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

Wat hét met Anna gebeur die oomblik ná sy die sneller getrek het? Ná sy haar stiefpa wat haar soveel jare lank fisies en emosioneel verrinneweer het, vroeg een oggend in Bloemfontein in die oë gekyk, en toe geskiet het?

Agt jaar ná die verskyning van Dis ek, Anna neem Anchien Troskie aldus Elbie Lötter weer haar pen op, en skryf die opvolg. Hoe vra ’n mens vergifnis, en wanneer mag jy wraak neem? Dit is die vrae waarmee Anna – en ook die skrywer – worstel . . .

’n Skreiend eerlike roman oor Anna Bruwer se lewe ná die moord op haar stiefpa – ’n boek gevul met deernis, en eindelik ook hoop.

Reeds as ’n dogtertjie in Kenia leer Hannli die pyn van verlies ken. Ná die MauMau-aanvalle, moet sy en haar gesin hul plaas verlaat en Suid-Afrika toe verhuis.

As student beleef sy ’n erge trauma waarvan net haar ouma Hannie, by wie sy haar sesde sintuig geërf het, weet.

Toe kom Buks Vermaak, en ná jare se gesukkel, ’n dogtertjie, Nell. Maar ’n droomhuwelik met Buks was haar nie beskore nie. Toe hy sterf, verkoop sy die huis in Pretoria en gaan woon in hulle strandhuis in Salt Rock.

Sal haar ouma se belofte van ’n gelukkige lewe vir haar hier op Salt Rock waar word – of lê haar geluk verder noord in die Afrika-landskap van haar kindertyd?

Following his brother’s funeral, Chisoni, a thirty-three-year-old Malawian, embarks on a long-haul flight to England, where he lives. His neighbour on the plane is a loquacious Irishman who speaks openly about many things, including the loss of his own father. Over the course of their thirteen-hour flight, the two form a genuine connection, sharing their thoughts, fears and ideas about life and death.

A man with high anxiety, Chisoni analyses his childhood, his family, and the events that led to his brother’s untimely death. He is consumed with guilt for his role in his brother’s decline. In his jacket pocket is a note, addressed to their father, handwritten by his brother shortly before his death. In a drunken hand, it begins: Dad, I’ve been trying to meet you but all efforts are proving futile … Chisoni cannot bring himself to look at the note, let alone deliver it. Is it his duty to fulfil his brother’s request, or will doing so only break their father’s heart?

Thought-provoking and at times humorous, this honest account of grief embraces the themes of addiction, brotherhood, and the relationship of fathers and sons.

Twenty-nine-year-old Themba is a nihilistic, depressed, and suicidal artist whose dream is to become a successful novelist. With all the failure and suffering he's experiencing, it seems as though his life is stuck without any purpose and meaning. Everything seems to be going well for his friends, but not for him. His brother and father hate him for his ambitious but dead dream. Worse, Themba still lives in poverty with his parents in an abandoned house.

However, Themba has one passionate reader of his books, a woman called Yana. She's weird and has no friends, and volunteers at a local orphanage. Yana is the good Samaritan of the neighbourhood, cheerful and happy, but few people seem to like her. Themba begins to question what makes Yana so odd but yet so comfortable with her life even though she doesn't have much to be happy about. His curiosity leads him closer to her, and his life changes forever.

Five lovely ex-girlfriends; one sweet-talking scoundrel.

“Limerence?” “Limerence, yes. It’s like a drug; like lsd. But you can’t buy it. Or go to jail for taking it. If you’ve got it, enjoy it. Just don’t make any long-term decisions. If you want to know what it is, look it up.”

When Clarissa shook Scout from her life like crumbs from a picnic blanket forty years ago, she hoped she would never ever see him again. But here he is, on the doorstep of her luxe townhouse. She is more than surprised – she is offended – but, against her better judgment, she listens to his story. He regrets, Scout tells her, that they parted on such bad terms. To make amends, he has named her his sole beneficiary in his last will and testament. Look! It says so on page six. Oh, and by the way, could she lend him four hundred thousand bucks?

