Petrus wil sy kleinseun opspoor sodat hy sy geliefde plaas aan iemand kan nalaat.

Anina is ’n maatskaplike werker wat as kind al deur mans seksueel misbruik is.

Petrus vertrou nie jong vroue nie. Anina haat ou mans. Tog besluit hulle om mekaar te help.

Maar hoe oorkom jy jare se seer en wantroue? En hoe vind jy ’n aangenome kind as die ma doelbewus haar spore doodgevee het? Kan twee generasies wat op verskillende maniere en plekke mishandel is, mekaar ooit daarvan oortuig dat vergifnis die enigste weg na vryheid uit hul wrokkigheid 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.

Willem is ‘n eenkantkind. Sy pa, die formidabele dominee Riaan Cronjé, is die trots van Bijlstad se Moedergemeente. Sy woord is wet; dit bepaal dat Willem in sy voetspore sal volg en ook die kansel bestyg.

By die seunskool tel al die Bybelstudie egter vir niks. Daar is Willem omring deur ’n spul Filistyne wat die see nie kan skoon was nie; tieners met seks op die brein en ’n dialek wat die verf van die mure af laat dop.

Te midde ’n eensame uur in ‘n koffiewinkel, kom sit ’n aantreklike ouer vrou oorkant die kerkseun. Sonder om ’n woord te sê, neem sy ’n hap van sy beskuit, ’n sluk van sy koffie, en verdwyn so gou soos sy verskyn het.

Willem, te oorbluf om enige rooi vlaggies op te let, is natuurlik die volgende dag terug.

Sy ook.

Grietjie se loutering is die aangrypende verhaal van ’n weduwee wat haar inkomste as tydelike huiswerker verdien in Grabouw. Sy sukkel om kop bo water te hou, maar haar geloof dra haar. Wanneer haar seun deur ’n provinsiale rugbyspan gewerf word, het die gesin hoop op ’n beter lewe.

Grietjie se geloof word getoets wanneer ’n tragedie die gesin tref.

“Ek weet wanneer ek eendag by die punt kom waar ek weer met die Here kan praat met vrymoedigheid, dan wag Hy vir my. En wanneer dit voel ek kan nie meer nie, dan dra Hy my. Maak nie saak wat ek verloor nie, ek het Hom altyd. Wat meer wil ek hê?”

Turning her back on what is considered conventional, Makhosazana Xaba engages with her subject-matter on a revolutionary level in Running and Other Stories.

She takes tradition - be that literary tradition, cultural tradition, gender tradition - and re-imagines it in a way that is liberating and innovative. Bracketed by Xaba's revisitings of Can Themba's influential short story, The Suit, the ten stories in this collection, while strongly independent, are in conversation with one another, resulting in a collection that can be devoured all at once or savoured slowly, story by story.

By re-envisioning the ordinary and accepted, Xaba is creating a space in which women's voices are given a rebirth.

Bippie se pad word onderbreek met haar onbeplande swangerskap, dus moet sy nou ’n nuwe een soek. Sy maak 'n belofte teenoor die Here - sy sal nie weer ’n man in haar lewe toelaat as hy nie met haar wil trou nie. Maar die man wat skielik al onder haar voete is, Riekert Tredoux. Hy het lankal besluit hy wil nooit trou nie. Toe hy en sy broer klein seuntjies was het sy ma hulle net so gelos en by die voordeur uitgestap. So hy het allerhande issues. Sal Bippie haar belofte gestand kan doen en Riekert wel wil trou?

Jou buurman dink hy besit die polisie ...

