Daar is ’n kluis in ’n winkeltrollie op die dak van Wille Willemien se 4×4.

Want sy en haar sus is op pad. Richtersveld toe. Om tussen Eksteenfontein en Khuboes hul pa se kluis – en sy sneeujas – nou ná sy dood oor ’n afgrond te boender.

Terwyl die twee vroue reis, ontvou die verhaal van Willemien en haar pa:

’n Storie oor ’n Afrikaanse Al Capone, ’n man wie se duister sakeondernemings nie net tot die grense van Suid-Afrika beperk was nie. In Palm Springs dra sy lyfwagte koeldrank vir die fbi-agente aan vanwaar hulle sy huis dophou. Vroeër jare moet Willemien in haar pa se kattebak wegkruip terwyl hy sake in verlate parkeerareas doen. Ná sulke uitstappies was haar beloning altyd ’n lekkerny, en só word haar lewenslange stryd met kos aangevuur.

Van Kaapstad na San Francisco en selfs Sri Lanka, met ’n wavrag vol seks, drugs & rock ’n’ roll, tref Anoeschka von Meck se nuutste roman jou soos ’n reusegolf en spoel sy die verhoudings oop wat van ons denkende, spirituele wesens maak.

Meet Zinhle, the glamorous Siren, as she reels through the highs and lows of fame-seeking in Jozi.

Zinhle lives through a sham marriage, a stint as the lover of a Nollywood high-roller, sex parties, and an affair with a football star. She bed-hops from man to powerful man, overcoming cattiness, rivalry, cheating and dodgy agents, to nab a starring role in Heritage, a highly successful soapie. She has attitude and sass in bucket loads and is never far from the latest front-page scandal.

Siren, Kuli Roberts’s gripping debut novel, is a classic rags-to-riches tale, jam-packed with drama, hot sex and reversals of fortune that will keep readers zipping through the pages until the very end.

Bandile Ndala is a once-successful scriptwriter who now struggles with substance abuse, anxiety and depression as he starts to lose his tenuous grip on reality.

His career has stagnated with the rejection of his literary work and life at home with his family is under strain. His life starts to descend into a living nightmare, literally. Bandile is desperately searching for inspiration so he can make a much-needed comeback. When Bandile finds himself in room 28 at the Cariba Inn with a sultry temptress he wonders whether he has gone crazy. Has the formerly brilliant writer who churned out hit TV show after hit TV show lost his mind? Is he on drugs? Or is it all in something he ate at a dinner a few years back…?

Buthelezi takes us through the inner workings of Bandile’s mind as he thinks about his writing and battles with the possibility of not producing something meaningful, ever. The Last Sentence introduces us to a remarkable literary talent. Tumelo Buthelezi is an exceptional storyteller.

’n Verhaal oor sterk vroue, bendegeweld en aanvaarding.

Niemand spreek haar as Nicola de Wee aan nie. Vir Blackie, die kollega in wie se plek sy telkens bevorder word, is sy “ounooi”; vir Peters, wat onredbaar beenaf op haar is, is sy “kaptein”; haar priestervriendin Sally noem haar “Nic”. Dis net die Khayelitsha-stasiebevelvoerder vir wie sy “kaptein De Wee” heet.

Die nag toe hulle na ’n brandende voertuig uitgeroep word, kon kaptein De Wee nie droom dat dit Thandi se motor is nie, dat sy later haar grusaam verminkte lyk sou moes uitken, en watter verreikende uitwerking die moord op haar vriendekring sou hê nie. Allermins dat sy uiteindelik die ondersoek na die moord sou moes lei.

Maar om die agt moordenaars op te spoor en hul motief te ontrafel, is nie die enigste uitdaging waarvoor Nicci in hierdie ongewoon verweefde misdaadroman taan nie. Sy het self ’n geheim wat sy slim verdoesel. Tot die aand dat sy en Blackie en Peters ’n potjie maak.

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.

Elaine vlug weg van haar verloofde, Alex sonder enige verduideliking.

Haar geheim bly haar eie want as Alex ooit moet uitvind sal dit sy lewe ruïneer, of so glo sy. Sy het geen ander keuse as om met Ben van Staden, die rykmanseun van Bloemfontein, te trou nie.

Die jare wat volg is verwonde jare gevul met vrees en verwyt. Elaine verloor haar geloof in ‘n liefdevolle God en dit is net wyn wat haar help om soms te vergeet. Maar haar liefde vir Alex bly ’n brandende vuur in haar binneste wat nie geblus kan word nie.

Skielik, ná sewe jaar, staan Alex weer voor haar en sy besef dat God tog alles ten goede kan laat meewerk vir die wat Hom liefhet. Maar, sal Alex haar ooit kan vergewe vir die onreg wat sy aan hom gedoen het?