Months later Clarissa is summoned to a lawyer’s office. She assumes Scout has kicked the bucket and that there will be a reading of his will. But when she arrives, four other women tell her to join the queue. Set in vibrant, ever-changing Joburg, Limerence tracks Scout’s relationships with five remarkable women, from his bygone days of first dates to times of pawpaws hitting fans. Warm-hearted and funny, this is a tale guaranteed to lift the spirits of even the sourest of exes.

They say the fall is only as great as the ability to rise, and The Belters know plenty about going both ways. Growing up in the best schools and moving in the continent’s aristocratic circles, the road to carving out their ideal life is clear. But that path is rarely straight, and for the four university friends, the sharp turn into teenage pregnancy, infidelity and the erosion of love’s grand illusion delivers blows that would derail most.

Chic and haughty, entitled and oblivious, Lolo, Nala, Runako and Qhayiya, aka The Belters, grow to realise that while flair is hard work, it doesn’t work hard enough. Nala learns the hard way that a trust fund is finite, but death isn’t. Lolo discovers that everyone betrays everyone sometime in life. Runako realises that the heavier the carats, the harder it is to run, and Qhayiya finds herself in a world where saints, monsters and bystanders are the same people.

With sharp wit and the wisdom of hindsight, Ringfence reflects on four lives that touch the foot of heaven, fall to the depths of hell, and grow to become women whose hard-earned insights cut right to the heart of Africa’s elite.

Aan die einde van elke jaar word daar op Gatlek, Dawid Fourie se plaas, feesgevier. ʼn Soort danksegging, kan jy sê. Dawid beloon sy werkers vir hul harde werk, en hulle betoon hul dankbaarheid op ʼn manier waaroor daar ná die tyd nie veel uitgewei word nie.

Dit was tydens die nag van die laaste groot vleisbraai dat dinge vir Dawid en Gatlek begin skeefloop het.

Jan-Vlok, Dawid se seun, sit nou verbitterd sonder ʼn erfplaas. Sy pa swyg oor Gatlek terwyl hy sy dae vul met grafstene maak in sy agterplaas. Totdat sy mal oom Outa oor die verlede begin praat en niemand hom meer kan ignoreer nie.

Dan is daar Bettie Rondganger. ’n Alleenloper. ’n Vrou wat wil voorthol om van haar verlede te vergeet. Sy gee haar lyf vir Jan-Vlok, maar ook vir Klippies, sy jeugvriend wat aan die werkerskant van die plaas grootgeword het. Sy en Klippies ken immers die etiek van die vullishope waar hulle nou ʼn bestaan moet maak.

Maar wat het werklik daardie aand op Gatlek gebeur?

Dinge van ’n hond is ’n roman oor vergeet, maar ook oor onthou. En die besef dat ’n mens jou nooit rêrig van jou verlede kan losmaak nie.

Haar kans op vir ewig en altyd is nou. Vyf jaar na haar egskeiding is Milan 'n bedrywige sakevrou met 'n vol lewe. Estie, Milan se stiefdogter, het pas begin werk as junior rekenmeester met groot drome om die korporatiewe leer te klim. Jessica, Estie se rna, het sewentien jaar gelede haar rug op Vaalkrans gekeer en bestuur nou 'n gewilde trouplaas. Drie suksesvolle vroue met vervulde lewens, of so wil dit voorkom. Vaalkrans en die gebeure van die verlede het egter steeds 'n houvas op elkeen. Milan kan nie vir Herk vergeet nie, en alhoewel sy die seuns gereeld sien, is Estie se verwerping pynlik. Estie is steeds verbitterd teenoor Milan en haar ma, en sukkel met 'n eetversteuring wat besig is om handuit te ruk. Jessica is in 'n rolstoel en aanvaar haar gestremdheid as straf vir die feit dat sy haar gesin versaak het. Die troues wat sy reel, is 'n poging om boete te doen. Wanneer Milan se lewe onverwags ontwrig word, begin die domino's een vir een kantel, en word hierdie drie vroue wie se lewens ineengeweef is, onkeerbaar geraak. Durf hulle 'n kans op geluk, 'n kans op vir altyd, waag?