Petra Smit erf onverwags haar oupa se ou werkswinkel in ʼn klein Vrystaatse dorpie. Daar is gelukkig kopers wat tou staan vir die gebou, maar Petra gaan, heel nuuskierig, kyk na hierdie eiendom waarvan sy nie glad nie geweet het nie. Daar aangekom, ontdek sy die erf vol motorwrakke wat aan die plaaslike slagter behoort. Dié einste slagter is ook die buurman, hy is 'n vroueslaner en hy skeep sy seun, Monty, af, maar hy het kontant en staan gereed om Smit Motors te koop. Petra, wat baie lief was vir haar oupa, wil nie die erflating aan so 'n persoon verkoop nie en 'n mini-oorlog breek uit. Dinge word nog moeiliker toe Arno, 'n reus van 'n man met die psige van 'n kind, aan haar deur kom klop. Hy wil help. Die reus maak homself tuis en word vriende met die slagter se seun, Monty. Petra hoort nie in hierdie dorp nie. Sy mis haar mooi meisie en die roman wat sy wil skryf, bly tweede kom in die oorlog met die slagter. Die slagter hoort wel op die dorp. Hy ken die polisie en intimideer almal. Sal die vreemde Petra en haar twee nuwe maats, Arno en Monty, die oorlog kan wen?

Die boek word uit verskeie perspektiewe vertel. Petra is een perspektiefkarakter, so ook is die Johanna, Monty se oppasser. Aan die ander kant van die wêreld bly Susan, ʼn kunstenaar, vasgevang in ʼn luukse Sweedse kunstepark, nog 'n perspektiefkarakter. Wat het hierdie vroue met mekaar in gemeen? Hoe bind Smit Motors hulle almal? Smit Motors is toeganklike literêre fiksie. Réney Warrington slaag daarin om die spanning snaarstyf te hou, terwyl die leser die speurwerk moet doen, wetende dat iemand se bloed sal moet vloei. Die vraag is: Wie s'n?

It is winter in London in 1947. When Arthur Bailey, an elderly painter who lives alone, catches sight of a young woman, Felicity, about to move into the neighbouring bed-sit, he is stirred to recall in haunting detail a long-suppressed narrative.

The Landscape Painter is a double tale of obsession, betrayed trust and irrepressible hope, which emerges as Arthur’s story unfolds. As a young, brilliant landscape painter he travelled to South Africa in 1898 in pursuit of his best friend’s sister, the beautiful and mysterious Carwyn Hamilton. Carwyn’s subsequent shocking betrayal led Arthur down a dark path of humiliation and haunted him for the next fifty years.

As Arthur delves ever deeper into his most intimate thoughts and desires, the past and present come together in a series of surprising turns and parallels and we meet a range of memorable characters – from the malevolent German governess, Miss Klimt, to Carwyn’s flirtatious and increasingly senile grandmother, Mutti. Finally, Arthur is forced to confront Felicity with the irreducible damage done to him.

From the gold-crazed streets of early Johannesburg to the epic battlefields of the Anglo-Boer War, and the austerity of post-Second World War Britain, The Landscape Painter is a spectacular historical novel packed with wit and insight and crafted in Higginson’s lyrical and sinuous but surgical prose.

Against the backdrop of a world in flux at the start of a new century, Arctic Summer portrays the life of British writer E. M. Forster: his inner turmoil, his search for love and the story behind one of the greatest novels in English, A Passage to India.

In 1912, Forster follows his friend Syed Ross Masood to India. It is on this journey – travelling around the country while it is still under British rule – that the seeds of his novel are planted. But it will be another twelve years, and a second time spent in India, before his book is published. Between these two journeys lie the writing of an unpublishable novel, the outbreak of the First World War, and a long stay in Alexandria, where he has an unlikely affair with an Egyptian tram conductor. As we follow Forster across continents – stuttering, aching, his love mostly unrequited – Galgut captures with colour and exquisite delicacy the England, India and Egypt of the era.

Meticulously researched, Arctic Summer conjures the figure of Forster in all his contradictory genius, providing a fascinating glimpse into the creation of a masterpiece.

Toe Daan van der Walt, ’n eerstydse Kalahari-boer, ’n vertigo-aanval kry, laai sy vervreemde seun hom by ’n monnikeklooster in China af. Onder leiding van Meester Yang moet Daan tai chi doen in ’n poging om sy balans te herstel. Maar daar is ook iets anders wat aan Daan vreet, iets wat hy van sy hart móét afkry voor hy sy weg na die hiernamaals kan vind. Dalk is dit tyd dat hy aan Magrieta, sy oorlede vrou, skryf en sê dat hy haar liefgehad het.