’n Meesleurende roman oor ’n verbode passie en ’n politieke intrige. Dis gebaseer op ’n werklike historiese insident, en die gevolge daarvan: Die ontmoeting in 1940 tussen Dr DF Malan en ‘n Duitse spioen, mev Thyra Denk. Nou, in 1946, kry Dieter Bergman, ’n senior polisieman, instruksies om mev Denk per trein van Windhoek na Kaapstad te vergesel, waar sy voor ’n Gekose Komitee van die Parlement moet getuig. As daar bewys kan word dat Malan met die Nazi’s meegewerk het tydens die Tweede Wereldoorlog, kan hy van hoogverraad aangekla word en sal dit die einde van sy politieke loopbaan beteken. Tydens die lang reis per trein ontstaan daar ‘n verhouding tussen Bergman en die beeldskone spioen. Op die trein is egter ook ene adv Doerkstra. Sy missie: hy moet die spioen in die geheim te sien kry en haar oorrreed om nie met haar getuienis Malan se loopbaan te vernietig nie...

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.

A young man makes three journeys that take him through Greece, India and Africa. He travels lightly, simply. To those who travel with him and those whom he meets on the way – including a handsome, enigmatic stranger, a group of careless backpackers and a woman on the edge – he is the Follower, the Lover and the Guardian. Yet, despite the man’s best intentions, each journey ends in disaster.

Together, these three journeys will change his whole life.

A novel of longing and thwarted desire, rage and compassion, In a Strange Room is the hauntingly beautiful evocation of one man’s search for love, and a place to call home.

Willing myself not to look away, I tried to make out her features and realised, with a jolt, that she looked exactly like me. Like me, but different. Something about how she held herself told me that this girl was as strong as steel. I knew instinctively that I should not look away. Then the Other Me smiled and said, ‘Don’t worry Lolly. I’ve got this.’

Who is Lolly, really? And who is the man who claims to love her? What happens when they drop their carefully constructed masks and allow their real selves to be seen?

Based on true events, Sex, Lies & Stellenbosch uncovers what really goes on behind closed doors in the seemingly up-standing community of Stellenbosch, one of South Africa’s wealthiest small towns, where 3,400 dollar millionaires live (before they invested in Steinhoff shares). Written as fiction to protect the innocent, the book exposes the explosive dark truths of the Winelands’ elite.

All is revealed through the eyes of stay at home mom, 49-year-old Jen, who is the wife of John, a renowned wine farmer and businessman. Jen, like many of her privileged friends, lives a charmed life provided by her husband, in exchange for conjugal sex and obligatory wifely gratitude. When Jen stumbles upon her playboy husband in a compromising position with his sexy employee, things fall apart. Jen is forced to choose between leaving her marriage, jeopardising her standing and stability in the community or turning a blind eye to his infidelity. The book follows Jen’s passage to self-discovery and self-fulfillment, while other characters’ perspectives move the story forward as each is privy to (and eventually reveals) at least one ‘truth’ or ‘lie’ which Jen must face.

Jen’s exposition of her husband’s infidelity inadvertently mirrors the underbelly of the patriarchal and often duplicitous community of the seemingly perfect Stellenbosch. Led by prominent wine farmers, international businessmen and renowned academics, business and private interests, even if ethically compromised, are staunchly guarded. The unfolding chapters irreverently explore both the emotional growth of the protagonist, Jen, as well as the moral ambiguities of the other players in the book.

Winner of the Dinaane Debut Fiction Award.

Since coming of haemorrh-age, Frith must wear a LipService patch to write or speak. The words the patch produces are not her own. Scripted by copywriters, they promote one sponsoring brand or another. With them, ‘You’ – a voice in her head that is the patch’s brand persona and her conformist alter ego – appears.

Through the noise of You talking a variety of different LipService brands, Frith struggles to find her way back to speaking for herself. She believes her tastures – her ability to taste things she touches – are the key. But other elements of this consumerist society are equally interested in tastures for commercial gain.

Emil Coetzee, a civil servant in his fifties, is washing blood off his hands when the ceasefire is announced.

Like everyone else, he feels unmoored by the end of the conflict. War had given him his sense of purpose, his identity.

But why has Emil’s life turned out so different from his parents’, who spent cheery Friday evenings flapping and flailing the Charleston or dancing the foxtrot? What happened to the Emil who used to wade through the singing elephant grass of the savannah, losing himself in it? Prize-winning novelist Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu traces Emil’s life from boyhood to manhood – from his days at a privileged boarding school with the motto ‘It is here that boys become the men of history’, to his falling in love with the ever-elusive Marion, whose free-spirited nature has dire consequences for his heart – all the while showing how Emil becomes a man apart.

