factor, being able to read the tell-tale signs may just save lives.

From the acclaimed and award-winning author of What Will People Say?, Rehana Rossouw takes us into a world seemingly filled with promise yet bedevilled by shadows from the past. In this astonishing tour de force Rossouw illuminates the tensions inherent in these new times.

Ali Adams is a political reporter in Parliament. As Nelson Mandela begins his second year as president, she discovers that his party is veering off the path to freedom and drafting a new economic policy that makes no provision for the poor. She follows the scent of corruption wafting into the new democracy’s politics and uncovers a major scandal. She compiles stories that should be heard when the Truth Commission gets underway, reliving the recent brutal past. Her friend Lizo works in the Presidency, controls access to Madiba’s ear. Another friend, Munier, is beating at the gates of Parliament, demanding attention for the plague stalking the land.

Aaliyah Adams lives with her devout Muslim family in Bo-Kaap. Her mother is buried in religion after losing her husband. Her best friend is getting married, piling up the pressure to get settled and pregnant. There is little tolerance for alternative lifestyles in the close-knit community. The Rugby World Cup starts and tourists pour up the slopes above the city, discovering a hidden gem their dollars can afford.

Ali/Aaliya is trapped with her family and friends in a tangle of razor-wire politics and culture, can she break free?

Told with Rehana’s trademark verve and exquisite attention to language you will weep with Aaliya, triumph with Ali, and fall in love with the assemblage that makes up this ravishing new novel.

When we say we want to be safe, what do we mean? Is the state capable of achieving this for us? These are important questions for anyone envisioning and building a future anywhere, but especially in South Africa. This book explores contemporary South African society through the lens of law and order, and with the goal of understanding what reform must look like going forward, in a way that is accessible to ordinary citizens who need this most. 

In South Africa, both ‘crime’ and ‘safety’ are loaded terms. Ziyanda Stuurman unpacks the complex and fraught history of policing, courts and prisons in South Africa. In her analysis of the problems nationally and in putting those problems in context with the rest of the world, she concludes that more resources won’t necessarily lead to more safety. What then, will?

Ziyanda unpacks this complex question deftly with a view of a better future for us all.

Melinda Ferguson is the bestselling author of her addiction trilogy: Smacked, Hooked and Crashed. She is also an award-winning publisher.

To escape the pandemic, Ferguson finds her dream house on a private nature reserve, secluded in the otherworldly Cedarberg. A week before it's registered, a beautiful high-powered exec is brutally murdered next door. How could heaven have transformed into hell in an instant?

Written in her no-holds-barred signature style, Bamboozled is set in an age of fear, on a dystopian planet floundering in a maze of deception. In her search for sanity, Ferguson tries to untangle herself from a masked world gone mad, in which the media are controlled by the Invisible, Big Tech are mining our lives, where truth-tellers are mercilessly hunted and where, in certain countries, there are now Ministries of Loneliness.

Driven by an ancient human yearning to connect, the author must go on a deep journey into the unknown if she is to find her garden of songbirds and her torch of freedom and joy. The book is also about losing money and finding magic, while trying to work out who killed the woman next door.

Courageous, yet contested, Bulelani Ngcuka has always stood up for what he believes in. His decision in 2003 as National Director of Public Prosecutions not to prosecute then deputy president, Jacob Zuma, is a decision he still stands by to this day.

In this sweeping biography, based on many hours of interviews with Ngcuka, author Marion Sparg uncovers the roots of his fearless activism and tells his side of the story. She goes back in time to his modest beginnings in the Eastern Cape, to his lawyering years with the formidable Griffiths Mxenge, his various periods of detention, exile, and his homecoming.

Ngcuka played a critical role in establishing the National Prosecuting Authority, the elite crime-busting unit the Scorpions, and other mechanisms to tackle the country’s crime and corruption problems. Soon he faced one of his most difficult tasks – confronting former comrades who had become involved in illegal activities.

The Sting in the Tale is a first-hand account of our most recent legal and political history. It is also an intriguing story about political manoeuvrings, bombings and hijackings, urban-terror and “whispering” campaigns, lies, murder, alleged spies, intrigue, family, and love.