In Die Dao van Daan van der Walt word die Afrikaner-dilemma in die moderne lewe met ’n fyn lem oopgevlek.

For the first time, K. Sello Duiker’s well-known The Hidden Star is now available in isiXhosa.

This is a book of questions and answers. But you already know what you want to ask, which is why you are reading. In fact, the truth is that you already know the answer to your question – you just have to listen to yourself.

Eleven-year-old Nolitye’s granny used to say: if you mess with a woman, you mess with a stone. When Nolitye finds a magical stone on the dusty streets of Phola, her granny’s words take on a new meaning. Along with her two friends – the somewhat pampered Bheki, and Four Eyes, a reformed member of the Spoilers gang led by Rotten Nellie – Nolitye puts the powers of the stone to good use: for the first time the threesome can stand up to the Spoilers; Nolitye can save the life of Rex, the leader of a pack of talking township mutts; and dare to look scary MaMtonga with her living brown-and-green snake necklace in the eye.

But soon Nolitye finds out that the purplish-blue magic stone is but five stones needed to put right things that started to go wrong the day her father died in a mining accident when she was five years old. Or so she was told by her mother ...

By merging a cast of characters straight out of African myth folklore with everyday township life, K. Sello Duiker created a magical world and a truly wondrous quest, a timeless tale that will appeal to an ageless audience.

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.

Who can ever understand the heart of a mother when she is forced to abort her baby. Furthermore, who can ever understand the emotions of that baby when she finds out thirty- five years later, that she survived three attempted abortions. And then the final discovery: whó is really the Sustainer of Life and Death?

“Tell it just as it happened, Mommy!” Lodene’s urgent voice pleaded with me and I was transported to the events of thirty-five years ago. There is a saying, “The truth shall set you free.” “Does it?” I had to ask myself as I battled through every word. The story is a truly captivating novel of suspense from the pen of a mother who begged the life of her baby from the hand of God. It will enthral readers and you will experience fierce emotions of love, disappointment, pain and hate. Thís true story took place in 1983, when abortion was illegal.

Lonika, a young woman, lost her heart to a respected businessman, Wilhelm. “Lost in love,” is what Stephan would call it with a shrug of his broad shoulders, as he helplessly watches his brother, Wilhelm, change into a cruel, cold hearted spouse who tries his utmost to end the life of his unborn baby in underhanded ways. Lonika’s life becomes a treacherous journey between lies and heartless brutality. She escapes and flees to safety. Enough is enough! A life is taken. A life is given – but at a price. Once again Lonika must stand naked in the face of fierce negotiations.

Hierdie boek is ’n hersiene weergawe van Emma is g’n engel nie (2011).

Emma dra verskriklike verwyte in haar binneste rond. Sy het iets vreesliks gedoen en dit kou aan haar. Sy voel al klaar moeilik om lief te hê met haar mollige lyf en haar vaal gelaatstrekke. Miskien as sy ook funky en blond en pret kon wees sou sy liefde kon vind. Sy wil ook weet hoe dit voel om iemand se arms styf om jou te voel … iemand soos Burger Botha.

Dis ’n eensame pad wat sy stap en die laaste mense by wie sy kan troos soek is haar ma en suster. Die Bybelversies van haar kindertyd weergalm in haar kop en herinner haar dat sy eintlik maar ’n closet Christen is. Sy weet wat sy verkeerd gedoen het, wat sy aangevang het, maar hoe gaan sy dit regmaak? Waar begin sy om na vergifnis te soek?

As ’n mens nie van jouself hou nie is dit moeilik om te glo dat iemand anders van jou sal kan hou. En as Emma nie haarself kan vergewe, of vir haarself lief kan wees nie, wie sal ooit kan? Sy voel allesbehalwe soos ’n engel, eintlik meer soos ’n duiwel, om die waarheid te sê. Haar skuld is te swaar om alleen te dra.

Emma het gehoor dat bevryding jou vlerke gee, en daar is soveel engel-vroue rondom haar met vlerke. Dalk kan hulle haar help om haar eie vlerke te kry sodat sy uiteindelik vry en haarself kan wees.