Set in a southern African country that is never named, this powerful tale of human fallibility – told with empathy, generosity and a light touch – is an excursion into the interiority of the coloniser.

’n Nuwe novelle van die gewilde skrywer Jeanne Goosen verskyn binnekort by Hemel & See Boeke. Sneeu in die Karoo ’n uiters rare boek, waarin twee novelles verskyn: Eerstens Jeanne Goosen se beskrywing van ’n maand se verblyf in Nieu-Bethesda. Sy gaan juis na dié klein Karoodorpie om te skryf en neem haar huishulp, Agnes Morao, saam.

Om Agnes besig te hou, koop Jeanne vir haar ’n Croxley oefenboek en ’n pen. Agnes begin skryf oor alles wat sy in Nieu-Bethesda ervaar – en oor haar kinderdae – terwyl die eintlike skrywer, Jeanne Goosen, nie aan die werk kan kom nie.

Die verskyning van Agnes se boek – dit is ook die titel daarvan – in een band saam met Jeanne Goosen se novelle is heel waarskynlik ’n eerste in wêreldletterkunde!

“disruption[noun] - Disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activity, or process.”

The title and topic chosen for our seventh collection of stories from around Africa, decided before the world as we knew it changed, turned out to be eerily prescient. Drawn from the four corners of the continent, from Libya and Sierra Leone to Kenya and Botswana, these twenty-one stories serve up an imaginative feast, many unfolding the consequences of the environmental degradation of the planet.

But the contributors have not parroted the doom and gloom often found in dystopian or apocalyptic fiction. Instead, they have opted for wildly original narratives featuring sea monsters, zombies, time and space travel, cyborgs, immortals, gods and goddesses both benevolent and terrifying, and even a one-eyed octopus. This riot of colour and creativity offers fierce and rich allegories of colonial conquest and late capitalism, and probes patriarchal family and social structures with deft fingers.

The reader will find comedy, the absurd, and the surreal in these pages, as well as lovingly drawn and often valedictory accounts of the natural world and its denizens. Above all, these stories tell of human connection in the face of impossibly difficult circumstances, providing much-needed comfort and inspiration.

Prepare to be disturbed, moved, and entertained. This is the disruption you’re really looking for.

Henk Andreas de Melker, eerste museumassistent in 'n klein dorpie in die Oos-Kaap, kry onverwags 'n brief van 'n juris in Nederland. Die brief lig Henk in dat hy sy lankverdwene Tante Zan se huis in Amsterdam geerf het. Tante Zan met die geheime lewe, waarvan Henk in Amsterdam gaan uitvind. Ook Tante Zan, die aktrise met die onverwoesbare erotiese drif en die politieke aktivis met die voorliefde vir vreemde vriende, soos die rolprentmaker Cecil Dimaggio en die Luandese straatmusikant van die Leidse plein. Ten slotte moet Henk kies of hy in Amsterdam gaan woon, en of hy na Suid-Afrika gaan terugkeer. Maar eers moet hy alles oopvlek wat van hom weggesteek is, en sy eie lewe opnuut leer ken. Sy dertig nagte in Amsterdam verander die besadigde Henk de Melker se lewe vir altyd.

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.

Hierdie verhaal van liefde en geweld speel af teen die agtergrond van dwelmgebruik en bendegeweld.

Kara de Lange het as 10-jarige die skietdood van haar broer aanskou en dié emosionele trauma lei tot sowel emosionele- as huweliksprobleme. Sy en haar man, Johan, besluit dat sy ’n paar dae by haar vriendin Jackie op Montagu gaan kuier om meer perspektief te kry.

Hier ontmoet sy vir Armand, ’n skrywer wat aanvanklike sukses behaal het, maar wie jare laas ’n boek uitgegee het. Die wederkerige aantrekkingskrag tussen Kara en Armand is egter gekompliseerd. Sy worstel nog met die emosionele nalatenskap van trauma terwyl hy daarenteen uiters gesteld is op sy privaatheid, leefstyl en behoefte aan ’n ongekompliseerde, geroetineerde lewe. Hy bewaar sy emosies dig binne hom.

Adam Human het ’n verskriklike geheim. So groot, om die waarheid te vertel, dat hy eers sou moes doodgaan as hy ooit ’n kans vir oor begin wou hê. Hy sou alles moes agterlaat en wegraak in een van die laaste wildernisse op aarde.

Maar elke reisiger is in ’n sekere sin ’n vlugteling, en elke voortvlugtige ’n ontdekkingsreisiger wat soveel meer met hom saamdra as net die dinge in sy rugsak ...

Dis moeilik om te glo dat so iemand rêrig bestaan, sou die mense later sê.

