At a prayer meeting on a cold Rotterdam night, the young clerk Aart Anthonij van der Lingen – a pale, sickly, hunchbacked ‘fish from the North’ – is held in the charismatic Reverend Johannes Kicherer’s thrall. Lured by Kicherer’s passion, he leaves his grey and loveless life to land at the Cape of Good Hope as a lay missionary in 1800.

But when the Missionary Society draws lots to determine where to send the new arrivals, Van der Lingen is sent east and Kicherer north. The hunchback missionary must make his own way in a place that, on the surface, God has forsaken – until, as the pitiless landscape and the blank faces of his would-be congregants strip Van der Lingen incrementally of his pride, he learns that he has nothing to give to the Africa that is ultimately his salvation.

Based on historical figures drawn from the Cape Town Church Archives, The Hunchback Missionary is a sweeping narrative of vanity and humility, of the sacred and the profane, of how Europe’s rampant strides across newly colonised Africa led to the abyss from which a continent still struggles, today, to retreat.

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.

In Banquet at Brabazan, Patricia Schonstein takes us to the heart of Cape Town's violent inner city. She weaves together a rich and consuming story of a secret love affair between a boss and his secretary who create a fantastical, theatrical life for themselves within the confines of her apartment. Their theatrical existence is intricately entangled with superb food, romance, a cappella, an angel, Shakespearean drama, reflections on South Africa's war in Angola, drug-money, a muti murder, visions of the Afterlife and various works of fine art with flashbacks to the wondrous A Time of Angels. In contrast to their contrived space, outside the apartment exists the real world of loneliness, xenophobia and crime that have come to mark post-apartheid South Africa. Patricia Schonstein deftly leads us through both worlds, allowing the lives of a small group of people, who have not met before, to intersect over a period of ten days at Brabazan Bar & Lodge, in Long Street, Cape Town. Here she reveals a poignant and beautiful patina of hope and love.

Lizzie de Villiers dink sy het haar man, Marthinus nie meer lief nie. Sy neem haar lewe en hulle huwelik van 28 jaar in oenskou. Wanneer het hulle uitmekaar begin dryf? Sal sy hulle ou liefde weer kan laat ontvlam? As sy nie kan nie, moet sy in hulle liefdelose, maar gemaklike huwelik bly, of moet sy maar haar eie paadjie stap? Marthinus stem nie met Lizzie saam nie. Volgens hom is daar niks verkeerd nie, en hy wil gewis he Lizzie moet bly, lief vir hom of nie. Die konflik tussen Lizzie en Marthinus veroorsaak konflik tussen Lizzie en hulle dogter Estelle, wat op die ouderdom van vier en twintig skielik soos n tiener optree. Beide Lizzie en Marthinus voel daar is fout, maar sy bly afsydig en byna vyandig, veral teenoor Lizzie. Lizzie se vertwyfeling bring haar egter nader aan die ander vroue in haar lewe. Hulle word groter bondgenote, elkeen met n unieke perspektief. n Geleentheid om afstand te kry tussen Lizzie en Marthinus duik op, en Lizzie gryp dit met albei hande. Sy bevraagteken gou haar oenskynlik onafhanklikheid, en Marthinus word gedwing om hand in eie boesem te steek. Sal hierdie huwelik die toets deurstaan?

Bare
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?

Cradle Of The Hockey Club
Treasure desires nothing more than pure love from her Sugar Daddy but she is starting to see that he has deep-rooted, dangerous fetishes that go beyond greed and lust. She longs for a better life yet isn't sure how she will ever find that. The sacrifices placed in the hands of her tormentor are deadly. Slowly, day by day, she walks into the shadows and claws of death. Her love for materialism will alter the course of her life dangerously. But with her naive softness comes overwhelming feelings of unworthiness, fear and blood spills. She is catapulted back into the darkness, human traffic and organ sales. Terrified by the reality of her own naivete, Treasure becomes entwined and trapped in a world of darkness and a terrible kind of glamour. Will she ever see the light?

Ego
Tortured to the bone, Treasure Mohapi steps into a world that many haven’t seen in Sandton; the new way of life filled with millionaires and quick cash scams doesn’t come cheap. The young model seems too naïve for Sandton and her bloodsucking master stops at nothing to prove his power. Treasure finds herself face-to-face with the Devil who controls ministers, doctors and policemen. A secret society like no other in the history of Africa comes alive once again. As she is drawn into supremacy, the chains of material slavery keep following Treasure and her best friend Lintle Kente. After years of sexual entertainment and high flying, can their master let them go? With the increasing number of dead bodies, drugs and cults, will this love affair prove to be a way of life for many? The wives of the rich and famous have deep, dark roots too.

