Tthe debut title of new South African publisher, Mirari Press.

In an alternate history where the Church rules Europe through the Holy Roman Empire, a young woman. is hunted for witchcraft as she seeks the purpose of her family's dark powers. When second-year Dresden University student Nell Blythe is accused of witchcraft, not even the Holy Office knows just how guilty she is.

She may not believe in spells, but she does nave rightening abilities she keeps hidden and can't explain. The same abilities that made her mother infamous, then got her killed. Forced to flee, Nell meets a powerful stranger with abilities like hers. He can answer questions about her mother and their dark gifts that she has spent her whole life asking. But she is not nearly prepared for what he will show her. No one is.

As the Holy Office closes in on her, how far will Nell go to uncover the secrets her mother died for? Secrets that could cut to the heart of the Church itself.

Clementine Khoza is a hard person: hard to know, hard to love, hard to fight. As a little girl, her grandfather put a stick and a shield in her hands and taught her the ancient stick-fighting art of her Zulu ancestors. The hard way. And right now she is in a hard place, searching for Drew, her young son – kidnapped and drawn into the heart of a vicious gang conflict.

Ex-army and ex-cop, Clementine has tracked Drew’s phone to Welcome Shade – a sprawling retirement estate that has fallen into disrepair to become a gang-infested war-zone. With nothing but a talent for violence, a drone piloted by a skinny Afrikaans street kid as her eye-in-the-sky, and a huge dog with ptsd who tried to kill her and then, somehow, became her sidekick, she’ll wield stick and shield, machete and shotgun, and wade through a sea of bodies to find her son.

But the gangs are only part of the problem. Dark, twisted things stalk the estate: nightmare creatures, elite military snipers working as mercenaries and a sword-wielding man on a white horse who has made her and Drew part of his agenda. And then there are the memories and visions of her ancestors, and her own very special hallucination whom she nicknames ‘Glitch’.

It’s going to be a hard day.

After returning to her realm, Cassia continues to use the magic she’d discovered in Selene. Little did she know, that wasn’t allowed and because of it, she’s abducted by the king. Luckily, Prince Lochlan is still living in the castle pretending to be under the king’s command. After Lochlan frees Cassia, they all need to flee Selene to escape the king and find allies elsewhere.

But in this new realm, all the inhabitants are afraid of the dark where a shadow is lurking, feeding upon them.

With nowhere else to go, they have to choose, either they face the king or this eternal shadow.

From Ensimbini, in the village of Somizi, in the shadow of the Ntokozo Hills, within the Kingdom of Langabi, during the reign of King Diliza, the cousin of Langabi’s founder, the late Queen Sukumani, there comes a hero.

King Diliza, sun of the sky and leopard of the many markings, Babengabuzang’ elangeni.

Owethu knows your secret.

Once upon a time, a young girl Song ventured into a dark forest, looking for a cure for her much-loved elder sister ...

A touching, tender and lyrical fable about what we do for the ones we love, and the beauty and mystery of being alive in a world where we are a part of everything, and everything is a part of us.

As a terrible pandemic rages through the small medieval hamlet of Villingraz, a young girl, Estie, accompanied by her goat Isabel, sets off into the forest, in search of a cure for her sister who is infected with the pox. Her father Merdocai has surrendered himself to the evil Marquis to be experimented upon for the Greater Good; and with her mother long dead, all Estie has to keep her going is the love of her sister, her father and her friend Rainer, a stuttering poet.

As Estie ventures deeper into the forest, she encounters creatures and teachers who hold the answers to all the questions she has about who she is, and where she has come from. Meanwhile, out in the depths of the ocean, a whale is returning to the place he was born, to exhale his last breath. While Estie does not know this, he too holds secrets that belong to Estie's story. The Whale's Last Song is a touching, tender fable, a parable what we must sacrifice for those we love; a rumination on the tragic mistakes in every life - and the steadfastness that is required to overcome those mistakes - and a love song to the natural world.

"I am the Shadow of the Lion. The one who will survive deaths without number. The one who has lost everyone. The one wounded and betrayed. I am not the Lion. He is dead. I am his Shadow. I am his revenge."

Amkela has always fought beside his older brother Nenkani, the Lion of the West and last hope of their people against the invading Karaphi Empire. But when they are betrayed and hunted by Imperial airships, Amkela is offered power and revenge by an imprisoned being of visions and vines called dreaming-what-is-to-come.

Thrust from his brother's shadow, Amkela must lead his people to freedom while keeping secret the terrible price he's paid.

When the shadow of the Empire falls across him, will Amkela be strong enough to save his people? Will he be strong enough to survive?

Jono is a lonely fisherman who must work hard to pay the debt he owes. Uncle Mike is a factory owner trying desperately to stay above water. The Baai is a tiny town, peopled with those who have fished the same way for generations. And now there are no fish.

When a race of foreigners arrive with ships that stagger the ways of the Baai's simple folk, it seems the village will be washed away by the tide of the turning world. But for one boy with an uncommon talent: he can hear the thoughts of fishes.

For in the deep a secret lies buried, and through Jono’s line it must come tumbling out.

THANDO Weber is a half South African and half Swiss nerdy girl with hopes of going to the best university in Switzerland like her father did. She is also the last surviving descendant of the Watchers of Realms, a powerful race of light beings who watch over the Milky Way galaxy. Her mission is to find her lower-self, and her higher-self to complete her triad, so that she may bond with them and be the next Dreamer – an interdimensional traveller and protector of the Earth Realm.

