Hierdie versameling kortverhale bied 'n histeriese kykie op alledaagse situasies: 'n tango-les in die platteland; die tannie so "eenvoudig soos 'n ses-stuk legkaart"; 'n besoek aan 'n tandarts en sy assistent wat meer as net 'n spreekkamer deel. Lloyd Zandberg se debuut is 'n boek vol deernis en humor, met vriendelike gebruiksaanwysings vir mense wat nie so goed lees nie. Kyk een keer deur sy oe na die lewe, en niks sal ooit weer dieselfde wees nie.

Een familie, deels van Britse en deels van Boere-afkoms, ontdek dat hul lewens onlosmaaklik verstrengel raak deur die onverbiddelike gang van die geskiedenis.

Die Transvaalse politiek en die Britte se arrogante imperialisme sleur hulle mee in die Anglo-Boereoorlog van 1899-1902. Liefdes- en vriendskapsbande wat in die Trandvaalse bosveld en die sitkamers van Victoriaanse Engeland gesmee is, word op die slagvelde van Suid-Afrika getoets. Wanneer die formele fase van die oorlog oorgaan in die gruwelike beleid van die verskroeide aarde en ’n guerrillastryd, moet die familielede riskante keuses maak. Wintersrust is ’n bruisende verhaal vol hartstog en avontuur oor die individu se worsteling met magte buite sy beheer.

Sommige, wat deur wanhoop oorweldig word, oorleef nie. Ander moet ten slotte by ’n plek van vrede en vergiffenis uitkom.

(Hierdie is die Afrikaanse vertaling van The Runaway Horses)

Dark traces is the English translation of Martin Steyn’s first suspense novel, Donker spoor. When a child is murdered, it always seems as if a light has been extinguished in a parent’s eyes. They find her decomposing body in the veld. A teenager. She was raped and tortured for days. She was hanged. She wasn’t the first. The South African Police Service’s Warrant Officer Jan Magson, estranged from his son and still grieving for his wife, is assigned to the case. He has to look the mothers and fathers in the eye. He has to answer their questions. And he can’t. Headlines question the police’s ability to protect the community from this evil. A newspaper prints a mother’s heart-wrenching letter to the killer. A father offers a substantial reward. And every time another lead reaches a dead end, Magson finds himself looking down at another dead girl. Winner of the 2015 ATKV Prize for Suspense Fiction, Martin Steyn’s Dark traces deals with two sides of homicide: sadistic murder and euthanasia: killing for pleasure and killing for love.

On the side of the road, two boys are walking, holding hands. The smaller, barefoot one does not speak. The words are there in Zuko’s head but they are stuck somewhere between his thoughts and his mouth. He sees patterns, though, all around him – in the clouds, the stones, the arch of the sun. He hums the sun’s sound, his fingers painting pathways in the air. Some say he is cursed, others believe he is magical.

To Ash, Zuko is his little brother, all he has left in the world. He has not heard of autism. The older boy is a teenager who has seen more than most his age. Ash stood beside their mother when she buried their sister. Then, when his mother also succumbed to illness, he dug her grave alone. Now he is leading his brother to the city to find their father.

As the two traverse the land, they are forced to eat what they find and sleep under the stars. And Ash keeps wondering: Will their father know them? Will he take them in?

Professor Raymond Bogatsu is a determined man, hell-bent to trap her in. He wins her heart, he wins her love, then traps her in the shackles of a two is better than one setup. The trio covenant of not ME, HIM or HER but WE till the end of time.

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.

As a daughter of Israel, Yehudit has always loved and trusted in Yahweh, the God of her people. But personal tragedy and the threat of a mighty enemy pose challenges to her faith. God is with her and will use her in her weakness to deliver an entire nation from evil. Accompany Yehudit on her journey from being a young girl defeated by tragedy to becoming a mighty warrior. Along the way, you will discover how the same God who strengthened her can heal your own wounds and shape your destiny.

Hoekom sal ’n ou soos Juan van Wyk aan die TV-program Boer soek ’n vrou deelneem? Hy is nou wel nie getroud nie, maar dit beteken vir geen oomblik dat hy nie ’n vrou het nie. Om die waarheid te sê het hy omtrent elke vrou op die dorp presies net waar hy haar wil hê. Tussen die lakens. Volkome uitgelewer aan sy buitengewone lyflike vermoëns. Ja, daardie Bosveldplaas van hom ken die snak van ’n ekstatiese vrou.