Mercy
"Look closely around you. Have you ever asked yourself what happens to all the girls who are in the system?" The savage, senseless murders of children and the youth. It carries Treasure’s story from Book 1 and ends with the fight for life between Paul and Tim Morgan. We look at the disappearance of young people, human trafficking, cults and mental illness in men. This story is inspired by real-life events and researched data from global social ills and Jackie looks into SA political faces that have sex scandals as part of her research.

Paul Rayment is on the threshold of a comfortable old age when a calamitous cycling accident results in the amputation of a leg. Humiliated, his body truncated, his life circumscribed, he turns away from his friends. He hires a nurse named Marijana, with whom he has a European childhood in common: hers in Croatia, his in France. Tactfully and efficiently she ministers to his needs. But his feelings for her, and for her handsome teenage son, are complicated by the sudden arrival on his doorstep of the celebrated Australian novelist Elizabeth Costello, who threatens to take over the direction of his life and the affairs of his heart.

What happened to Anna the moment after she pulled the trigger? After she looked her stepfather in the eye, and shot him, the man who sexually abused her and her sister for so many years?

Seven years after It’s Me, Anna, a publication sensation at the time of its release, the author revisits the story of Anna Bruwer. How does one seek forgiveness for murder? Or is retribution the only way to bring about justice? These are the questions Anna – and the writer – wrestle with.

This is an excruciatingly honest depiction of Anna’s life after her stepfather’s death: a novel filled with compassion, and ultimately hope.

Dis 'n donker Karoonag en 'n bebloede vrou hardloop grondpad langs. Iets grusaam het gebeur en Siena weet sy moet by Seekoegat Primere Skool uitkom, daar sal sy veilig wees. Dis baie ver, drie dae met 'n donkiekar en sy is te voet. Hierdie roman vertel die verhaal van Siena, Boetie en Kriekie, wie se lewens sedert kinderdae nou verweef is. Soos wat Siena hardloop ontmoet lesers die mense in haar lewe: Boetie is verwilderd en verwaarloos, altyd besig met kattekwaad. Sy vriendskap met Siena laat hom egter sy selfwaarde besef. Kriekie is 'n wrak. Sy ma is 'n prostituut wat by die stilhouplekke langs die n1 werk en hy het skaars 'n huis. Wanneer sy ma, Dolly, nie terugkom nie, beland hy deur een vrou se goedhartigheid ook by Seekoegat Primere Skool. Die Karooskilpad se simboliese spore kan deur die hele roman gesien word. Siena se pa, 'n karretjiemens, het altyd gese dat 'n skilpad die wysheid van die antieke landskap in hom dra. Daar word geglo dat 'n skilpad slegs een traan in sy leeftyd stort, die oomblik wanneer hy sterf. Die skilpad se laaste traan is bekroonde skrywer Carol Campbell se derde boek oor die Karoo. Soos haar vorige werk fokus sy sterk op sosiale realisme, maar vir die eerste keer is hier ook magiese realisme, so eie aan die mense oor wie sy skryf.

Lizet Vos ontdek tydens die opruim van haar vermoorde suster se woonstel Marina se kluitklaplys. Hierna probeer sy om alles op dié lysie te doen - al is al die gewaagde, gevaarlike dinge eintlik heel teen haar aard. Haar eie drome skuif sy ver agtertoe. Totdat haar broer Evan se lewe met dié van Anya Breedt verstrengel raak. Nou vorm Stephen en sy dogtertjie Soekie deel van familiekuiers. Stephen spartel om na sy vrou se dood die balle in die lug te hou; hy het geen tyd vir ʼn donkerkop met blou oë wat hom hinder nie. Soekie mag dalk in Lizet se klas wees, maar hy is vasbeslote om juffrou Vos te vermy. Na ses maande kan hy egter die uitnodiging om klasbesoek te doen nie verder ignoreer nie. Vir die lewe om sin te maak, moet Stephen en Lizet beide opnuut hulle eie drome ontdek.

Eva Mazza's latest page turner is evocative of the Netflix hit series Emily in Paris. 

When 24-year old Christine realises that unless she escapes her abusive husband Louis, their marriage vow "till death do we part " might just become her reality. On securing a job as a hair stylist at a salon in an exclusive hotel in Amsterdam, Christine's eyes are opened as she discovers a world of glamour and magical experiences.

And when she meets bad boy Giovanni she encounters unexpected sexual liberation.

