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?

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.

Tian Killian se ouers is voor sy oë vermoor, die aand van die vuurwerke op Slootplaas. Nou reis hy, Amsterdam toe en na Kowloon, oral op die spoor van Charlie Oeng, oftewel Koekepan, oftewel Gelatenheid, oftewel Sjinees. Eens op ’n tyd ’n onbeduidende Hollywood-ekstra, maar ’n hoofrolspeler in Tian se wêreld. Hoe harder Tian probeer om die pyn wat hom sedert sy jeug vergesel, te verstaan, hoe tergender word die vraag: Waar eindig die Sjinees se skuld en waar begin sy éie aanspreeklikheid?

’n Ryke verskeidenheid karakters bevolk dié ambisieuse verhaal, van die Sjinese matriarg Ouma Voetjies in Amsterdam tot die blinde siener Ouma Ogies in die Oos-Kaap, van Cor van Gogh, hy met die kleinood in die koker, tot die enigmatiese, naamlose “Sy” . . .

Die wêreld van Charlie Oeng staan in die tradisie van breedopgesette vertellings met veelvuldige verhaallyne en uitgebreide agtergrondbeskrywings. Feit en verdigsel is sjarmant verweef in hierdie verbluffende roman.

Treasure is a naïve dreamer tossed into this unforgiving reality. Intent on supporting herself, she walks out of her dysfunctional family home in Westonaria and straight into the greedy heart of Jo’burg, disguised as the city of gold and black diamonds, to chase the illusion of fame and a happy ending.

But living a life of luxury in a society of artificial human beings comes at a hefty price. She is wooed by a wealthy man who grooms her into a power-hungry machine... but is the pleasure worth the pain and endless sacrifices? What can she offer a man who has everything but a soul? As her life crumbles around her, can Treasure alter her fate before it’s too late?

This inspirational novel is for all those who see one side to life; it's time to open your eyes to both sides of the coin.

Nataniel is weer op sy stukke. 41 magiese nuwe stories in Afrikaans en Engels, uit sy mees onlangse verhoogproduksies landswyd. Tegelyk absurd en tog so herkenbaar Suid-Afrikaans. Soos in Nicky & Lou, en sy jongste blitsverkoper 150 stories, is die verhale in Zip! spitsvondig en baie snaaks, en tog ook so wys. Hoe skryf hy op een plek: “As mense na jou staar of jou nie aanvaar nie, is dit heeltemal in die haak. Solank hulle vir jou hande klap.” 27 stories is in Afrikaans, en 14 in Engels.

Die verhaal van Cato van Johannesburg, wat in haar middeljare op ’n hartsreis na die Nyl gaan ná ’n ernstige verlies. Op haar tog word sy vergesel van ’n Egiptiese artefak, wat trouens een rede vir die reis is – dié antieke klein klipskilpadjie moet huis kry.

Vroeg in haar Nylbesoek ontmoet sy vir Da’oud, ’n jong Koptiese Egiptenaar op ’n eie lewensveranderende sending. Sy familie is intens geraak, oor etlike generasies, deur sosiopolitieke onrus en ongeregtigheid, met 2011 se onlus op die Tahrirplein as onlangse laagtepunt.

Op hul bootvaart op die Nyl ontmoet dié twee ietwat ongemaklike vriende ’n bonte verskeidenheid soekers en swerwers, en die terugkeer van die skilpadartefak na sy plek van heenkome word ’n simbool vir die afleggings en totruskom wat Cato en jong Da’oud, op sy eie, verskriklike manier, moet deurmaak – elkeen alleen.

’n Roman vir die fiksiefynproewer.

‘You would not think it to look at you, but your voice, when you use it: akin to a god’s. You must be careful what you do with it.’

Exiled Jacob Kitara takes in injured compatriots and nurses them in a boarded-up building. Social unrest has emptied the streets of London, movement into and out of the country has been suspended, and those who remain are in hiding.

When a young man makes his appearance, insisting that he is Jacob’s son – a man presumed dead, torn from Jacob’s life by war and guilt over the fate of the boy’s mother – Jacob is driven to anger.

But can this stranger offer Jacob a chance to reach back to a different continent, to the foot of Africa from where he has been banished, to atone for the past?

The Weight of Skin is a poignant tale of personal and political responsibility, and of the intricate narratives of family and nationality that bind us.

It is 1903. A lame and frail Malangana – 'Little Suns' – searches for his beloved Mthwakazi after many lonely years spent in Lesotho. Mthwakazi was the young woman he had fallen in love with twenty years earlier, before the assassination of Hamilton Hope ripped the two of them apart.

Intertwined with Malangana's story, is the account of Hope – a colonial magistrate who, in the late nineteenth century, was undermining the local kingdoms of the eastern Cape in order to bring them under the control of the British. It was he who wanted to coerce Malangana’s king and his people, the amaMpondomise, into joining his battle – a scheme Malangana’s conscience could not allow.