Maar die ding is dat Juan nou al ’n ruk lank voel sy bedavonture moet rigting kry. En dalk help die TV-program. Dis in elk geval wat sy suster sê. En Marissa, die dominee se dogter, sê ook so. Dis dié dat hy nou wag dat die filmspan opdaag, want hy het tien meisies wat hom gaan help om agter te kom wat dit is wat hy wil hê. En dan lê sy lewe voor.

Nog nooit was Afrikaanse fiksie só warm nie. Nog nooit is daar so lekker op papier gevry nie.

Based on personal experiences, Thirteen Cents is Duiker's debut novel, originally published in 2000.

Every city has an unspoken side. Cape Town, between the picture postcard mountain and sea, has its own shadow: a place of dislocation and uncertainty, dependence and desperation, destruction and survival, gangsters, pimps, pedophiles, hunger, hope, and moments of happiness. Living in this shadow is Azure, a thirteen-year-old who makes his living on the streets, a black teenager sought out by white men, beholden to gang leaders but determined to create some measure of independence in this dangerous world.

Thirteen Cents is an extraordinary and unsparing account of a coming of age in Cape Town.

Reminiscent of some of the greatest child narrators in literature, Azure’s voice will stay with the reader long after this short novel is finished.

Nathan Lucius has a problem. Every time he thinks he’s got life by the scruff of the neck it just wriggles free. There are so many rules. So many things that should be said and done to keep everyone happy. And no one is happy.

But Nathan is a problem solver. And if he just tries hard enough, he will maybe, somehow, make someone, just one person happy. And then his friend Madge is diagnosed with cancer. She is dying. And she wants him to help her end it all.

Wasted is a pop culture Crime and Punishment set in a dark and twisted version of Cape Town – a novel that takes the reader into the very heart of what it is to be human.

Hoe gemaak as jy vastrapplek moet kry tussen die Hemel en die Hel? Kliek. En jou lewe verander. Onomkeerbaar. So sal Markus Meyer en Regardt Muller, twee avontuurlustige vriende wat ná matriek by die Britse Weermag aansluit en as lede van die gerespekteerde 3 Valskermregiment in Afghanistan diens doen, weldra leer. Dit is egter eers wanneer stilte oor die slagveld neersif en die gevolge van konflik beredder moet word, dat die wáre vegters na vore sal tree. En daardie slagveld is nie noodwendig in ʼn oorlogsgeteisterde gebied waar die droë hitte iets lewendigs is nie; soms lê dit ook tussen kamerade, gesinslede en verál midde-in die liefde. Want selfs ʼn soen is by tye ʼn landmyn wat afgetrap word ...

Vegters is die merkwaardige verhaal van uitdaging, lojaliteit en deursettingsvermoë. ʼn Verhaal wat die leser deur drie valleie sal neem: van die Gamtoosvallei in die Oos-Kaap na die Sanginvallei langs die Helmandrivier in Afghanistan, tot die Vallei van ʼn Duisend Heuwels in KwaZulu-Natal waar die wêreldbekende Dusi-kanomarathon die twee vriende tot die uiterste sal beproef. Wees gereed om oorbluf te word. Hierdie boek is nie 'n Sondagmiddagpiekniek nie - dis `n ontsnappingsroete deur `n slagplaas. Vegters moet nie verwar word met 'n hedendaagse oorlogboek nie. Die kontraste tussen die drie wêrelde in die teks is hemelsbreed.

Die leser word gelawe met die idiliese Gamtoosvallei, net om weer om sy gemaksone geruk te word na die hel van 'n oorloggeteisterde Afghanistan. Nog min het twee werelde so baie verskil waar die skrywer dit regkry om beide te versoen. 'n Nuwe blik word gegee oor die oorlog in Afganistan, uit die oogpunt van twee Afrikaanse soldate in die Britse leer. Dis'n verhaal van hoop en versoening. Dis mooi. Dis bitter. Dis `n emosionele wipplankrit. Daar is oomblikke van teerheid,maar voor jy te gemaklik raak, word jy aan die bek geruk deur die twee hoofkarakters se ervarings in Afghanistan. Maar dat dit jou gaan by bly en uit jou gemaksone ruk, is gewis.