Casey Olivier van Velddrif in die Sandveld aan die skilderagtige Weskus het alles: ’n goeie man, twee suksesvolle seuns en lekker kantoorwerk by die munisipaliteit.

Dog, reeds van haar tienerjare smag sy na die groen gras aan die ander kant van die draad. Helaas ook na wat baie mense sal afkeur as onsedelikheid. Dit lê in haar gene. Afkomstig uit die geslag van haar ontugtige oumagrootjie, Anna Smit, kan sy beswaarlik beter vaar, verdedig sy haarself.

Die roman begin in 1861, strek oor vier geslagte en eindig in 2020, die jaar van die groot Covid-19-pandemie – op ’n verrasssende hoogtepunt.

’n Monsteragtige wese het hom in Fabian se tuin tuisgemaak – ’n ondier met ’n dodelike aptyt.

In die skadu van die dobbelhuis waar Fabian ’n veiligheidswag is, werskaf hy en Mossie, pas uit die tronk, om vir dié gedierte ʼn hok te bou en hom te versorg.

Maar net Fabian weet van die trommel wat hy vroeër in die tuin begrawe het – daar waar die dier nou lê. ’n Trommel wat hom sal help om sy vrou Merinda, wyndrinker van formaat, vir ’n wyle te help vergeet van die skade aan haar gesig en in haar hart.

Wilken Calitz se Swart swaan is meer as ’n surrealistiese sprokie vir volwassenes. Dit is ’n betowerende roman oor die lewe van ’n man wie se verbeelding op ’n dag vlerke kry.

In a future where most of the men are dead, Cole and her twelve-year-old son Miles are on the run from the most dangerous person she knows … her sister.

Miles is one of the lucky survivors of a global pandemic. But, in a world of women, that also makes him a hot commodity. The Department of Men wants to lock him away in quarantine, forever, maybe. A sinister cult of neon nuns wants to claim him for its own; the answer to their prayers. And boy traffickers are close on their heels, thanks to Billie, Cole’s ruthless sister, whom Cole thought she left for dead.

In a desperate chase across a radically changed America, Cole will do whatever it takes to get Miles to safety. Because she’s all he’s got.

13 twisted tales of music, magick, mayhem & murder.

Some torn from headlines in sunny South Africa where, for many, these are part of everyday life.

♠

Shop for shrunken heads in a village that time forgot.

Witness an ancient ritual passed down from the Aztecs through Jack the Ripper to modern-day London.

Savour the sweet taste of revenge in a French restaurant.

Sit in on the Grim Reaper’s disciplinary hearing.

And experience life on the streets in 1980s Hillbrow as two teenagers struggle to survive a violent rollercoaster ride through Johannesburg’s underground club scene.

♠

John West has won awards and even small amounts of money for his scribblings over the years. One of his stories was recently longlisted in the top 200 entries out of 5 000 submitted to the international Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

His first novel – Burning Roses, a decadent tale of sex, drugs, rock n roll & magick – is available online.

Nuwe plek, nuwe skool, nuwe mense. Ek het my eenkant gehou, net in die middae pinball gespeel by die Griek se kafee op die hoek. Pinball was my ding. My nuwe klasmaats het gesien hoe ek speel.

“Kyk hoe jive die cat daar agter die pinball,” lag die een. “Ek scheme dié Randfontein cat is nie te bad nie.”

Omdat ek ’n soort van pinball wizard was, het hulle my nie so geboelie soos vir my kleinboet Johnny nie.
 
Ná ’n lewe in die skadus neem ’n man stelling in, rewolwer in die hand, om sy allerlaaste misdaad te pleeg.
 
Terwyl hy in ’n donker sitkamer wag, loop sy herinneringe wye draaie: na harde grootwordjare in Randfontein en Germiston se strate, waar selfs jou eie familie jou kon bloedmond slaan. Hy onthou die Suid-Afrika waarin hy opgegroei het: die Castle Lager en Lucky Strikes agter skoolpawiljoene, die seuns met aanvalsgewere op die grens.
 