Zakes Mda's fine new novel Little Suns weaves the true events surrounding the death of Magistrate Hope into a touching story of love and perseverance that can transcend exile and strife.

Born on the cusp of democracy, the crew of young friends in Born Freeloaders navigates a life of drinking, wild parties and other recklessness. The siblings at the centre of the novel, Nthabiseng and Xolani, have been raised in an upper middle-class family with connections to the political elite. Nthabiseng is lauded by her peers as she whimsically goes through life, unable to form her own identity in a world that expects her to pick a side in the fractured classifications of race.

Xolani, not having known his late father, longs for acceptance from an uncle who sees him and his generation as the bitter fruit borne of a freedom he and countless others fought for. As the story moves across multiple spaces in the nation’s capital over a weekend, Born Freeloaders captures a political and cultural moment in the city’s and South Africa’s history. Interwoven is an analogous tale of the country’s colonisation and the consequences that follow.

And alongside the friends’ uneasy awareness of their privilege is a heightened sense of discomfort at their inability to change the world they were born into.

Pandora se kruik is oop ...

Ná ’n liefdesteleurstelling en ’n moeilike inperktyd, is Emma uiteindelik reg om weer uit haar dop te kruip. Net betyds vir baas Wim se aanloklike aanbod: ’n Projek neem hom Midde-Ooste toe en hy kort haar ondersteuning. Binnekort verdaag Emma na Siprus onder die voorwendsel om by haar suster te gaan kuier.

Maar die skone Siprus is nie net kristablou waters, sonnige strande en Griekse oudhede nie. Emma is immers daar om internasionale geldwasnetwerke oop te vlek, en gou ontdek sy dat die gevaar nader is as wat sy of Wim besef.

Wat kom maak die superseiljag saans naby die seegrotte? Waar lê hulle plaaslike agent Nikos se lojaliteit? Weet die vissermanne dalk meer as wat hulle voorgee?

Skielik lyk dit asof Pandora al die wêreld se euwels opnuut vrygelaat het. As Emma ooit weer vir Wim wil sien, en hom wil vertel hoe sy oor hom voel, sal sy een stappie voor moet bly.

In haar derde boek soek Marie Spruyt in die antieke wêreld na liefde en hoop vir al ons moderne euwels.

Joseph Mabaso is used to his father Sobhuza’s long absences from the family home in Lusaka. Sobhuza is a freedom fighter and doing important work, and Joseph has learned not to ask questions. But when Chanda, his mother, disappears without a trace, leaving him and his siblings alone, Joseph knows that something is terribly wrong.

And so begins a journey, physically arduous and dangerous and emotionally fraught, that no 14-year-old boy should have to undertake alone. Following the most tenuous of threads, Joseph finds some unlikely guides along the way: courageous Leila and her horses; Sis Violet and the guerrilla unit she commands; Mr Chikwedere, stonecutter and illicit trader; Madala at the Lesedi Repatriation Camp, who helps him find his voice; and Aunt Susie Juma, unofficial Zambian ambassador in Yeoville, Johannesburg, whose detective skills are legendary.

As Joseph navigates unfamiliar and often hostile territory in his search for his parents, he is on a parallel journey of discovery – one of identity and belonging – as he attempts to find a safe house that is truly safe, a language that understands all languages, and a place in his soul that feels like home.

In a moment of weakness, lawyer Ian Brand sends out a tweet; it changes his life irrevocably. Thuli Khumalo, Fallist leader on a campus that stinks of petrol and teargas, must choose between betraying her father and forsaking her principles. Snaar Windvogel, once the little violin girl of Matjiesfontein, is now in transition under the knife of Piekenier Leqluerck, plastic surgeon and fossa impresario.

These colourful characters populate a carnivalesque landscape where the only certainty is that the Mother City’s mysterious crossbow killer will strike again . . . while Twitter gangs spread suspicion, truck drivers are attacked on national roads, and Number One meets with gang leaders – all under the watchful eye of the Institute for Encouragement in a nameless city in China.

An astonishing novel documenting the turbulent time in which we live, where issues such as privacy and identity, fake news and fact, and race and ethnicity inflame passions.

Translated by Henrietta RoseInnes.

In her debut collection of short stories, Lindiwe Nkutha takes us through the minds of people you may overlook on an ordinary day: The wayward neighbour you vaguely remember seeing every day as a child until the day he vanished. The face you see every weekend at the local drinking hole, you exchange a polite nod but know little about, not even her name. The young woman who is caught between her faith and her love for a woman. Their lives are untidy, tainted with the pain, joy and violence as they share with us stories they wouldn't share with anyone else.

