When zoologist Magrieta Prinsloo is put on the wrong antidepressant, her head comes unstuck. She insults the head of her department, and impulsively resigns from her job. She accepts a position at the Bureau for Continuing Education, with the inscrutable Markus Potsdam as her boss. When he disappears one morning, matters become very complicated. Winterbach's extraordinary gift as a novelist, and uncanny understanding of the human psyche, are again as evident as ever.

A Big Hand For The Spirits explores the space where science, religion and magic come together – where the world behaves in ways that are at once absolutely normal but also utterly amazing.

An ecologist on the run from a hit man joins up with a brilliant physicist struggling to reconcile his traditional African beliefs with science, an anaesthetist dealing with a bad marriage, a physically powerful, but emotionally distraught river guide, and an enigmatic recovering drug addict who alternates wildly between reality and fantasy.

Together they travel overland from Vic Falls to Malawi, encountering many adventures, some intellectual, some fun, and some downright terrifying.

As they explore the power of their individual and collective unconscious, they discover that they are connected in unexpected ways and, through means both mystical and prosaic, work together to survive and achieve each other’s goals.

The action, which includes wild white water rafting, tracking elephants, dabbling in witchcraft, catching snakes and learning to dive, mirrors the characters’ exploration of the nature of reality, time and truth – and whether there are, in fact, only three thousand people in the world. The climax on the edge of Lake Malawi revolves around a dramatic performance of the Gule Wamkulu spirit dancers that may – or may not – be instrumental in bringing it all together.

The Five Firm Friends – Edith, Cordelia, Amanda, Doris and Beauty – are five sassy career women who confront life head- on. But when Beauty suddenly becomes ill and, after six short weeks, passes away, their world is thrown into confusion. On her deathbed Beauty begs Amanda to promise her one thing – that she and the rest of the FFF will not waste their lives as she has done. All because of an unfaithful husband ... ‘Ukhule,’ she begs of Amanda. May you live a long life, and may you become old.

Beauty’s Gift is a moving tale of how four women decide to change their own fate as well as the lives of those closest to them. This is Sindiwe Magona at her very best – writing about social issues, and not keeping quiet. Speak up, she says to women in Africa. Stand up, and take control of your own lives.

German South-West Africa, 1905. A time of war and upheaval. The frail Siegfried Bock comes to the protectorate as a soldier to prove his mettle. But soon he becomes disillusioned when he witnesses atrocities he cannot forget. Lisbeth Löwenstein is here to marry a man she hardly remembers, a settler who has sent money to her impoverished parents in exchange for her hand in marriage. Mordegai Guruseb escapes from a concentration camp where prisoners are dying from deprivation. But before long his freedom is threatened once again.

And then there is failed doctor Albert Pitzer who considers himself a scientist and hopes to gather data that prove his theories. However, Alvaus Luipert, a local schoolmaster, will not stand for his arrogant assumptions and demeaning methods. In the vast, majestic landscape of German South-West Africa, the fates of these five people intertwine and each one’s humanity is tested to the limit.

‘A love letter to a brutal landscape and the tale of one man’s defiance of inhumanity.’ – Harry Kalmer

And they didn't die dramatises the heroism of Jezile, a young rural woman. Her story also depicts the emergence of collective resistance by rural women in South Africa of the 1950s and 60s. Above all it is a story of redemption in the strength and vitality of one woman who will not allow intense suffering to deplete her humanity. The author draws upon her relationship with the 'very strong, very proud' women who raised her and her knowledge of their history to create a novel that is sensitive, human and political.

Dan Sleigh se jongste manuskrip handel oor die lewe se ewige dans met die dood - alle lewe, ook die lewe van die skryfkuns. Die protagonis, Koos van der Merwe, was eens een van Goeie Hoop Uitgewers se topskrywers, en dit is waarom 'n woonstel in Bay View Villas aan hom toegeken is, op 'n verdieping wat die uitgewery reserveer vir die skrywers van topverkopers. Maar die muse het Koos verlaat. Jare reeds wag sy uitgewer vergeefs op nuwe werk uit die pen wat voorheen die kasregisters laat klingel het. Die uitgewery se geduld het opgeraak; Koos mag net in die woonstel aanbly as hy produktief is. In 'n bestel waarin kommersiele sukses die hoogste waarde is, is daar in elk geval nie plek vir iemand wat so verstok in sy wee is en so wars van alles wat progressief en modieus is nie. Die uitgewery speel sy troefkaart: Carelina van der Merwe is een van die inspirerendste redakteurs, en as sy nie nuwe lewe in Koos se loopbaan kan blaas nie sal niemand nie. Carelina waai soos 'n stormsterk suidooster by Koos se woonstel in. Hy gooi wal, hy skerm, hy vlug . . . maar uiteindelik begin hy vertel wat dit is wat die donker kolk in hom uitgeruk het waarin alle kreatiewe energie verdwyn. En al vertellende word sy skermutseling 'n dans. Dit is uiteindelik weer die dans met die muse, maar noodwendig weer die lewe-dood-dans, die dans van die lewe.