Vir ’n hierjy soos hy was sy pad reeds vroeg uitgemeet: hoëtroustelle steel, baie Klipdrift, verbeteringskool, daarná die army. En toe sluk Sunnyside se nagklubs en onderwêreld hom in.
 
In André Krüger se aangrypende roman oor familie, verraad en wraak – geskryf in die taal van die straat en die tyd – voer een man ’n uiterste stryd teen sy lotsbestemming.

"Don’t come!" Kate is told by her only child. Jess is keeping her mother at a distance on the day that her own children, conjoined twins, are to be separated during high-risk surgery in London. Kate wakes on her farm in the Eastern Cape, torn between respecting Jess’s wishes and a longing to rush to her estranged daughter’s side.

A former geneticist disillusioned by the pressing ethical questions posed by her job, Kate is now an award-winning maker of organic cheese. She relies on the farm’s routine and the people and animals in her life to hold steady as her day teeters on a knife’s edge. Meanwhile, her employee Nosisi’s son is undergoing initiation. Forbidden to have contact with him during this traditional passage into the world of manhood, his mother anxiously awaits his return.

Breaking Milk, Dawn Garisch’s seventh novel, is an evocative exploration of the divisions and connections between humans, animals and the environment.

In this award-winning novel, Finuala Dowling explores the fleeting and often so complicated moments of happiness in any household. Margot is a late-night talk radio host – the perfect job for an outspoken insomniac. Her home in Kalk Bay is crowded with wonderfully evocative characters such as her teenage daughter, Pia, and the three men in their lives. Finally there’s her mother, Zoe, once the acclaimed author of a quirky self-help volume with the same title, but now increasingly senile.

An acclaimed novel by a leading South African author. It is the story of a professional mourner, whose odyssey takes him from a rural village to the outskirts of a contemporary South African city. It is magical, harsh, and funny. The style of writing is new and exciting, using transliteration for example.

'n Afgetrede navorser raak betrokke in ’n vete met die bure na hulle twee reusagtige bome op sy erf afkap. Terwyl hy probeer wraak neem (met komiese gevolge!), kom sy joernalis-dogter op die spoor van ’n geheimsinnige graffiti-kunstenaar wat Da Vinci se Vetruviaanse Man op stadsmure in Johannesburg aanbring. Die verhaal speel af in die voorstede van Johannesburg en die distopiese ruimtes van Hillbrow. ’n Slim, humoristiese roman cum speurverhaal deur ’n bekroonde dramaturg.

Growing up in a Northern Transvaal town during the State of Emergency in the 1980s, Ben Aronbach doesn’t fit in anywhere. Among the predominantly Afrikaans, Christian inhabitants, he is the Jewish kid, but in the Jewish community he is the boy from the family of lapsed shul-goers. Even though he is learning Hebrew for his bar mitzvah, he feels like an outsider learning a foreign language.

Then Ben meets Leo Fein, a man who knew his father before he died. When Leo includes the boy in his schemes, Ben feels exhilarated. Little does he know the far-reaching impact that Leo will have on the Aronbach family’s life.

It is only years later, in the run-up to the 1992 Referendum, that Ben gets a chance to confront the charlatan . . . but he also has to face his own guilt over his family’s downfall.

Set during two important moments in South Africa’s history, Lucky Packet is told with humour and poignancy.

“One of the best novels of recent years, and likely the most readable.” – Imraan Coovadia

Drie sexy, sensuele en romantiese verhale deur drie gewilde skrywers: Anderkant die volmaan deur Ettie Bierman, Bambi en die boef deur Anita du Preez en Victoriavalle van liefde deur Lizet Engelbrecht. 

When Lily Westwood dies of cancer, her family are plunged into grief and despair. However, it is not only the loss of Lily which causes their desolation - it’s honouring her dying wish that her husband, William, and twin sister, Frith, leave the UK to raise her daughter, Plum, in Lily’s beloved South Africa. Together, William, Frith and Plum must fulfil Lily’s last wish and confront the challenges this presents to each of them.