‘Highly readable and packed with fascinating historical detail, this is the compelling story of a ripsnorting South African cricketer whose career was smothered by the shameless colour prejudice of Cecil John Rhodes and his snobbish cronies. By turns formidable, sad, enlivening and enormously informative, this book pays Hendricks the honour that has long been his due.’  – Bill Nasson
 
William Henry ‘Krom’ Hendricks was the first sportsman to be formally barred from representing South Africa on the basis of race. Hailing from Cape Town’s Bo-Kaap, he played in 1892 for the South African Malay team against the touring English, who insisted that he was among the best fast bowlers in the world. This made his exclusion from South Africa’s tour of England in 1894 all the more unjust.
 
Ranged against Hendricks were virulent racism and a political alliance between arch-imperialist Cecil John Rhodes, Afrikaner Bond leader J.H. Hofmeyr, and William Milton, who controlled cricket at the Cape through the Western Province Cricket Union.  Too Black to Wear Whites  documents Hendricks’s tireless struggle for recognition and the public controversies around his exclusion. The book shows how Hendricks was further sidelined as club teams made up of different races were prevented from playing against one another, saving white players the embarrassment of being shown up by the country’s best fast bowler.
 
Considering his importance in South African sports history, surprisingly little is known about Krom Hendricks. The story of his life is told here for the first time in a fascinating drama that describes the formation of a segregated South Africa through the career of an exceptional cricketer who dared to test the boundaries of the system.

How should you write and present a business proposal? What is the best way to take minutes? When should a work email be formal and when chatty?

Communicating in a clear, concise manner with colleagues and clients is a key aspect of professionalism and good business practice. Yet many South African companies do not train their staff to do this, leading to confusion and lost hours - and it affects how people view your ability to do your job.

Now, help is at hand with plain-language experts Bittie Viljoen-Smook, Johan Geldenhuys and Wena Coetzee in this user-friendly guide to all aspects of written English in the workplace. Your journey to presenting yourself in an excellent, effective way starts here.

Pepe Marais began his entrepreneurial journey as a newspaper delivery boy at the age of twelve. After finishing high school at the end of 1986 he spent two years in the army completing what was then compulsory national service. On his way home at the end of his service he had a chance encounter with a graphic artist which completely changed the course of his life.

Pepe's latent talent for art was developed and honed at a Cape Town art school, where he finished top of his class each year, which in turn would lead him to discover his passion for advertising. After graduating, he and his partner Gareth Leck launched their enterprising Take-Away Advertising Agency and business success seemed a foregone conclusion.

But some unwise business decisions and then the global recession of 2008 took their toll and, to make matters worse, Pepe's personal life began to disintegrate. However, at the lowest point of his life, he would discover a fundamental insight which became the foundation on which he would rebuild his life. It would also inspire the development of his Purpose for Business methodology and his deep interest in unlocking both human and Joe Public United business potential.

While Growing Greatness contains many lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs, perhaps what is more important is the deep wisdom it offers. Through his growing awareness of what purpose means in both business and personal terms, Pepe points the way to growing your own greatness.

This handy pocket guide introduces local gardening enthusiasts to some of southern Africa’s most beautiful, beneficial and easy- to-care-for indigenous plants, giving guidance on how best to use them and how to ensure that they flourish.

It offers:

• A selection of 145 garden-friendly, low-maintenance trees, shrubs and bedding plants perfectly adapted to our local soils and weather conditions
• Text that’s direct and simple
• Full-colour photographs that show plant details and ‘in context’ planting
• Icons indicating at a glance whether a species is evergreen or deciduous, frost-hardy, suitable for a sunny or shaded position, fast or slow-growing, water wise, fragrant and attractive to insects or birds.

An essential handbook for easy-care beautiful gardening.

The author, Glenice Ebedes, is the owner of Grounded Landscaping. She is a graduate of Lifestyle College and an active member of the Guild of Landscape Designers. She specializes in indigenous, wildlife-friendly gardens and her gardens regularly feature in magazines.

Speurder-sersant Luna Joubert van die Stellenbosch polisiediens word gestuur om die eienaardige dubbele moord op die eienaar van ’n kwekery en sy vrou te ondersoek. Die De Winters is beide met ’n skerp voorwerp aangeval, maar daar was geen teken van ‘n struweling of enige getuies om sin te maak van die voorval nie.