“You will now be tried in this fifth heaven for five crimes committed in the Herebefore. First, mass murder; second, racism; third, grand theft of Africa’s natural resources and land; fourth, exploitation and enslavement of African workers; and fifth, egotism and a vainglorious quest for immortality.”

Set over five days in an African Hereafter called “After Africa”, this story revolves around the British South African imperialist, Cecil Rhodes, awakening in an After African Limbo after being asleep for 120 years. Guided by Ghanaian writer Efua Sutherland, he is taken on a tour of After Africa’s five heavens, experiencing Africa’s great civilisations, its Nobel laureates, its writers, its musicians and its sporting legends. The novella centres on the grand trial of Cecil Rhodes in the fifth heaven for five crimes committed in the Herebefore.

Two Counsel for Damnation – Olive Schreiner and Stanlake Samkange – face off against two Counsel for Salvation – Nelson Mandela and Harry Oppenheimer. The seven judges from Africa’s five sub-regions and its North American, Caribbean and South American diasporasare also well-known figures: Ruth First, Wangari Maathai, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Patrice Lumumba, Taslim Elias, Maya Angelou and Toussaint l’Ouverture.

Moet Agab getrou bly aan die ou lsraelitiese waardes, of kan hy sy vrou volg die afvallige tydsgees in? Teenoor lsebel staan die profetiese figuur van Elia - wat die droogte oor Israel voorspel, die profete van Baal in 'n tweestryd op Karmelberg verneder, en uiteindelik die finale doemwoord oor Agab en sy huis uitspreek. Daar is ook die verhaal van Nabot,wat nie bereid om te erken dat God die God van alle mense is nie. En van die liefde van Johanan vir Ada, die dogter van hul dienskneg.

Die kortverhale in Maansiek verken 'n wye register: die Rooms-Katolieke geloof, charismatiese aanbidding, Afrika-mistiek, erotiek en moederskap, konflik tussen ras en geslag en sosiale status, spanning tussen die hede en die historiese, die sienlike en die onsienlike.

As basis vir sommige verhale dien 'n nugter koerantberig of tydskrifartikel uit vervloe dekades wat binne die verhaalkonteks tegelyk humoristies en ontstellend is.

Ander is gegrond op minder bekende aspekte van bekende figure of vertellings van onbekende vroue met uiteenlopende agtergronde.

What makes Pat Simmons, a retired engineer, give up his comfortable middle class living and wade across a crocodile infested river with a bicycle strapped to his back, in order to teach chess to schoolchildren at the Mission station?

Die swerfjare van Poppie Nongena vertel die lewensverhaal van ’n swart vrou teen die agtergrond van apartheid. Hierdie hartverskeurende, tog inspirerende roman word steeds beskou as een van die beste romans wat Afrika in die twintigste eeu opgelewer het.

Reisgenote bevat ʼn keur uit die kortverhaalbundel, Die reisgenoot, wat oorspronklik in 2013 ingedien is as kreatiewe komponent van ʼn meestersgraadstudie aan die Universiteit van die Vrystaat (onder leiding van prof HP van Coller).

As simboliese “reisgenote” is enkele gedigte getoonset wat tematies aansluit by Joanita se eie verhale. Die “reisgenote” is tematies van aard, maar ook in die gesprek tussen tekste, musikale werke en die kunstenaars wat betrokke was by die projek.

Die dag toe Pappie die kaleidoskoop stukkend gekap het, het ’n paar van die gekleurde skywe ver weggespat en in die lang gras gaan skuil. Later, nadat die ouman weg was poskantoor toe, het hy die stukkies gaan bymekaar maak – ’n paar geles, ’n mooi groene en ’n klompie bloues en perses. Die res was gewone spieëltjies en hy het net ’n paar daarvan opgetel. Maar daar was bitter min van sy droom oor.

Hy voel die hitte van daardie dag se woede deur hom spoel. Sien weer die arend teen die lug draai en die skelm blink van die paar stukkies glas in die lang gras. Dan ontspan hy. Sy lewe was nooit heel nie. Altyd in stukke. Tronk was sy voorland – soos Pa voorspel het …

NOU gaan Schoeman huis toe.

MAAR sal hy nou die liefde en aanvaarding kry waarna hy smag, of sal hy steeds nie goed genoeg wees nie …?

KALEIDOSKOOP is ‘n historiese roman wat die verhaal van Schoeman en sy familielede vertel. Die besonderse verhaal van lief en leed sal jou as kieskeurige leser enduit boei.

