In Die honger hart moet Julia Naude haar peetpa se ongewone voorwaarde behou om die plaas, wat sy saam met die plaasbestuurder geerf het, te beskerm. In Deel van die pakket staan Gita van Duinen op die drumpel van ’n nuwe lewe, maar meer veranderinge le voor. In Verskuilde liefde, keer dr. Edmund Wiese terug uit die buiteland. Hy moet vrede maak met die lee kol wat sy broer, Fanie, agtergelaat het. En drie weke later maak hy ’n onverwagse ontdekking wat sy prioriteite verander.

Life wasn't always this hard for fourteen-year-old Mvelo, who lives with her mother, Zola in the shacks on the margins of Mkhumbane township.

There were good times when they lived with Sipho, Zola's lawyer boyfriend. But when the beautiful and mysterious Nonceba Hlathi arrives, Zola has to make a choice. She also has her pride. Now their social grants have been discontinued: the one for Mvelo being underage reared by a 31-year-old single mother, and the other for Zola because of her status. And there is also an elephant growing in their shack as the terrible thing that happened that night in the revival tent remains unspoken.

In her second novel, Futhi Ntshingila once again introduces us to a cast of strong women who have little, but are determined to shape their own destinies.

In the 1980s, a small man is pulled up out of the Indian Ocean in Port Pallid, SA, claiming to have been kidnapped as a baby. The Sergeant, whose job it is to sort the local people by colour, and thereby determine their fate, peers at the boy, then sticks a pencil into his hair, as one did in those days, waiting to see if it stays there, or falls out before he gives his verdict: 'He's very odd, this Jimfish you've hauled in. If he's white he is not the right sort of white. But if he's black, who can say? We'll wait before we classify him. I'll give his age as 18, and call him Jimfish. Because he's a real fish out of water, this one is.'

So begins the odyssey of Jimfish, a South African Everyman, who defies the usual classification of race that defines the rainbow nation. His journey through the last years of Apartheid will extend beyond the borders of South Africa to the wider world, where he will be an unlikely witness to the defining moments of the dying days of the twentieth century.

Part fable, part fierce commentary on the politics of power, this work is the culmination of a lifetime's writing and thinking, on both the Apartheid regime and the history of the twentieth century, by a writer of enormous originality and range

Willing myself not to look away, I tried to make out her features and realised, with a jolt, that she looked exactly like me. Like me, but different. Something about how she held herself told me that this girl was as strong as steel. I knew instinctively that I should not look away. Then the Other Me smiled and said, ‘Don’t worry Lolly. I’ve got this.’

Who is Lolly, really? And who is the man who claims to love her? What happens when they drop their carefully constructed masks and allow their real selves to be seen?

David shares a close bond with his eight-year-old son, Chris, but their family is destroyed when David dies.

In the afterlife, he is given an opportunity. He is told that he may be granted three viewings by which to look in on his son. The terms are strict: he cannot help his boy. He cannot reach him, or teach him, or in any way change the course of his life. David agrees, and on three separate occasions observes his son’s unfolding story.

The first viewing takes place one year after his own death. The second shows him his son at the age of nineteen. David’s final viewing shows him the final days of Chris’s life.

What David sees will not leave him. He has a simple but impassioned request: ‘Let me take his place’.

Koos se nuutste roman soos net hy dit kan skryf, maar ook meer.

Dit is ‘n donker komedie gebore uit die wanhoop en isolasie van die afgelope twee jaar se grendeltyd.

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.

"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.

Dis die goeie ou dae van chat rooms en Internet Explorer; emoji’s met leestekens; waar jy moet verduidelik wat afkortings soos LOL beteken; en Joost en Amor is Suid-Afrika se “it couple”.

Zoë Zietsman sit op Oukersaand stoksielalleen voor haar rekenaar – sonder selfs ’n hond om mee te cuddle. En cuddle is volgens Zoë ’n basic human right. Vanaand is die aand, besluit sy terwyl sy as “Volksie” op die Matchmatewebwerf inteken.

Só ontmoet sy vir “Donatello”, ’n advokaat wat sy klerekas colour code en net suiwer Afrikaans praat. Zoë, daarenteen, meng haar tale, sy ry nog met haar Vespa en gee jogaklasse vir swanger vroue.

Wat het ’n konserwatiewe metro-man en ’n alternatiewe maltrap soos Zoë gemeen? Met twee goeie feë in die gedaante van ’n gay boesembuddie en ’n huishulp wat nie met haar laat sukkel nie, kan Mars en Venus dalk tog bymekaarkom.

Maar kan mens regtig jou instink vertrou oor skerms, sleutelborde en digitale kabels?

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.

“Die naald sink tussen haar oe in en buig. Die blink tandartsspuit van vlekvrye staal tref die skedel hard. Bloed. Sy hand lig weer op ...”

Izak Hugo is ’n gefrustreerde tandarts van Port Elizabeth. Hy haat sy werk en smag na ’n meer vervullende lewe. Snags word hy deur gewelddadige drome geteister. Soos sy onvergenoegdheid opbou, begin hy sporadiese oomblikke van geheueverlies beleef.