Ná jare van ontbering vind Mina Afrika geluk in Whitewing Lodge, ’n gastehuis op die rotse naby Visbaai. In die moderne kombuis leef sy haar ten volle uit as sjef; sy raak al hoe meer betrokke by die interessantste mense. Dan verander 'n doodgewone aankondiging oor bykomende gaste vir middagete alles.

Skielik word dit weer nag vir Mina. En vir die mense naaste aan haar.

An extraordinary, ambitious, globe-spanning novel about what we owe our consciences.

Fleeing her moribund marriage in Cape Town, Beth accepts a diplomatic posting to Shanghai. In this anonymous city she hopes to lose herself in books, wine, and solitude, and to dodge whatever pangs of conscience she feels for her fealty to a South African regime that, by the 21st century, has betrayed its early promises.

At night, she hears the sound of typing, and then late one evening Zhao arrives at her door. They explore hidden Shanghai and discover a shared love of Langston Hughes–who had his own Chinese and African sojourns. But then Zhao vanishes, and a typewritten manuscript–chunk by chunk–appears at her doorstep instead. The truths unearthed in this manuscript cause her to reckon with her own past, and the long-buried story of what happened to Kay, her fearless, revolutionary friend…

Connecting contemporary Shanghai, late Apartheid-era South Africa, and China during the Great Leap Forward and the Tiananmen uprising–and refracting this globe-trotting and time-traveling through Hughes’ confessional letters to a South African protege about the poet’s time in Shanghai–How to Be a Revolutionary is an amazingly ambitious novel. It’s also a heartbreaking exploration of what we owe our countries, our consciences, and ourselves.

In the Shadow of the Springs I Saw is an exploration, and stories, of people who live in the Art Deco buildings of Springs.

It is the imagined lives of those who live in a space that is not theirs historically but one that they have reclaimed.

This work, in times of doom and complaint, creates a new narrative: one of revival, vigour and celebration.

Jy is te naby aan die water,” fluister Paul. “Babers slaap in die modder. Hulle sal wakker word as jy op hulle trap.”

Paul en Dominique se sorgelose kinderdae op ’n Vrystaatse plaas is vir ewig verby wanneer hul ouers se linkse politiek die skoollewe op die dorp onmoontlik maak.

Hulle word weggestuur na kosskole in Natal. Paul is ’n belowende jong digter, sy suster sy vertroueling.

Maar Paul is vol woede en sy ontwaking word ’n afwaartse spiraal. Hulle vlieg London toe om die bedrukking van Suid Afrika te ontsnap, maar hy gaan ook sy dood tegemoet.

Dominique Botha se roerende debuutroman is ’n elegie vir die lewe van haar kleintyd en haar verlore broer. Die boek is op ware gebeure gebaseer.

Elkeen wat vra, ontvang, elkeen wat soek, vind, en vir elkeen wat klop sal oopgemaak word.

Vir die welgestelde sakeman, Adam Swart, is geloof egter nie so maklik nie. Dis juis hoekom sy dogter, Lea, en haar ma van hom vervreem is. Wanneer Lea se ma egter sterf, gryp Adam die kans aan om sy verhouding met sy dogter te herbou.

Hulle Wildekus-wegbreek het skaars begin wanneer ’n groep rondswerwende gelowiges reg langs hulle kom laer trek met ’n versameling voos en vodde karavane. Kort daarna, onder die wakende oog van hulle jong, imposante leier, begin die luidkeelse gesanik, nagtelike kruisvure en waansinnige seedopery. Dis alles net te veel vir Adam, en sy frustrasies loop oor in ’n ernstige kopstampery met Lea. Die volgende oggend is die karavane skoonveld. Sy dogter ook.

Hy moet vir Lea gaan vind as hy ooit weer vrede in sy gemoed wil hê. In die diep Transkei beland hy op die spoor van Die Lewende Vlees, ’n sekte swerwers wat daar tussen die heuwels hulle eie stukkie paradys probeer staanmaak. Maar elke swerwer het sy storie, elke
paradys sy slang.

Religious and ethnic conflict may be the Horn of Africa's most enduring recent legacy. But beneath its recent history of war and displacement lies human stories―families, clans, lovers, neighbors, and friends, all bound together through common cultural, religious, and historical ties.