Toe Oscar Pistorius blosend in die gange van die Brooklyn-polisiestasie by luitenant Muller Joubert verbyloop, was Muller seker dat daar in jare nie so 'n bisarre saak was nie en daar nie gou weer so een sou wees nie. Hy was verkeerd. Daar was reeds. En hy was in die middel daarvan.

In die omgewing van die liefde is niemand se hart veilig nie; dit weet Muller maar alte goed, want die meisie wat hy liefhet is blykbaar nie vir hom beskore nie. En dan kom vertel 'n tannie hom van haar laaste dans in 1941.

Twee broers. Een oorlog. Een meisie. Een liefde. Een kans. En 'n liefdesverhaal wat reeds sewentig jaar wag om vertel te word.

Willem Prins bewandel die strate van Parys. Eens was hy op koers om ’n gerekende skrywer in Suid-Afrika te word, maar na jare se probeer wink die koue water van die Seine – miskien sal sy verdrinking sy boekverkope bietjie opstoot, dink ’n swartgallige Willem.

Tot sy skaamte is dit die erotika wat hy onder ’n skuilnaam skryf wat hom na Frankryk gebring het. Terug na die stad waar een van sy drie eksvroue saam met sy oudste seun woon, ’n jong man wat sy pa skaars ken.

Vir Willem is Parys nie juis die stad van liefde nie, maar dit is hier waar hy vir Jackie ontmoet, ’n jong Suid-Afrikaner wat as au pair werk. Dit is ook sy wat saam met hom is dié Vrydagaand die dertiende toe terreur in Parys losbars.

Misverstand is die dertiende roman van een van Suid-Afrika se gewildste skrywers. ’n Roman oor die ontnugtering van die middeljare, die lewe se onweerswolke wat dikwels dreig, en oor bande tussen mense wat beskut.

What makes Pat Simmons, a retired engineer, give up his comfortable middle class living and wade across a crocodile infested river with a bicycle strapped to his back, in order to teach chess to schoolchildren at the Mission station?

From an ancient castle in Bavaria and a pre-War villa in Milan, to a winter landscape in Lesotho and the suburban streets of Pretoria, the stories in The Alphabet of Birds take an acute look at South Africans at home and abroad.

In one story, a strange, cheerful Japanese man visits a young South African as he takes care of his dying mother; in another, a woman battles corrupt bureaucracy in the Eastern Cape. A man trails his lover through the underground dance clubs of Berlin, while in London a young banker moves through layers of decadence as a soul would through purgatory.

Pulsating with passion, loss, and melancholia, S J Naudé’s collection The Alphabet of Birds is filled with music, art, architecture, myth, the search for origins and the shifting relationships between people.

“Weet jy wat is die heel beste van flat rock bottom wees? As jy eers dáár is, kan alles en enigiets jou droom wees.”

Dit was die woorde van Drien Welman aan haar oudste seun Bennie wanneer hulle vir die soveelste keer by die laaste stukkie kos in die huis gekom het.

Bennie neem die leser terug na sy grootwordjare waar die Welman-gesin van nege op Simmer Deep gewoon het – van die middel sestigs tot middel tagtigs. Sy verhouding met sy pa is stormagtig want Bennie koester geen respek of liefde vir hom nie. Bernard Welman is aan die een kant ’n gewelddadige woestaard, alkoholis en ’n wildewragtig lorriedrywer en aan die ander kant ’n talentvolle musikant en sanger in eie reg. Die enigste ding wat die kloof tussen pa en seun soms oorbrug is hul liefde vir musiek.

Ten einde die donker wolk van uiterste armoede en ellendes te oorleef leer Bennie om homself te distansieer en dit stoïsyns te verduur. Hy put krag uit sy ma, ’n trotse vrou, wat deurgaans soos ’n rots onder die aanslae bly staan in ’n poging om die gesin bymekaar te hou.

’n Ballade vir Nkunzi beweeg van die een bisarre situasie na die volgende in ’n kroniek van smart, verraad en ’n goeie skeut galgehumor. Uiteindelik word dit ’n verhaal van triomf van die menslike gees oor verwoestende lewensomstandighede.

Set during the 2010 World Cup, Zebra Crossing explores myth and malice in the Mother City.

As excitement about the World Cup grows, so do xenophobic tensions. Consequently, George and fellow Zimbabweans Peter and David attempt to exploit Chipo’s albinism and local superstitions about the condition to make their fortunes amongst the illegal soccer betting rings that have sprung up along the city’s infamous Long Street.

Their plan is to get rich quick and leave, before the violent rumours that all foreign africans remaining in the country after the final soccer match will be attacked, come to fruition. However, their scheme has disastrous consequences.