Redigeerder Louis Esterhuizen - ”Hierdie werk is by verre een van die mees indrukwekkende tekste wat ek tot nog toe die voorreg gehad het om te hanteer.”

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.

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

In January 1991, when civil war came to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, two-thirds of the city’s population fled. Among them was eight-year-old Asad Abdullahi. His mother murdered by a militiaman, his father somewhere in hiding, he was swept into the great wartime migration that scattered the Somali people throughout sub-Saharan Africa and the world.

Serially betrayed by the people who promised to care for him, Asad lived his childhood at a sceptical remove from the adult world, his relation to others wary and tactical. By the time he had reached the cusp of adulthood, Asad had honed an array of wily talents. At the age of seventeen, in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, he made good as a street hustler. He also courted the famously beautiful Foosiya and, to the astonishment of his peers, married her.

Buoyed by success in work and in love, Asad put $1 200 into his pocket and made his way down the length of the African continent to Johannesburg, South Africa. And so began a shocking adventure in a country richer and more violent than he could possibly have imagined. A Man of Good Hope is the story of a person shorn of the things we have come to believe make us human – personal possessions, parents, siblings. And yet Asad’s is an intensely human life, one suffused with dreams and desires and a need to leave something of permanence on this earth.

Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made. Maja Jellema is in Cape Town to do what she does best steal. Her new employer wants a certain item from a building in Long Street, and the only thing that stands between Maja and her prize is Hershel Bloch, the bumbling building manager. But what seems like the easiest job Maja has ever seen is about to get a whole lot more complicated . . . Will Maja be able to finish the job in time to save her no-good brother from large Dutch men with no sense of humour? Can Hersh turn his topsy-turvy world around before he gets fired from Black Enterprises for being the worst estate agent in the history of the universe? Will Surita finally make peace with her father and stop using her judo skills on people who just want to hug her? Can the rage-filled waitresses at The Peoples Republic the greatest socialist coffee shop in all of Cape Town produce even one cup of coffee without backchat? Only time will tell. And its running out. Fast-paced and slickly-written, Paradise is both an uproarious comedy about lawlessness and a serious allegory about bondage. Greg Lazarus once again presents a cast of engaging, believable characters, not least of whom is the adorable klutz, Hershel Bloch. Finuala Dowling

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.

Sy het gedink dit was verby; ’n hoofstuk van haar lewe wat afgesluit is, maar toe sien sy uit die hoek van haar oog die gestalte by die begrafnisdiens inloop: ’n lang, benerige man met ’n effens ongekoördineerde manier van beweeg. Lana raak oombliklik naar en lighoofdig van die skrik. Dit is asof sy in ʼn yskoue stilte inplons, tuimel deur die afsondering en bo-aardse stilte van water, en vir altyd net daar wil bly.

Lana sal mettertyd agterkom dat herlewing en die dood dikwels dieselfde skokeffek het, en dat dit dan bitter moeilik is om vas te stel wat die begin en wat die einde is.

Erika Murray-Theron stuur haar karakters met soveel intelligensie en subtiliteit op hul lewensweë dat Stippellyn die gewaarwording bring van ’n ontdekking van die lewe self.

Leke is a troubled young man living in the suburbs of Cape Town. He develops strange habits of stalking people, stealing small objects and going from doctor to doctor in search of companionship rather than cure. Through a series of letters written to him by his Nigerian father whom he has never met, Leke learns about a family curse; a curse which his father had unsuccessfully tried to remove.

Bom Boy is a well-crafted and complex narrative written with a sensitive understanding of both the smallness and magnitude of a single life. Part of the narrative is presented through letters written by Leke's father, Oscar, to Leke's mother, Elaine; other sections are comprised of letters written by Oscar to Leke - letters which tell him about Oscar's early life in Nigeria and the origins of a family curse. A curse which resulted in Oscar being imprisoned. Through these letters, a wonderful feeling of traditional Nigerian beliefs and customs are brought to both Leke and the reader.

The pages of this novel are filled with the simple difficulties of living - coming to terms with death, with ourselves, with others, with loneliness, independence, trust - these are dealt with by Omotoso in a careful and nuanced manner.

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.

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.