William, broken and remorseful, buys North Wind Manor, a decaying Edwardian house, and buries his misery in trying to restore the property to its former glory. As the three become immersed in this project, it is clear that William’s obsession with hiding the rot and decay of the mansion mirror his desperation to conceal the misdeeds and wretchedness of his past.

Lily’s identical twin sister, Frith, resents her loss of freedom as she finds herself caring for William and Plum in a damp, gloomy house and a city alien to her. Increasingly she frets over the impact this will have on her spirit and career as an artist. With enormous courage, Frith tries to carve out an identity for herself as her future becomes increasingly tenuous.

Eleven-year old Plum, sensitive, bright, and imaginative falls in love with North Wind Manor at first sight. Upon finding a century-old diary written by the manor’s former occupant, Plum becomes enthralled by the intrigue and history of her new home, so much so, that it consumes her every waking thought until she begins to believe the diary’s author is a spirit inhabiting the manor.

This compelling story interweaves between past and present to explore the twisted dynamics of a family brought closer by sorrow, regret, mortality, love – and an understanding that the truth is not always simple.

The book, Dry Tears, attempts to highlight the daily struggles of women in the townships and villages, concerning various stereotypes and other forms of unfair treatment. It showcases that abuse is not only physical, but emotional as well, so the author exposes other forms of abuse and mistreatment, mostly under the pretext of upholding values and culture. Although the setting is based in real places, the storyline is entirely the thought of the writer.

The main character, Ntsakisi, goes through a lot of challenging circumstances, trials and tribulations due to the set-up of her community and how society perceives women in general. After losing her husband to a motor vehicle incident, her in-laws subject her to extreme levels of emotional abuse. She is left to fend for her two children alone, yet they never stop involving themselves in her private affairs.

She finds love in a man called Mokoena, a teacher at a local school, but both her family and her in-laws connive to deny her the opportunity to marry her lover.

Keira en die mense van Walkers Village leer ons dat elke mens 'n kans het om oor te begin. Dat elke mens die reg het om oor te begin.

Vir die inwoners van Walkers Village is Keira se manier van dinge doen aanvanklik baie vreemd en ongehoord. Maar Keira verstaan dat regte mense regte probleme het. En ook dat regte mense soms so 'n bietjie hulp nodig het om die regte probleme op te los. Al klink dit aanvanklik vreemd en ongehoord. Saam met Keira leer ons om te verstaan dat die lewe nie altyd regverdig is nie. Dat goeie mense se paaie soms met donker siele se paaie kruis. Dat ons nie altyd kan kies wie ons pad kruis nie, maar dat ons wel kan kies hoe ons daai pad van ons stap.

Want hoe jy jou pad stap, is wat saak maak. Nie hoe jy jou storie vertel nie.

Dina Botha is een van die suksesvolste skrywers in Afrikaans. Sedert Februarie 2013 was Dina Botha 192 keer op Nielsen Bookscan se Top100 vir fiksieverkope.

Hierdie omnibus is ’n samestelling van drie van Dina Botha se vorige Romanzas, Sy rooikopbaas, Liefste Willemientjie en Liefdeskrale.

Sy rooikopbaas:
Voor Sandra haar oë uitvee, sit sy met ’n manlike “sekretaresse” – Ryk Willemse. Maar haar firma word skielik bedreig, Oumsie soek verbete vir haar ’n man, en sy begin wonder: Is sy ’n verstokte oujongnooi, mannetjiesagtig, ’n rooikopheks?

Liefste Willemientjie:
Wilmien het lankal vergeet om aan haarself te dink. Ná haar ouers se dood moet sý sorg, voog van haar vyf broers en suster wees, boer – al maak Rhys du Randt weer die vrou in haar wakker.

Liefdeskrale:
Platsak moet rykmansdogter Esté oorleef, haarself bewys. Sonder haar ontwerpersklere, -skoene, sportmotor. Schalk Brink word haar baas, ’n man wat vroue vir brekfis opeet. En Esté moet net keer. Sy vlam mag haar nie ook skroei nie.

Impi was born during the Mozambican civl war and was abducted to join renamo as a child soldier. He also participated forcefully in all mutilation and killing activities.