Terwyl Luna sukkel om ’n moord sonder verdagtes of leidrade op te los, maak Mike Grant weer sy onverwagte verskyning. Hierdie keer is hy op ’n geheime sending onder die geledere van ’n plaaslike dwelmsindikaat. Ten spyte van sy nuwe voorkoms vind Luna dit onmoontlik om nie die deur oop te maak wanneer hy klop nie.

Soos Mike homself in die onderwêreld ingrawe, begin Luna op tone trap om haar eie raaisel op te los. Was die De Winters wie almal dink hulle was? Weet die kinders dalk meer as wat hulle voorgee? Wat gaan aan by die studentehuis oorkant die straat? En wie is die man in die sportmotor wat so op die buitewyke van haar ondersoek beweeg?

Om antwoorde te kry sal Luna die donkerte en als wat daarin skuil moet trotseer. Bloedbande is die vierdie boek in Jeanette Stals se Luna Joubert-reeks.

The safari design aesthetic has yoked hi-tech, high-end architecture with traditional low-tech African craft and fused them in a new genre of highly original, courageous and soulful – even sexy – architecture and interiors. This is design that, while rooted in Africa, possesses an international appeal that is beginning to influence aesthetic ideas the world over.

Safari Style Africa showcases a selection of lodges where these elements of design dialogue beautifully with the environment.

If You Keep Digging is a moving collection of short stories, which will resonate with a South African audience. The selection of stories highlights marginalised identities and looks at the daily lives of people who may otherwise be forgotten or dismissed.

Monkeys is a skillful commentary on domestic violence, toxic masculinity, patriarchy (and how it is racialised), power dynamics between white and black men and how children come to “know” that they are white or black. Skinned, whose protagonist is a woman with albinism, is a powerful story about learning to accept that you deserve love when the world constantly tells you otherwise. In Fourteen the author deftly demonstrates the ability to play with concepts of time and reality. It is a compelling story about potential and how one can feel unfulfilled despite having hopes and ambitions.

The collection is also deeply concerned with covering the early post democracy years in South Africa. Each of the characters deals with questions around the “new” country. The book implores one to think about diverse topics and perspectives, difficult family relationships, abandonment, social and class issues, power dynamics at school and at work, mental illness, witchcraft, sexuality, domestic abuse and the ancestral realm, among other things.

A thrilling array of African writers, including Fred Khumalo, Sibongile Fisher, Lucas Ledwaba, Vonani Bila, Lynn Joffe and Christopher Mlalazi, tell surprising and unnerving tales in this collection of commissioned stories from the master of narrative writing, Niq Mhlongo.

These stories give answers to the question: what does being haunted and hauntings mean in our southern African world, in the past, the present and the future?

When Feyi Olubodun, CEO of one of West Africa’s leading creative agencies, witnessed one too many cases of brands failing in the African marketplace he began to ask himself questions:
- Why did brands, both global and local, so often fail to connect with the African consumer?
- What was it about the African market that brand owners were not seeing?

He began to reflect on his own marketing experiences and out of this emerged the framework for The Villager.

In Feyi’s view, the African consumer begins his life’s journey by moving from the village, his rural dwelling, to the city, carrying with him not only his own dreams but also the dreams of his community. He is a highly aspirational consumer, motivated to succeed, and he becomes the economic portal for the rest of his community back home. But although he may be exposed to global influences and technology, his essential identity remains largely intact. This is why Feyi calls the African consumer a Villager. The Village is no longer a physical space; it is a psychological construct that defines him and the filter through which he engages with and consumes brands.

In developing his construct, Feyi posits that if you wish to engage successfully in a market you may not understand, you must have the right ‘lenses’ to view a people. He believes the secret lies in applying these lenses at the confluence of commerce, culture and consumer. Data is not enough to understand the vagaries of a particular market. Drawing on his wide experience and wealth of astute observations, he provides a highly readable and indispensable guide to the mindset of the African consumer today, yet it is true to say that his insights apply, albeit in a more nuanced way, to consumer behaviour across the globe.

The Villager is essential reading for brand owners wishing to conquer new markets.

Adam Askew, a young man in a hurry, always wanted to be financially independent. Armed with guts, determination and a cocky self-assurance, he sets up a shipping company with a view to take on the world, one ton of cargo at a time.

Fed up with the cliquey set-up in Durban, he takes a gutsy gamble – the biggest risk of his life – one that will ultimately make or break him. He heads for the big city lights of swanky 80s Joburg and is soon wining and dining at the top of the Carlton, sipping the best champagne in London and making some enemies along the way.