The Lion's Binding Oath, Ahmed Ismail Yusuf's collection of short stories, introduces readers to the people of Somalia and their struggles: their humanity, faith, identity, friendship, and family bonds, as whispers of war grow louder around them. Through stories that span the years before and during Somali's civil war, Yusuf weaves together Somalia's political, social, and religious conflicts with portrayals of the country's love of poetry, music, and soccer.

Yusuf's collection is a powerful examination of love and resilience in a country torn apart by war, and written with deep compassion for the lives of its characters.

Tien jaar gelede is Liz Aucamp van haar geboortedorp weggejaag. Nou moet sy terug en haar verlede in die oe kyk. Die leuens is groter, die geheime donkerder. Durf sy meer as net haarself beskerm?

Liefde is al wat vir die mens oor is

Daar onder raas die see toe Poppie Nel dié dag voor dominee Lukas Lucas op sy stoep staan in haar kuise lang romp. Sy moet glo met iemand praat sodat sy kan opstaan. Poppie is uit die kerk, maar die kerk is nie uit haar nie. Dit lyk egter nie asof sy wil nie – praat of opstaan nie. Lukas het ook nie regtig trek vir ’n pratery nie, sy eie pyn is nog vir hom te kosbaar. Maar hy het nou hierdie herderlike plig.

Só ontvou Poppie se verhaal. Dit begin in haar ouerhuis en in ’n saaltjie op ’n plot waar ’n pastoor openbarings kry en waar die Nels slaafse navolgers van sy leringe is. Dis net, die openbarings kom en gaan soos dit die pastoor ten beste kan dien. Langmourokke, manskoene, niks mooimaakgoed nie, studie is ook van die duiwel, uitgedink deur die bose wêreld daar buite. Die skade aan ’n meisiekind se siel ... Nou ja.

Uiteindelik berei Lukas ’n preek oor die liefde voor. Want dit is al wat daar vir die mens oor is.

Burnt out after years as a professional dancer, Ella Burchell moves to a small town on the KwaZulu Natal north coast hoping to rebuild her life. Things look up when she gets a job teaching dance to children at a for-profit private school.

But Ella hasn't reckoned with the cabal of private-school mums who run the Pines Academy as their own personal fiefdom. Circling into cliques at the school gates every morning, the mums are a force to be reckoned with.

Soon Ella is too busy fielding their demands to concentrate on her own troubles. Distraction arrives in the form of an attractive cricket coach, but Ella hardly has time to pay attention.

Fun, fast-paced and hilarious, this novel by an award-winning author skewers the world of private-school privilege.

Nobel Laureate and two-time Booker prize-winning author of Disgrace and The Life and Times of Michael K, J. M. Coetzee reimagines Daniel DeFoe's classic novel Robinson Crusoe in Foe. In an act of breathtaking imagination, J.M Coetzee radically reinvents the story of Robinson Crusoe. In the early eighteenth century, Susan Barton finds herself adrift from a mutinous ship and cast ashore on a remote desert island. There she finds shelter with its only other inhabitants: a man named Cruso and his tongueless slave, Friday. In time, she builds a life for herself as Cruso's companion and, eventually, his lover. At last they are rescued by a passing ship, but only she and Friday survive the journey back to London. Determined to have her story told, she pursues the eminent man of letters Daniel Foe in the hope that he will relate truthfully her memories to the world. But with Cruso dead, Friday incapable of speech and Foe himself intent on reshaping her narrative, Barton struggles to maintain her grip on the past, only to fall victim to the seduction of storytelling itself. Treacherous, elegant and unexpectedly moving, Foe remains one of the most exquisitely composed of this pre-eminent author's works. 'A small miracle of a book. . . of marvellous intricacy and overwhelming power' Washington Post 'A superb novel' The New York Times South African author J. M. Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003 and was the first author to win the Booker Prize twice for his novels Disgrace and The Life and Times of Michael K. His novel set during the South African apartheid, Age of Iron, winner of the Sunday Express Book of the Year award is also available in Penguin paperback.