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.

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.

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.

“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.

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?

Kristin Uys is a tough Roodepoort magistrate who lives alone with her cat. She is on a one-woman crusade to wipe out prostitution in the town for reasons that have personal significance for her. Although she is unable to convict the Visagie Brothers, Stevo and Shortie, on charges of running a brothel, she manages to nail Stevo for contempt of court and gives him a summary six-month sentence.

From Diepkloof Prison, the outraged Stevo orchestrates his revenge against the magistrate, aided and abetted by his rather inept brother Shortie and his erstwhile nanny, Aunt Magda, who believes mass action will force the powers that be to release Stevo.

Kristin receives menacing phone calls and her home is invaded and vandalised. Even her cat is threatened. The chief magistrate insists on assigning a bodyguard to protect her. To Kristin’s consternation, security guard Don Mateza moves into her home and trails her everywhere. Nor does this suit Don’s long-time girlfriend Tumi, former model and successful businesswoman, who is intent on turning Don into a Black Diamond sooner rather than later. And Don soon finds that his new assignment has unexpected complications which Tumi simply does not understand.

In Black Diamond, Zakes Mda tackles every conceivable South African stereotype, skilfully (and with the lightest touch) turning them upside down and exposing their ironies, often hilariously. This is a clever, quirky novel that captures the essence of contemporary life in Gauteng and will resonate with all South Africans.

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.

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?

Twenty-two-year-old Etienne is studying film in London, having fled conscription in his native South Africa. It is 1986, the time of Thatcher, anti-apartheid campaigns and Aids, but also of postmodern art, post-punk rock, and Royal Vauxhall Tavern. Adrift in a city cast in shadow, he falls in love with a German artist while living in derelict artists’ communes. When Etienne finds the first of three reels of a German film from the 1930s, he begins searching for the missing reels, a project that turns into an obsession when his lover disappears in Berlin. It is while navigating this city divided by the Wall that Etienne gradually pieces together the history of a small group of Jewish film makers in Nazi Germany. It is a desperate quest amid complications that pull him back to the present and to South Africa. However, his search for the missing film continues. Ambitious and cosmopolitan, the material of SJ Naude’s The Third Reel is as disparate as the cities in which the book is set. Architecture, cinematography, sex, music, illness, loss and love all collide in this exquisitely wrought, deeply affecting novel.

Is dit 'n vergeldingsdrang wat iemand laat moor, of kan dit die psigologiese nagevolge van traumatiese kinderjare wees?

Magdalena Bakkes moor vir die derde keer in haar lewe en kies om te vlug, gedring deur die moeras van molestering en geweld wat haar kinderjare gekenmerk het. Niemand behalwe die onbekende vrou wat haar help wegkom, weet van die verkragting nie. En niemand sal weet dat Magdalena haar aanvaller se lewe geneem het nie. Sy sal nooit weer in 'n sel sit nie, al kos dit wát. Sy veg om 'n fasade van normaliteit te behou, help haar beskadigde kliënte en bied vir 'n groep ewe beskadigde elfjarige weeskinders Sondagskoolklasse aan terwyl sy haar blinde ma ondersteun en poog om die psigologiese nagevolge van die verkragting en moord te verwerk. Is daar onheil by die kinderhuis? Hoe diep en wyd strek die boosheid? Is haar ma werklik in die greep van demensie, of is daar iets anders, iets erger aan die gang? Sal die groep vigilantes daarin slaag om haar moord toe te smeer, of sal die groot polisieman sy woord gestand doen en die moordenaar aankeer?

Doodsengel is Rust se 6de boek met 'n splinternuwe hoofkarakter.

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.'

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?”

A year ago Patrick Winter, a young South African, was sent to Namibia to complete his military service and to defend his country against ‘terrorism’. Now he is back, to meet Godfrey, his mother’s freedom-fighter boyfriend, and to witness the country’s first free elections.

But Patrick needs to confront and process much more than a country in transition, and in doing so he is forced to revisit his past and to face the pain and the demons that haunt him.

Web van liefde is ñ samestelling van Rykie Roux se vorige Romanzas - Mariek en die magnaat; Satynprinses & Naweekbruid.

“Nyakale. This has always been my name. It lost vowels and consonants and got rearranged into “Kay” by my Grade Three teacher. “Easier to pronounce,” she said.

Aunty Mercy’s response was to accept. “After all, muwala wange, we are in this country, and ours is not to stand out but to survive.”

“Survive” sounds lifeless, inanimate, not like the survive of Aunty Mercy’s stories of growing up in Uganda. There, survival was active, done daily. In South Africa, the word had taken on a new meaning. No longer doing, but hiding to make existence easier. Gradually becoming chameleons. I learnt to lurk in the shadows. Drawing just enough attention, not too much. No sudden movements, everything calculated and measured.”

Upon giving birth to twin girls in rural Uganda, Nyakale’s mother decides to send one away to her sister in South Africa for a shot at a better life.

In the heart of this beautifully woven coming of age story, is the story of twins growing up in two different worlds one in rural Uganda and the other in South Africa. The novel follows theirs lives and journeys of navigating the politics of their respective worlds.

Nyakale and Achen grew up despising each other for what they imagine the other to have because of their mother’s drastic decision. When they finally meet , how mirrored will they feel by the other?