With the unexpected arrival of a package from South Africa, the epic love stories of three vastly different women slowly unfold.

But what did the package contain that has forced the women of the Gordon household to finally reveal their secrets? Why did they conceal the truth from each other for so many years?

As Hannah, Beatrice and Zendaya share their passionate tales from the depths of their hearts; they unravel relationships of racial segregation, forbidden love, societal stigma, seduction and abuse. What they are yet to discover is that one man links their stories. But whose true love is he?

Embark on a journey of mystery, suspense, drama and love that spans across three generations.

For the four friends jogging their regular morning route, along the sleepy suburban streets of Fish Hoek, nothing could have warned them of what was to come. Trying to take a short cut and win favour with his taxi boss, a young driver Tshepo Dlamini crashes into one of the runners. As Claire's lifeless body lies crumpled on the ground, Tshepo finds himself trapped in a metal carcass. What's left of his life is turned upside down.

Watching the accident happen, Maureen stands on her balcony and is the only witness. Yet she harbours another dark secret.

To save his life, Tshepo's leg is so badly injured that it must be amputated. Maureen must learn to deal with her husband's addiction and build her own life. No longer the awesome foursome, Tanya, Liz and Kate reframe their friendship without Claire and overcome their fears and inertia. For James, Claire's adoring boyfriend, his life begins to unravel as he wakes to the news that Claire is dead, leaving him to question life as it was and will be.

From shock to acceptance, each chapter is a journey, and as each person tries to move forward with their lives, they must face their mistakes, set against the complex backdrop of small town South Africa. Showing that there is always hope, and that change is inevitable, each character must learn to forgive themselves and others, but for some, the hope of closure may be harder than they thought.

Wouter Wessels praktiseer as prokureur vanuit ’n omskepte woonhuis in ‘n voorstad van Pretoria. Na ‘n reeks terugslae in sy lewe, is beide sy regsloopbaan en persoonlike lewe weer besig om op koers te kom. Totdat daar op ’n gewone werksdag ‘n skynbaar gewone klient by sy praktyk instap.

Sy het egter nie die deursnee regsprobleem nie. Nadat hy haar begin bystaan, kom hy onverwags op ’n katnes van bedrog en swendelary af waarby hooggeplaastes en invloedrykes betrokke is. Skielik bars alle hel rondom hom los en sy lewe is in gevaar.

Hy betrek spoedig ’n vriendin, wat ’n joernalis by ’n dagblad is, asook ’n eksentrieke forensiese wetenskaplike om hom by te staan om dié bedrogspul te probeer ontrafel. Hy het egter nie die luukse van tyd nie, en boonop verdwyn sy sleutelgetuie skielik spoorloos.

In 2019, Eva Mazza's Sex, Lies & Stellenbosch took the SA publishing world by storm. The sizzling novel, centred around the seemingly upstanding lives of Stellenbosch's elite, has remained in the Top 100 since publication. Now the much anticipated sequel will whet the appetites of thousands of readers obsessed with what happens next in the steamy lives of the winelands aristocracy.

At the end the first book, Jen, the main protagonist, receives a mysterious WhatsApp, which set book two in motion. The sequel masterfully tracks the next stage of the lives of the characters readers got to love and hate.

There is Jen's ex-husband, John, bent on a path of self-destruction; her ex-best friend, Frankie, who betrayed Jen in more ways than one; and the sultry Patty, who works at the Cape Town sex club secretly attended by the small town's elite, who now finds herself in New York. Is Lee still alive? And who is Captain Stranger?

Originally released in October 2020, shortlisted for the 2021 UJ Literary Award and now available in paperback b-format.

Meet the Mafus, a close-knit, traditional family with three daughters. As leaders of their church, The Kingdom of God, Pastor Abraham and his wife Phumla are guiding the community of Bulawayo in faith, while trying to keep the different branches of their family intact. Independent and feisty Xoliswa returns home, after a hiatus abroad, hoping for a fresh start and a chance to steer the family business; rebellious Yandisa has met the love of her life and is finally getting her act together; while dutiful newlywed Zandile is slowly becoming disillusioned with her happily ever after.

The Mafus always present a united front, but as their personal lives unravel, devastating secrets are revealed that threaten to tear the family apart. For how long will they be able to hide behind the façade of a picture-perfect family?

Qabila’s marriage is falling apart – it has been for years. If she had not fallen pregnant she and Rashid might not have married in the first place. After all, he was seeing Thandi at the time. And now Qabila wonders if he ever stopped seeing her. Does that explain why Qabila has never felt the full measure of his love? At least he is not abusive, her mother would say, unlike Qabila’s father.

But with her mother’s passing, Qabila’s world is coming undone. She is dreaming of strange songs and making lists to stay sane. When she finds out Rashid is living a double life, she demands a divorce. Why does he still resist? Why not go to Thandi?