’n Dekade of wat gelede het Marita van der Vyver soos ’n wafferse prinses van ’n verre land deur Frankryk gereis en ’n vreeslik verleidelike padda leer ken. Omdat sy so graag in sprokies wil glo, het sy gehoop dat as sy hierdie slim padda soen, hy in ’n prins gaan verander. Dis mos hoe sprokies werk.

En wat gebeur toe?

Saam met haar prins sit sy huis op in ’n Franse dorpie. Hulle gaan woon in ’n ou kliphuis in Rue de l’église – Kerkstraat. Dáároor skryf sy in In die hart van ons huis.

En wat gebeur nou?

Hulle trek. En nie waarheen nie . . . Na ’n plek wat bekend staan as Plek van die Paddas.

’n Fontein Voor Ons Deur is ’n reeks stories oor ’n verhuising – ’n Franse verhuising! Maar dit is dan eintlik stories oor dit wat die hart vasmaak aan ’n huis en sy mense; ook dit waarvan jy jou moet losmaak as jy verhuis. En daardie dinge wat altyd met jou saamtrek.

Een ding is seker: Of dit nou in Kerkstraat of Paddastraat is, soos Marita van der Vyver dit sien, bly die lewe ’n fontein bruisend met verrassings.

Sister-sister is the unforgettable story of twins, Thulisile and Sindisiwe Nxumalo, set in a dystopian near-future South Africa. In childhood, gregarious Thuli and stuttering, introverted Sindi, are inseparable. But the arrival of an uncle they never knew they had sets into motion a course of events that will destroy their relationship and, eventually, their lives. In the twins' world, petrol-driven cars have been banned, and diesel pirates sell illegally distilled b-diesel to fuel junks. An unspeakable illness has run wild, disseminating populations in poverty stricken rural areas, and creating a market for untainted girls. In the townships a new religion, led by The Black Preacher, urges women to become Mothers for a New Mankind, and only those with pure blood are allowed into the Believers fold. The novel is told in five parts, interweaving present and past as the twins unwind their tragic stories and find salvation in the most unexpected of places. The second novel from the highly lauded author of Gem Squash Tokoloshe.

Karen werp haarself in ‘n binnenshuise ontwerp-wedstryd na die geboorte van haar baba, om van haar skuldgevoel oor die destydste dood van haar gestremde broer te vlug. Sy glo haar ouers neem haar steeds kwalik oor haar broer se dood en vertrou haar nie met haar eie kind nie. Sy reis met baba en al na Mali, waar sy hoop om die inspirasie vir haar wedstrydinskrywing te vind.

Bantubonke is an accomplished and revered jazztrumpeter, composer and band leader in decline - an absent present and inadequate spouse. He lives for art at the expense of all else, an imbalance that derails his life and propels him to the brink of madness and despair.

A story of direct and implied betrayals, Illumination is an unrelenting study of possession and loss, of the beauty and uncertainty of love, of the dangers and intrusions of fame.

He presses the button to activate the screen of the CCTV system: two sharply pointed dog's ears. A wolfhound; except that a wolfhound can’t reach that high. He keeps the button pressed in and peers at the blue-grey night scene of the pavement and the section of the road covered by the cameras at the gate. The dog’s head, abnormally large, stares back at him. There’s something about the hairiness of the dog hairs and the oddly impassive gaze of the dark pin-hole eyes that doesn’t seem quite right. And where’s the rest of the dog-creature’s body? He knows who it is even before the deliberately-gruffened voice comes over the intercom. ‘Matt,’ says the dog-muzzle, ‘it’s me. Please open up.’ Mattheus Duiker, the only son of Benjamin Duiker, the former owner of Duiker’s Motors, opens the gate of their Cape Town mansion to his lover, Jack. Disguised as a wolf, Jack invades the intimate darkness in which Matt is waiting for his father to die and for his own life to take off. Shiny-eyed at the prospect, the two young men sneak past the study where the old blind man, dwelling on melancholy attachments and sombre suspicions, sits listening for the footfall of death. Eben Venter’s novel is an unsparing investigation into the relation between a father and his son, into the disenfranchisement of a man who can glean scant wisdom from the past to equip him for life in a rapidly changing dispensation. Passionate. Disturbing. A masterly unravelling of the fragile thread of feeling – Eben Venter at the top of his game.