Nkutha's words weave in and around the weights we drag behind us from one place to another, with a sensitivity and wit required for such vulnerabilities and intimate moments.

‘Those in the know claim Michael K disembarked from a diesel-smoke-spewing truck one overcast morning, looked around, and without missing a beat, chose a spot where he set down a small bucket (red, burnt and disfigured) that contained an assortment of seedlings, some fisherman’s twine and a rudimentary gardening tool – probably self-made.’

How is it that a character from literary fiction can so alter the landscapes he touches, even as he – in his self-imposed isolation – seeks to avoid them? How is it that Michael K, bewildered and bewildering, can remain so fragile yet so present, so imposing without attempting to be so? In this response to JM Coetzee’s classic masterpiece, Life & Times of Michael K, Nthikeng Mohlele dabbles in the artistic and speculative in a unique attempt to unpack the dazed and disconnected world of the title character, his solitary ways, his inventiveness, but also to show how astutely Michael K holds up a mirror to those whose paths he inadvertently crosses. Michael K explores the weight of history and of conscience, thus wrestling the character from the confines of literary creation to the frontiers of artistic timelessness.

Those Who Live in Cages captures an astonishingly intimate view of life in Eldorado Park, a coloured township south of Johannesburg, through five women - Bertha, Kaylynn, Laverne, Janice and Raquel.

These unforgettable characters' lives intersect as they attempt to do the most important thing: survive another day in "The Park"

Willem Prins wanders the streets of Paris, disillusioned and glum. Once, he showed great promise as a South African writer of distinction, but years of disappointment have left their mark. Drowning himself in the Seine may well be the only option left to drive up his book sales. His reason for being in Paris - the French translation of an erotic novel he wrote under a pseudonym - is not exactly something to be proud of. He is no stranger to Paris. An ex-wife of his (one of three) lives in the city with his eldest son, a young man who barely knows his father. Willem finds an unlikely companion in Jackie, a young South African working as an au pair in the city, a woman old enough to be his daughter. Together, the two of them will face the chaos of the terror attacks on Friday the thirteenth in Paris. You Lost Me is bestselling author Marita van der Vyver's thirteenth novel, a story about life's thunder clouds and the bonds between us that offer shelter. It is a tale of disillusionment and loss, told with warmth and wicked humour.

Italiaanse sywurmboere word ingevoer om 'n sybedryf te kom vestig in Gouna se boswereld, maar moerbeibome verseg om in die potklei te groei. In die strawwe boswinter word die verwarde immigrante geteister deur reen, koorssiekte en onbegrip, en raak hulle al meer verbitter teen die goewerment wat hulle onder valse voorwendsels in die wildernis afgelaai het. Die man wat hulle tot hulp kom, is 'n bosmens met 'n onregeerbare dogter en 'n kop vol planne - die eiesinnige Silas Miggel. Hy wil hulle op 'n skip kry, terug Italie toe.

It is 1989, a high point of hope in South Africa’s political history. The nation is abuzz with rumours of Nelson Mandela’s imminent release, the dismantling of guerrilla camps and the possibility of peace.

A band of exiled People’s Army soldiers returns to South Africa. After years in Angola they think the change they have been fighting for is finally about to become a reality. They have been ordered to carry and deliver a sealed trunk to an unspecified destination. It is a mission that makes them a target as different parties set out to separate the men from the trunk and its mysterious contents, setting the stage for several fierce conflicts.

The Texture of Shadows explores a world of hardened guerrilla fighters, corrupt police officers, ex-political prisoners and the victims of abuse of a system of bannings and beatings. But there are also cracks in this steel-edged world that hope, love and beauty can fill as the reader is swept up in the story of Chaplain Nerissa Rodrigues and her fellow soldiers.

Tydens ’n staatsgreep in die Kongo, val ’n ekstremis en sy handlangers ’n sendingstasie aan met gruwelike gevolge. Een van die oorlewendes vlug vir haar lewe deur die reënwoud by die kuslyn af tot haar paaie haar terug lei na Suid Afrika.

Petro beland by Toevlug – ’n skuilplek vir randfigure soos sy met haar seer, ontnugterde hart. Daar ontmoet sy vir Riaan, ’n dominee wat hom oor haar ontferm, maar Petro wil niks weet van ’n God wat toegelaat het dat sy aan soveel genadelose geweld en hartverskeurende verlies blootgestel is nie.

’n Jaar later ontdek twee noodlenigingswerkers ’n verrassende vonds by ’n ou, versteekte mynskag in die reënwoud ... Ida en Gary tref reëlings om hulle kosbare ontdekking terug te neem na Suid-Afrika waar hulle werk hul ook na Toevlug neem.