Set in the closing decades of the 20th century in sanction-wracked South Africa, Pleasures of the Harbour navigates a world of dodgy business partners, dubious deals and a few failed attempts at love before Adam can finally, and honestly, say he’s made it.

Part adventure, part action, and lots of wheeling and dealing means readers are in for a rollicking ride in this highly entertaining novel that traverses the high seas and low roads of Southern Africa, while opening boardroom and a few bedroom doors along the way.

Jou diepste vrees is sy grootste begeerte...

Geen lang naels nie. Geen skoenveters nie. Dit is maar enkele van die reëls in die Molenberg-Psigiatriese hospitaal. Selfmoord is ʼn inwoner hier, en die pasiënte word as psigopate bestempel.

Dominique du Randt word in Molenberg opgeneem ná haar ma se wrede moord. Niemand glo dat sy nie verantwoordelik is vir haar ma se dood nie. Niemand glo dat sy deur ʼn man agtervolg is wat homself die Bewonderaar noem nie. Haar sielkundige, Martin, het wel sy bedenkinge. Daarom dat hy sy eie speurwerk doen.

Wat Martin ontdek, is die Ophelia-klub. ’n Plek van grusame geheime, fantasieë en donker vergrype. Wanneer een van die vroulike pasiënte in Molenberg-Psigiatriese hospitaal verdwyn, is Dominique oortuig die Bewonderaar weet presies waar sy is. Hy is, soos voorheen, weer in beheer van dié skrikwekkende spel.

Maar hoe beskerm jy jouself in ’n plek soos Molenberg? Hier waar niemand jou glo en jy geen vryheid of beheer het nie?

Skollie, saint, scholar, hippest of hippies, imperfect musician with a perfect imagination, Syd Kitchen was, like all great artists, born to enrich his art and not himself.

Plagued by drugs, alcohol and depression, too much of an outlaw to be embraced by record companies, he frequently sold his furniture to cover production costs of his albums, seduced fans at concerts and music festivals worldwide with his dazzling ‘Afro-Saxon’ mix of folk, jazz, blues and rock interspersed with marvellously irreverent banter, and finally became the subject of several compelling documentaries, one of which - Fool in a Bubble - premiered in New York in 2010.

Brutally dragged 780 metres beneath a taxi – a young woman’s inspiring story of survival, courage, and the will to live.

13 September 2011. The story would shock thousands and be remembered by many for years to come. It would be plastered all over the papers and continue to attract interest well after the shock factor of what happened had passed. Reports and articles would be written, and “facts”, as given to reporters by some of those involved and willing to be interviewed, would be recounted and repeated in all forms of public media over the months and even years that followed. And although these versions would generate widespread outrage, none was entirely accurate.

"The stories were about me. I was there. I am Kim McCusker - the girl who was dragged by a taxi. This, as I experienced it, is the true version of events."

Liefdeskortverhale deur 27 bekende Afrikaanse skrywers om jou naweek op ’n romantiese noot mee te begin.

Laat die week en sy gewoel agter met dié stories uit die pen van Juanita Aggenbach, Bernette Bergenthuin, Henk Breytenbach, Malene Breytenbach, Alma Carstens, Alta Cloete, Leona Conradie, Trisa Hugo, Madelie Human, Jaco Jacobs, Anzil Kulsen, Kristel Loots, Cliffordene Norton, Susan Olivier, Didi Potgieter, Gerrit Rautenbach, Felicia Snyman, Cecilia Steyn, Dibi Symington, Louise van der Merwer, Santie van der Merwe, Nanette van Rooyen, Frenette van Wyk, Antoinette Venter, Louise Viljoen, Magdaleen Walters en Elsa Winckler.

Op ’n winterdag in 1945 ontferm ’n kinderlose wit egpaar, Sara en Erik de Graaff, hulle oor ’n driejarige halwe weeskind – Mina Afrika. Hulle wil haar graag ’n kans in die lewe gee. Terwyl Mina nog vol ambisie haar toekoms beplan dryf die verraderlike daad van ’n ryk jong wit man haar weg uit die Vallei, laat haar beland in ’n eindelose spiraal van bedrog. ’n Lewe van vernedering in Groenpunt en tussen die bendes van Distrik Ses.