As she tries to pick up the pieces of her life, Qabila rails against the persistent legacy of discrimination in South Africa. Not least of which is the racism in her own community towards fellow black people. But she also rediscovers the joy of family, and her Muslim faith, and meets a group of musicians who might be the answer to her puzzling dreams.

“I am his first wife.”

Is that how low you think of me? You think I will run and rat you out to Raymond? Let me tell you something, Raymond is not my husband without you. He needs you, he inhales and exhales because of you, he adores you, Anelisa, because you are his first wife.

South African playwright Hannah Meade arrives in London for the opening night of her new play. She has arranged to meet Pierre, the student she was in love with when she taught English in Paris. During their time together, they lied their way towards truths they were too young and inexperienced to endure. Perhaps this time they will have a second chance.

As the reader is drawn from contemporary London back to Paris on the eve of the war in Iraq, the mystery of past events is brought to vivid life in a series of dramatic, intriguing and deeply moving encounters. Written in layered, stark prose, The White Room lays bare many of our assumptions about language, identity, memory, loss and love.

‘Craig Higginson is at the vanguard of the latest and most exciting novelists in South Africa, both robust and sensitive, offering a barometer of the best to be expected from the newest wave of writing in the country.’ – André Brink

‘In its conception and execution, The White Room is remarkable ... Evocative and dreamlike, yet all too nightmarishly real, this is a story so moving that it leaves a powerful afterimage on the reader’s imagination.’ – Craig Mackenzie

A masterful new novel completes an incomparable trilogy from J. M. Coetzee, Nobel laureate and two-times winner of the Booker Prize

In The Childhood of Jesus, Simon found a boy, David, and they began life in a new land, together with a woman named Ines. In The Schooldays of Jesus, the small family searched for a home in which David could thrive.

In The Death of Jesus, David, now a tall ten-year-old, is spotted by Julio Fabricante, the director of a local orphanage, playing football with his friends in the street. He shows unusual talent. When David announces that he wants to go and live with Julio and the children in his care, Simon and Ines are stunned. David is leaving them, and they can only love him and bear witness.

With almost unbearable poignancy J. M. Coetzee explores the meaning of a world empty of memory but brimming with questions.

A single moment can change a life forever… A van full of men armed with AK47s is stopped by two policemen while driving through Bethlehem in the Free State. They open fire on the policemen and, from that moment, their lives are irrevocably changed. So to for Fusi Mofokeng, resident of Bethlehem, who was not at the scene of the crime but was the brother-in-law of one of the perpetrators. He is accused of being an accomplice and tried, sentenced and jailed.

Nineteen years later, in 2011, Fusi is released into a world that has changed beyond recognition, a world in which his mother, father and brother have all died. Throughout his incarceration he fought for his release, appearing before the TRC, and schooling himself in law. Even today, he seeks a presidential pardon.

It is to this life that award-winning author Jonny Steinberg turns his attention in One Day in Bethlehem. In examining the life and struggle of Fusi Mofokeng, Steinberg shines a searing light on the burden of the 'everyman' in his quest for justice. In doing so, he also captures a country as it violently sheds the skin of the past to emerge, blinking, into the modern era.

The sun begins to set and twilight falls over the Cape Town suburb of Salt River. The year is 1960, the year of the Sharpeville massacre. Three friends, Ainey, Haroun and Cassius, comrades in arms and merry pranksters, make a discovery that changes their lives. Mired in their troubled families, they valiantly struggle through their childhood. With the help of a mysterious yet powerful woman they confront an awful truth that forever changes their lives…

The prologue of By The Fading Light sets up the story by an unidentified narrator who, it is later discovered, is one of the three main characters, now grown up, reflecting on the past. A young boy, Amin Gabriels, disappears, an event that creates fear and anxiety in the community, especially for his friends, the main characters, who are three eleven-year-old boys, Ainey, Haroun and Cassius.

The boys’ adventures offer a poignant, compelling but also humorous glimpse into the world from their youthful perspectives. Ainey lives with his fussy grandmother and his authoritarian father who blames him for his mother’s death. Haroun lives with his depressed mother and bigamist father. Cassius lives with his sister and snobbish mother who wishes that she were white. Through these and other minor characters, a mysterious yet powerful older woman, a police officer, and a murderer, the reader encounters a spirited and robust community.

With its elements of historical fiction, literary realism and absurdist humour, By The Fading Light weaves together themes of troubled families, vibrant Muslim culture, South African politics, the resilience of children, loss of innocence and coming of age.

If only a young boy had not taken the long way home on a cold winter’s day. If only he had gone straight home, things might have been different. But he did not, and events in the tight-knit community of Salt River take a turn that inspire fear…