Wanneer hy ná so ’n episode sy vriend se verwurgde poedel in sy bakkie ontdek, begin hy sy greep op die werklikheid en homself verloor. Sake vererger wanneer ’n jong bendelid vermoor word en die bende vermoed dat lzak die skuldige is. lzak besluit om Transkei toe te vlug, maar die bloedspoor volg hom.

’n Kaalvuis sielkundige riller deur ’n opwindende nuwe skrywer. ’n Geveg tot die dood toe tussen goed en kwaad, maar die rolverdeling is net so onseker soos die uitslag.

We all know our final destination but we have no idea what will cross our path as we journey there.

It’s 2008 and the height of Zimbabwe’s economic demise. A group of passengers is huddled in a Toyota Quantum about to embark on a treacherous expedition to the City of Gold. Amongst them is Gugulethu, who is hoping to be reconciled with her mother; Dumisani, an ambitious young man who believes he will strike it rich, Chamunorwa and Chenai, twins running from their troubled past; and Portia and Nkosi, a mother and son desperate to be reunited with a husband and father they see once a year.

They have paid a high price for the dangerous passage to what they believe is a better life; an escape from the vicious vagaries of their present life in Bulawayo. In their minds, the streets of Johannesburg are paved with gold but they will have to dig deep to get close to any gold, dirtying themselves in the process.

Told with brave honesty and bold description, the stories of the individual immigrants are simultaneously heart-breaking and heart-warming.

Bongani and Thando are a loving couple, wonderful parents and each running their own successful businesses. They have it all until one chance encounter with a business associate changes the entire course of their lives.

It forces them to question the status quo and make drastic changes that end up having a great impact on those closest to them.

Will they stay and try to figure out how to exist in the new normal? Or do they follow their hearts and live their Truth.

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.

A collection of new and critically acclaimed stories by award-winning South African author Ken Barris. Here, Barris's work combines everyday events with the surreal and fantastical: the title story centres on a dog called Worm; in another, husband and wife quarrel over a plugless lamp; and in another, a man encounters a speaking baboon in his kitchen. Poised, lyrical and humorous, the stories in this collection concretise the human condition via the author's characteristically unfettered style.

Time out is an interesting thematic development in the novels of Marita van der Vyver. She had previously investigated the themes of love and being together (eros), and then she worked with the death of a mother-in-the-text. Now she describes the devastating effect of the death of a little daughter on the mother-in-the-text. She delves further into death's reach (thanatos). And though the Hester Human of the title exists in the spell of her child's death the whole time - in a way she is her child too - it is not a sombre title.

What About Meera tells the tale of Meera Narain, a twenty-two-year-old woman from Durban who escapes her abusive arranged marriage to run away to Dublin, where she takes up a job as a care-giver at a school for autistic children.

After years of abuse at the hands of her doctor husband, Meera’s fractured and damaged psyche sends her spiralling into a doomed relationship with Ian Gallagher, the father of one of her autistic patients. The obsessive affair uncovers frightening truths about Meera’s childhood on a farm in rural KwaZulu-Natal, setting her on a destructive path of alcoholism and hallucinations. It is in this dangerous state that Meera commits a horrifying act and is ostracised from the world where she thought she would find happiness.

Pulsating with life and colour and a considerable amount of black humour, What About Meera is the gripping story of a woman’s attempts to rise above her circumstances and take control of her fate.

Terwyl die 17-jarige Marta se pa in haar arms sterf, vra hy haar om na haar ma om te sien. Sy vertolk hierdie belofte letterlik en verlaat die skool. Marta verwerf 'n diploma in haarkappery en begin 'n haarsalon in haar tuisdorp, sodat sy haar ma kan versorg. Mettertyd kring haar dienslewering wyer uit: na die ouetehuis in Lambertsbaai en werk by die kerk. Sy en haar Ma het 'n roetine van Bybellees en bid in die aand, maar dis net nog 'n plig en hul gebede steek vas by afgerammelde rympies. Sy neem haar kort-kort voor om haar lewe beter in te rig, maar dit gebeur nie. Eendag word dit alles te veel vir haar - die dag toe haar blinde bewondering vir Deon Swanepoel haar in groot verleentheid bring.

Dit is Marta se verhaal en hoe sy uit 'n web van pligpleging, onderdrukking, skewe waardes en onmoontlike drome bevry word.

Hierdie treffende verhaal van onvervulde drome, leë werke en liefdelose pligplegings wat geen bevrediging bring nie, maar net hartseer en verwyte, wys dat alles omgedraai kan word wanneer mense tyd maak vir Jesus. Deur sy vergifnis en sy liefde te aanvaar, kan jy met dankbaarheid die toekoms tegemoet gaan.