As he nears his fifth birthday, Sam’s curious dreams of a lost child begin to steal quietly into his waking state.

Sam’s mother, Grace, watches with growing fear the disturbing changes taking place in her charming, spirited son – the fighting at school, the bed-wetting, the meteor showers of defiance. Grace is determined to find out what lies behind Sam’s nightmares, and the search will take her deeper and deeper into layers of love and bonding buried beneath the surface of the family, and into its molten heart.

Cry Baby is not just a story about boyhood and motherhood. It’s about what binds families, the past to the present, about suffocation and deliverance. It is at once a stinging satirical slap across the face of barren suburbia and a poignant hymn to the extraordinary beauty in ordinary lives.

'n Deerniswekkende verhaal van twee vroue wat elkeen op hul eie manier weer hul voete vind.

Wanneer Bea Klinge as jong boervrou op Leliepan aan die soom van die Namib aankom, glo sy dat sy hier vir haar, Kurt en hul kinders 'n oase van liefde sal kan skep. Ná 'n skokontdekking meer as vier dekades later kry Bea 'n miniberoerte en beland in 'n koma in die hospitaal.

Haar herstel bring Bea voor nuwe keuses te staan. Sy besef sy het haar vier dogters elkeen op 'n manier gefaal deur by Kurt te staan al het hy hulle hoe verontreg. Moet sy oop kaarte met hulle speel oor die donker geheim wat haar vasgevang gehou het in 'n liefdelose huwelik met 'n man wat haar soos 'n onderdaan behandel? Bowenal moet Bea besluit of sy die kans op geluk waarop sy destyds haar rug gekeer het gaan aangryp en vir een keer in haar lewe gaan doen wat reg is vir haar en nie vir ander nie.

Nel, haar rebelse laatlam, gaan soek haar heil in Johannesburg. Hier word sy as sukkelende aktrise met die donker kant van die vermaaklikheidsbedryf gekonfronteer. Sy raak betrokke in 'n toksiese verhouding met 'n invloedryke filmvervaardiger Buks Bothma en word die slagoffer van date-rape. Nel ontdek ook die skokkende waarheid omtrent haar herkoms.

Lex le Roux, 'n medeakteur en donkieboer bied haar 'n kontrak aan om die gesig te wees van sy velsorgprodukte wat uit donkiemelk vervaardig word. Nel gryp die geleentheid met albei hande aan. Ná die trauma waardeur Nel is, het sy tyd nodig om heel te word. Sy besluit om haar droom na te volg en 'n dramakursus in New York te gaan volg. Mettertyd ervaar sy die vreugde om haar pad boontoe te werk en nie te slaap nie. Sy kry dit reg om aan haarself te bewys dat Nel Klinge sonder hulp sukses kan behaal. Nel besef ook dat haar genesingsproses voltooi is en dat sy reg is vir meer as 'n vriendskapsverhouding met Lex.

Die klein Bram Fischer word gebore uit drome en beelde, met die geloei van Bloemfonteinse osse in die agtergrond. Hy sien die spoke van Paul Kruger en Jopie Fourie, asook die van Hendrik Biebouw, die eerste Afrikaner. In hierdie roman skryf Francois Loots 'n kreatiewe, fiktiewe weergawe van Afrikaner-kommunis en struggle-held Bram Fischer se lewe. Die leser word gedompel in Fischer se leef- en gedagtewereld, in die spanninge en avonture van die jong radikaal. Saam met Fischer, gaan ’n mens ondergronds. Wat is ’n mens se diepste gedagtes wanneer jy jou vermom? Wanneer jy soos 'n verkleurmannetjie in nuwe identiteite moet inglip? Of wanneer jy tronk toe gaan? Na die strome drome, word Fischer geteister deur die demone van absolute eensaamheid. Maar wat deur alles bly staan, is sy onwrikbare liefde teenoor sy beminde Molly, wat hom kom verlos uit sy laaste droom. Soms is dit slegs deur die lens van fiksie wat mens iets van die ware geskiedenis kan agterhaal.

Rebecca doesn’t expect to make new friends at this stage of her life. But when she becomes mother to little Amy, she finds herself spending her afternoons in the park. There she meets other mothers: first flamboyant, fun Rose, and then single-mom Lilith, whose inner strength is tangible, and whose eyes never leave her toddler.

Very soon the women have formed a trio – the type of friends who feel at home in each other’s kitchens – and their daughters begin to behave like sisters. But Rebecca is about to learn that friendship is not always what it seems, and that sometimes you trust the wrong people. At exactly the moment when she needs to lean on them, one of her new friends harbours a shocking secret, and the other will turn on her in a way she could never have anticipated.