Yvette, Paul, Mila, Emma, Adriaan, Liane, Max, Bobby, Ralph, Philip: Tien karakters wie se verhouding in Wegkomkans oor ’n tydperk van tien jaar eb en vloei soos die getye van die see wat telkens die agtergrond vir hulle “wegkomkanse” vorm.

Vanaf die politieke noodtoestand in die jare tagtig tot die demokratiese bevryding in 1994: Dié vriendekring se samesyn bly die konstante in ’n andersins veranderende wêreld waarin die ontnugterings en teleurstellings van die werklikheid soms met niks anders as goeie kos, goeie wyn en ’n stewige skeut selfspot getemper kan word nie. Soos hulle jeugdrome vervorm en hulle naïewe optimisme oor die lewe verdof, groei en verander die vriendskap. Verhoudings kom en gaan, ouerskap word ’n al hoe prominenter onderwerp van bespreking, die jeugdige passie oor ’n “nuwe” Suid-Afrika word ’n neutraler, meer besadigde gelatenheid oor wat nié verander kan word nie.

“Verlore liefde tussen twee mense,” verklaar een van die karakters, “kan so tragies wees soos verlore menseregte vir miljoene.” Uiteindelik is dit vriendskap wat die aanslag van tyd en trauma deurstaan; wat ’n skans teen verlies vorm.

Die nuwe Slotwoord tot hierdie roman, skryf Marita van der Vyver: “Hierdie roman, so vertel hulle my, kan ’n nuwe geslag lesers help begryp hoe Afrikaanse stedelinge in die laat jare tagtig en vroeë jare negentig, tussen die laaste stuiptrekkings van die Ou Suid-Afrika en die skrikwekkende geboortepyne van die Nuwe Suid-Afrika, dit reggekry het om op die rand van ’n afgrond te bly dans.”

Wegkomkans bied op hoogs vermaaklike dog erg simpatieke wyse insig in Suid-Afrikaners se versugtinge en ontnugterings – wat byna 20 jaar nadat die teks oorspronklik verskyn het nog net so relevant is soos destyds.

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.

From the moment 26-year-old Tristan Hansen steps out of the shower and onto the roof garden of his Maboneng loft, Toyboy pulsates with eroticism. The air is hot and humid, and there’s a Joburg thunderstorm brewing on the horizon. The first flashes of lightning illuminates Tristan’s spectacular flat and the riches it contains: gifts of thanks from his many clients, tokens of their appreciation. Because Tristan is an angel of pleasure, an exclusive escort to Johannesburg’s rich and powerful women. And he is one of a kind.

At how the enigmatic Tristan were trained in the art of lovemaking his clients can only guess. He seldom speaks of those who helped him shake off the strictures of his conservative mother who had to raise him on her own when his father committed suicide. Christina, his first love, and their story set far off in a small Italian village, he also keeps to himself.

But how did Tristan end up here? Who were those women who taught him all he knows? And who is the mystery caller who keeps on phoning and whose calls are filled with menacing silence?

Twenty years ago, Leon van Nierop published his Afrikaans bestseller Plesierengel. Toyboy, published in Afrikaans and English, is its prequel.

“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.

Die surfer-meisie Simone, die wulpse huisvrou Andrea en die gesofistikeerde weduwee Maggie is vreemdelinge vir mekaar. Maar op ’n dag wat die lewe hul al drie platgeslaan het, bring die noodlot hulle in ’n ou kombi byeen en so begin ’n onwaarskynlike maar besonderse vriendskap. Wie sou kon raai dat hul liefdes en verliese toe nie so verskillend is nie? Saam trotseer die drie vroue die hoogwater in hul lewe, hoe hakke en al.

Op Pelgrimshoop, 'n weggesteekte dorpie in die voue van die Laeveld, waar die vlaktes wemel van skaap, gras en die oudste klipformasies in Suid-Afrika, daar vind Hannah de Witt haar voete weer na 'n verbryselende verhouding wat sy agterlaat in Pretoria. Ongeag die feit dat haar student, Elias Bart, die knorrige boer van Bartelheim, die man wat 'die ding het met die perde', aanvanklik nie wil saamwerk met waarvoor hy haar laat kom het nie: Om hom verder te kom leer. Die legendariese fete tussen Vliet Vorster, sy 4-manbende, en Bart dreig boonop om in 'n volskaalse konflik te ontaard want Vorster haat die 'bontspul' op Bartelheim. Vliet Vorster, voorste boer en burgemeester, wat elke Saterdagaand Die Oog leegdrink en Sondag voor in die kerkgestoeltes sit. Ondanks die dorp se opstand oor Hannah en haar skrywerbroer Abram se teenwoordigheid in die omgewing, die atmosfeer op die plaas wat maar styf is en Hannah se onwillige student groei die waarheid, teerheid en nederigheid - en Hannah leer 'n ander Elias ken.

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.

After his father’s violent death on a hot November day in the droughtstricken Free State, a young man leaves the derelict family farm with no plan, and with no way of knowing that his life will soon be changed for ever by two strangers he encounters on his journey south: a mute little girl who bears a striking resemblance to his late niece, and a troubled lawyer who detests the Cape wine estate she’s inherited from a father she despised.

Set in South Africa against the backdrop of a country in flux, The Safest Place You Know is a powerful story, rendered in meticulously crafted, lyrical prose, about redemption and recovery, and what it means to carry the past with you.

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.