Die een verloor haar geloof en die ander moet leer om te glo ... maar is dit te veel gevra om te hoop dat alles tog ten goede sal uitwerk? Kan blote geloof vertroosting bied en diep geëtste hart wonde weer gesond maak? Wat maak ’n mens met die letsels op jou hart wanneer oorbegin jou roep? En dan is daar ook die onmiskenbare samevloeiing van iets groters as hul albei wat hierdie vroue onlosmaaklik aan mekaar verbind. Beide Petro en Ida word tot die uiterste toe beproef ...

“U is ’n toevlug … ’n skuilplek …” het Jesaja gesê. Tussen aksie en avontuur, ongelooflike verlies en lyding, en die verbete houe van die noodlot, vind twee vroue mekaar in hul eie besonderse geloofsreise in Toevlug.

Hoe dans jy as die lied in jou hart stil geraak het?

Bekende musiekster, Zander Breedt, se muses het hom verlaat. Die helder ligte van die verhoog het hul glans verloor, en dit klink asof die suiwer melodieë in sy kop vervang is met ’n droewige klaaglied.

Boonop is daar sy nuwe skoonsus, Anine Vos, ’n joernalis, ’n spesie waarvoor hy nie baie ooghare het nie. Hy moet haar gedoog, al maak sy dit duidelik dat sy nie tyd het vir ’n popster soos hy nie. Tog, om een of ander rede begin die note weer helder deur Zander se
gedagtes klink wanneer sy naby is.

Anine kan nie verstaan hoekom juis sý die opdrag moes kry om ’n in diepte-artikel oor Zander te skryf nie. Sy het mos niks verloor by hierdie mislike musikant nie. Om deur sy lewe te krap is die laaste ding wat sy wil doen terwyl haar eie hart nog gebreek is.

“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.

Die drie Van der Walt niggies is elkeen vasgevang in hul eie uitdagings na die onlangse warrelwind van gebeure.

Lenore worstel met ’n groot persoonlike verlies. Die kringloop van haar beproewinge oor die afgelope tyd het haar vrese oor verlating wat sy al in kleintyd ontwikkel het, net verder verdiep. Maar noudat sy self ’n ma is, besef sy dat sy haarself hiervan sal moet bevry om ’n standvastige ouer vir haar kinders te wees. Hulle oupa Tjaart se visie vir Bateleur-reservaat rus ook op haar skouers, en sy dra swaar daaraan om getrou hieraan te bly.

Bella, wat al in haar tienerjare wees gelaat is ná haar ouers se selfvernietigende besluite, begeer ’n familie van haar eie. Ná haar broer, Jaco, se hartseer dood in ’n skiettragedie, het sy in haar alleenheid die ideaal van ’n perfekte familie nagejaag. Maar miskien is daar tog ’n hegte kring van liefde vir Bella bedoel wat nie uit die standaard definisie van die perfekte familie bestaan nie, maar eerder in die warm koestering van ’n laslap familie.

Tarien se fokus is só onwrikbaar gevestig op haar toewyding aan die Here en die opofferings wat sy in haar diens aan Hom maak, dat sy nie besef haar sendeling bestaan het ’n selfopgelegde prys geëis wat die Vader nooit van haar gevra het nie. Haar ma is sterwend en Tarien begin wonder oor haar im-pulsiewe, romantiese uitkyk op die lewe en hoe dit haarself en haar naastes benadeel. Sy begin twyfel of dit ooit só moes wees. Miskien lê die antwoorde op haar vrae en brose behoeftes op haar grootwordplaas ...

A story of two passionate people who share a shameful past and a tenuous present, this remarkable narrative follows headmistress Mohumagadi--of the elite Sekolo sa Ditlhora school for talented black children--and Father Bill, a disgraced preacher, as they are brought together again decades after a childhood love affair expelled them from their communities. Much to the dismay of her students, Mohumagadi hires Father Bill as a teacher, resulting in a battle of wills and wits for the hearts and minds of the children living in the shadow of revolution and change. Entertaining and thought-provoking, this unique account offers insight into the workings of African culture.

When Laurence Waters arrives at his rural hospital posting, Frank, a fellow doctor there, is instantly suspicious. Laurence is everything Frank is not – young, optimistic and full of new schemes. The two become uneasy friends, while the rest of the staff in the deserted hospital view Laurence with a mixture of awe and mistrust.

The town beyond the hospital is also coping with new arrivals, and the return of old faces. The Brigadier – a self-fashioned dictator from apartheid days – is rumoured to still be alive. And down at Mama’s Place, a group of soldiers has moved in with their malign commandant, a man Frank has met before and is keen to avoid. Laurence wants to help – but in a world where the past is demanding restitution from the present, his ill-starred idealism cannot last.

In gleaming prose Damon Galgut has created a literary thriller out of an unlikely friendship. The Good Doctor is a gripping novelistic high-wire act