Her two park friends will change Rebecca’s life – and her family – forever.

An eminent, aging Australian writer is invited to contribute to a book entitled Strong Opinions. For him, troubled by Australia’s complicity in the wars in the Middle East,it is a chance to air some urgent concerns: how should a citizen of a modern democracy react to their state’s involvement in an immoral war on terror, a war that involves the use of torture?

In the laundry-room of his apartment block he encounters an alluring young woman. When he discovers she is between jobs, he claims failing eyesight and offers her work typing up his manuscript. Anya has no interest in politics but the job provides a distraction, as does the writer's evident and not unwelcome attraction toward her.

Her boyfriend, Alan, an investment consultant who understands the world in harsh neo-liberal economic terms, has reservations about his trophy girlfriend spending time with this 1960's throwback. Taking a lively interest in his affairs, Alan begins to formulate a plan that will have far-reaching consequences for all involved.

This is the story of Shumikazi, the only surviving child of Jojo and Miseka. She grows up in a small village in the remote Eastern Cape during the days of white rule – from the outside, an apparently unremarkable life. And yet Shumi is marked for extraordinary things from the moment of her birth.

Wry, tragic, funny, scathing, with a Greek chorus of villagers’ voices, this rich novel from one of South Africa’s most beloved storytellers underscores the dignity of those often rendered invisible – poor, rural women, their families and communities. These marginal characters crackle with life and verve as they step into the centre of the national narrative in Magona’s skilled hands.

A powerful meditation on the vulnerability of rural women, it is also a series of overlapping love stories – above all, the love a father has for his daughter.

Son is a stunning achievement in post-apartheid writing. The debut novel by South African writer, Neil Sonnekus, Son brims with brio, verve and swagger. Though laugh-out-loud funny at times, it is also achingly poignant and deeply moving.

Sonnekus brilliantly captures the so-called Noughties with his tragi-comic creation Len Bezuidenhout, a recent divorcee whose quest for sex is as funny as his attempts to tease a hungover narrative from his father, a puritanical old curmudgeon. The two couldn’t be more different – or similar. They are both storytellers, but when the tale Len starts extracting from his old man is slowly revealed, it is everything but funny. Through scalding humour, caustic wit and brutally frank interrogation into the country’s ‘post Rainbow Nation’ pathology, this stylistically imposing work is one of hilarity, bitter warmth and eventual grace.

Son is at times uproarious and unremittingly frank as it exposes politics as a tragic farce. It is both self-deprecating and sensual as it traverses the dark arts of sexual conquest and desire while it simultaneously unearths brutal anxieties around crime, alienation and aging. Central to Son is the brutal mirror of what it means to be a white man in South Africa, confronting a rapid loss of power while struggling to come to terms with stark socio-political change and the possibilities of living an unfulfilled and alienated life.

While it hums and whirs with sound, movement and humour, Son seamlessly takes the reader on a profound journey of compassion and self-understanding. In a dark and disturbing turn, it argues that the dominant colour of the rainbow has become not white nor black, but red. Blood red.

Romina Desai, a well-known artist and photojournalist, lives in Johannesburg and uses her art to make visual commentary on social issues and global politics. Her visionary work has earned her celebrity status in the art world. But she is confronted with the racism in the city and in her family when she falls in love with Ismail Mamadou, a Senegalese journalist working in London.

When Ismail arrives in South Africa announcing that he is following a story lead about a thriving child trafficking ring in the country, he also reveals his more personal reason for being here: to look for his sister who disappeared from home 25 years ago. He finds more than he bargained for in a web of crime syndicates operating brothels and engaging in human trafficking and prostitution.

The Economics Of Love And Happiness is a novel that comments on the sweet and not-so-sweet layers of social and romantic life in South Africa and beyond, where greed and lust often take centre stage and empathy is lost. In this way, it maps out the cost of love and happiness.

This story provides a window into the myriad cultures and beliefs that overlap and colour the landscape while Romina and Ismail navigate the challenges that come their way. Will their budding romance survive the bigger storms around them?

Die verhaal neem die leser van grootwordjare op die platteland tot 'n verblyf in Rusland waar die heldin steeds nie inpas nie. Die lemming word gebruik as 'n metafoor vir blinde menslike konformisme onder druk van groepe en opvoedkundige instellings.

Die leser sal die heerlike, absurde humor geniet. Sowel die ou as die nuwe Suid-Afrika loop onder skerp kommentaar deur.