Onwetend hoe vreemd sy ware storie eintlik is. Want dit was ’n waterwese wat hy as kind in ’n droom raakgeloop het, wat hom gelei het na die spikkel op ’n kaart, Noord van Lamu.

Met ’n nuwe naam was hy op soek na lewe ná die dood. En soos met amper elke ware ontdekkingsreis, sou sy vlugtog oor land en see ook na ’n afgeleë eiland lei. ’n Plek waar hy uiteindelik alleen kon wees, weg van alles en almal.

Of so het hy gedink.

Sy lewe was nie een lang uitgerekte storie nie, maar eerder ’n bondel erg teenstrydige verhale, in chaos verweef. Van hulle naïef en selfs onskuldig. Van hulle wreed en donker en verskriklik en boos . . . en van hulle, so beautiful soos die bewegings van Lamu se laaste doegong.

Camugu, recently returned to Johannesburg and disillusioned by the new democracy, moves to the remote Eastern Cape. There, in the nineteenth century, a teenage prophetess commanded the Xhosa people to kill their cattle and burn their crops, promising that the spirits of their ancestors would rise and drive the English into the ocean. The failed prophecy split the people in two, with devastating consequences. One hundred and fifty years later, the two groups’ decendants are at odds over plans to build a vast casino and tourist resort, and Camugu is soon drawn into their heritage and their future—and into a bizarre love triangle as well.

He is speaking in a hushed tone, as if this is a forbidden subject. 'He said there were twins here, boys. He said their father died on the day they were born.' He stops and squints as if trying to remember something. 'I'm not sure if I'm getting the story right, but there were other twins before, but they all died. The father must have done something because these two lived, only them, and then he died. They were good children, that's what my father said, but then one day they must have been 14 years old...' He stops when he hears a gasp.

'What happened? What did they do?' Qhawe asks. 'They killed a priest. He was one of those that were recruiting people o join a church, and most people here believed him and followed him. He built a school and stuff. The twins went to that school. But he must have made them very angry because...' 'How did they kill him?'-Mqhele

The man shrugs before he speaks. 'From what I was told, they slit his throat and left him sitting on a chair, bleeding to death.' There's silence. The man is telling the story like its an urban legend, but they know, it is a familiar one. 'Is that what you wanted to know?' the man asks, looking at Sisekelo. He doesn't answer. 'So, what happened to the twins' mother?' Qhawe asks. The man sighs deeply. 'They burnt her alive.'

Nadine Gordimer's subtle and detailed study of the forces and relationships seething in the South Africa of the day.

Mehring is rich. He has all the privileges and possessions that South Africa has to offer, but his possessions refuse to remain objects. His wife, son and mistress leave him; his foreman and workers become increasingly indifferent to his stewardship; even the land rises up, as drought, then flood, destroy his farm. As the upheaval in Mehring's world increasingly resembles that in the country as a whole, it becomes clear that only a seismic shift in ideas and concrete action can avert annihilation.

Liefde vra soms van jou om onmoontlik dapper te wees. Teen haar beterwete nooi Mieke vir Boeta in haar huis en haar lewe. Sy het nie geweet van haar man se vorige verhouding of sy kind nie. Hoe kan sy Boeta kwalik neem vir sy pa se vergrype as jongman? Buitendien, Boeta hou almal se harte in die holte van sy hand. Mieke leer dat die mense wat jy liefhet soms van jou vra om onmoontlik dapper te wees. Dat seerkry en heelword verskillende kante van 'n munt is. En dat almal uiteindelik die koestering van huis en huismense nodig het.

Shadow Play is a powerful novel of subterfuge, betrayal, risk and deep bonds of friendship formed during a time of struggle and pain while a new nation, determined to rise, faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

When confronted with his call-up papers for the apartheid army, with his fellow student activists either scattered or in jail, Matthew chooses exile in Europe. In Amsterdam, he reconnects with his friend Oliver, who is studying music there. As he falls into a different rhythm of life, as contented as he is in a loving relationship and a job in a music store, the pull of his homeland never leaves him. When he receives an unexpected call from a former activist comrade, he makes a decision that will put at risk everything he has built in his new life. And when he meets Mandla for the first time, he knows there will be no going back.

For Matthew, the reality of living as a refugee and an immigrant in Europe begins to intrude and with it a new and sometimes disquieting understanding of protest politics and the liberal ideal. For Mandla, directions to a liberated country that were once clear to him and untainted by self-interest and the seduction of power, become blurred at times and increasingly uncomfortable. Both men have to search deep in their hearts when they are asked to make choices that challenge them morally, personally and politically.

(Author Gerald Kraak passed away in 2014. Kraak was in the process of writing Shadow Play when he died, leaving an unfinished draft in the care of his literary executor with the novel evenutally being completed by Alison Lowry).