On a winter's afternoon Gertruida returns to Kiepersolkloof after her mother and father’s funeral in town. Her heart rejoices. They were not her mother and father. They were Abel and Susarah. People who walked with God. At the same time walking arm in arm with Satan. She was never their precious little crowned plover. When she still wished to run after dragonflies in her mummy’s garden, Abel had brutally stolen her innocence and threatened her with the fork-tongued leguan that walked by night. Child-woman who danced naked in front of the window in the moonlight while Susarah slept behind drawn curtains. Or was she awake? She closes and locks the gate to the farm-yard. In years to come she will have to pilot her own life. But she only knows how to hate; love has no meaning to her. Her boundaries were destroyed. The only place of solace and dignity that ever belonged to her was the hidden stone house she had built in a secluded kloof. In the house on the ridge Mama Thandeka sits with a sorrowful heart. For fifty three years she had watched a black blanket slowly descending upon Kiepersolkloof. At night she is deeply troubled because there are many things that she regrets. Years ago she was little Abel's black mama, and when she should have spoken up, she thula-ed. Now the time for speaking up has gone by. All that remains is to call the spirits of the papas and mamas to come closer so that she can speak to them: Sit down, listen carefully. Then, with iNkosi as her witness, the truth will flow from her tongue. And on Monday she hopes to shuffle down to the farm-yard with her notsung kierie to cherish Gertruida against her soft mama-bosom for a while. Even though Gertruida does not want to be held by anyone.

Trencherman is the story of Marlouw's life-changing return to a post-apocalyptic South Africa - but it is also a voyage into the self.

One stormy nignt in Australia, Marlouw receives a call from his sister to save her son from 'that bloody country'. Handicapped by a clubfoot and a prudent spirit, Marlouw nevertheless answers what he perceives to be the call of destiny. In a journey recalling that of Marlow in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, he departs for Africa. Marlouw's quest is to find his adventurer nephew, Koert, and to return him to the safety of Melbourne. There are rumours that Koert has ended up on the old family farm, now owned by the former workers, and that he has built himself an empire as the King of Meat.

Venter portrays a turbulent, ruined South Africa where the socio-political landscape is riven by factions, and the infrastructure is in ruins after a massive explosion in the south of the country. As the Journey progresses, the primal fear that haunts Marlouw and has devastated his people is relentlessly exposed.

As Zakes Mda's fifth novel opens, the seaside village of Hermanus is overrun with whale-watchers--foreign tourists determined to see whales in their natural habitat. But when the tourists have gone home, the whale caller lingers at the shoreline, wooing a whale he has named Sharisha with cries from a kelp horn. When Sharisha fails to appear for weeks on end, the whale caller frets like a jealous lover--oblivious to the fact that the town drunk, Saluni, a woman who wears a silk dress and red stiletto heels, is infatuated with him.
The two misfits eventually fall in love. But each of them is ill equipped for romance, and their relationship suggests, in the words of "The Washington Post, " that "the deeper, darker concern here is not so much the fragility of love, but the fragility of life itself when one surrenders wholly to the foolish heart."

When Rachel’s brother disappears under mysterious circumstances, she must come to terms with his apparent death, though there is no body. She travels to Joburg to support her sister-in-law, Maya, with the memorial – also to escape her stifling life as a wife and mother. Rachel is unsettled when Max, her ex-lover, arrives. Despite poet Sizwe’s efforts to steady her, Rachel reels from grief and longing. Then Rachel, Maya, Max and Sizwe are involved in a confrontation that will change them forever.

The focal point of the novel is the small town of Soutbek. Its troubles, hardships and corruption, but also its kindness, strong community and friendships, are introduced to us in a series of stories about intriguingly interlinked relationships. Contemporary Soutbek is still a divided town - the upper town destitute, and the lower town rich, largely ignorant - and through a series of vivid scenes, the troubled relationship between Pieter Fortuin, the town's first coloured mayor, and his wife Anna is revealed. In so many ways the past casts a long shadow over the present, not in the least through the unreliable diaries of Pieter Meerman promoted by Pieter Fortuin and Professor Pearson, a retired white historian. They give us a unique insight into the lives of the seventeenth-century Dutch explorers, and hint at a utopian society, suggesting that Soutbek is the birthplace of assimilation and integration. The blossoming friendship between Anna, Sara, a foundling, and Willem, Pieter Fortuin's nephew, is unsettled by David, Anna's and Pieter's son. His father has bought David a bright future, but when he comes back from boarding school David appears alienated from his father and from his old friend, the former gardener Charles Geduld, just as Anna starts to accept him as her son. Is there hope, or are we left with Willem's conclusion that 'he would spend the rest of his life working off the debt of his family's poverty'? A moving story that paints a thought-provoking picture of life in contemporary South Africa.

"A dark and terrifying novel presenting a mythical account of the development of evil through the history of Southern Africa."--Seattle Times. This ferocious new novel by one of South Africa's visionary writers is a post-colonial reimagining of the Book of Revelation--an unholy epic that reenvisions the catastrophic violence of European "civilization" as a hooded rider who spreads slaughter across the African continent--a work that is as unnerving as it is intellectually provocative.