Tortured by the transformation of moving from human to Dreamer, THANDO hallucinates, sleepwalks, and suffers sleep deprivation, which destroys her dreams of tertiary education. On one mundane high school day, she loses consciousness and plunges into a coma, not from exhaustion but because she encounters her lower-self and higher-self simultaneously.

She starts her training to be a Dreamer, experiences challenges and travels through South Africa to find ways to release her latent superpowers. As she trains, the Kryona terrorises people around her to get to her. On her journeys through South Africa, she meets powerful creatures of old, ancient water spirits and primordial dragons who help her with her training. She is guided to traditional healers to assist her and comes across other traditional healers who betray her due to influence from the Kryona. Through her adventures, she learns about her mother’s Zulu culture and inches closer to her goal, but will it be enough?

Are you yourself if you are unaware of whom you can become?

A once assertive Amari finds herself challenged as she attempts to assimilate into the life of a Kenryk and the ever-demanding role of an Avaris.

Will she be able to reach within and awaken that fiery warrior she stifled in time to defend the tribe from the looming threat of the Emoryk Army?

Dis iewers in die nabye toekoms. Kolonel “Rooipiet” Moolman se lieflingprojek is die jaarlikse Versoeningsfees­opvoering, ’n eietydse weergawe van die Slag van Bloedrivier, wat by ’n inryteater bo­op Welkom se mynhoop gehou word. Enkele seisoene tevore is ’n merkwaardige vonds gemaak: ’n koperplaatfoto wat tydens die destydse veldslag geneem is . . en dit wys drie engele teen die oggendmis!

Net daar besluit Rooipiet dat die engele deel moet word van sy toneelstuk. Die neerdaal van die engele word die hoogtepunt van die opvoering, en vanjaar is daar ’n spesiale engel wat almal se asem wegslaan. Rooipiet is heimlik verlief op haar. Toe sy egter tydens die kleedrepetisie oënskynlik vermoor word en die koperplaatfoto boonop verdwyn, word Rooipiet se kultuurryk tot in die fondamente geskud.

En hiervandaan raak die intrige net méér interessant.

Weerlose meganika is ’n heerlik aweregse roman, sowel ryke verbeeldingsvlug as skerp satire.

An ancient fallen angel is discovered. All hell is about to break loose.

In the year 2233, a mysterious pulsating energy source from Antarctica leads to the discovery of a chained fallen angel deep in the icy trenches of the earth. Micah, a Commander with the Europe, Middle East & Africa Search and Rescue, is feared dead after he plummets down a shaft during this exploratory mission. Lydia refuses to believe that he’s gone and launches her own risky mission with his teammates to retrieve what might be left of the man she loves.

In secret, another dark alliance gathers with their own evil agenda. Demonic entities noticed the discovery of the fallen angel too and plan to use his powers to access an ancient, sealed scroll. Their goal is to reverse Revelation prophecies and bring about their own terrifying version of the apocalypse.

Lydia finds herself in the middle of a treacherous race and an ancient battle that spans back to Day Six of Creation.

Will she find Micah alive? And will they be able to save the world from this supernatural onslaught? Only time will tell if all will be lost in the great divide between good and evil.

Ramon Fraser is al sy hele lewe lank 'n uitgeworpene. Sy ma vlug met hom vandat hy kan onthou. Sy is 'n fortuinverteller, maar weier om sý toekoms te lees. Tot op die verskriklike dag toe die mantelman hulle inhaal ...

Ramon moet weer vlug en beland op 'n plaas met wuiwende grasvelde, Boesmangrotte en poue wat se angsgille die dood nader roep; die poue met die sterte wat bestaan uit duisende oë wat na hom kyk. Iewers in daardie oë sien hy die mantelman wat die niemandsland tussen hemel en hel oppas en verlore siele vir ewig daar opsluit. Hy wink Ramon om deel te word van sy donkerte, moord en waansin.

En so begin die stryd tussen die mantelman en die seun wat die Sielsmokkelaar genoem word. Hy wat siele tussen die hede en ewigheid vervoer, en wie se eie siel as losprys gebruik word om die donker ryk te oorwin.

South African born debut author brings a threat-and-danger, hidden-world fantasy with touches of Suzanne Collins which fans of VE Schwab or Sarah J Maas will love.

Twenty-two-year-old Cassia's sister is dying, and she doesn't know why. Cassia wakes up in another realm to find her missing best friend, Lucas, who knows how to save her sister.

Lucas is part of a community of Reborns, people who were born on earth and after death, were reborn in this realm with magical abilities. The original beings of the realm, the Firsts, rule over them.

To keep the Reborn numbers manageable, the king of the Firsts releases a curse to cull them. Cassia needs to break the curse before her time runs out and she is trapped there forever.

A Big Hand For The Spirits explores the space where science, religion and magic come together – where the world behaves in ways that are at once absolutely normal but also utterly amazing.

An ecologist on the run from a hit man joins up with a brilliant physicist struggling to reconcile his traditional African beliefs with science, an anaesthetist dealing with a bad marriage, a physically powerful, but emotionally distraught river guide, and an enigmatic recovering drug addict who alternates wildly between reality and fantasy.

Together they travel overland from Vic Falls to Malawi, encountering many adventures, some intellectual, some fun, and some downright terrifying.

As they explore the power of their individual and collective unconscious, they discover that they are connected in unexpected ways and, through means both mystical and prosaic, work together to survive and achieve each other’s goals.

The action, which includes wild white water rafting, tracking elephants, dabbling in witchcraft, catching snakes and learning to dive, mirrors the characters’ exploration of the nature of reality, time and truth – and whether there are, in fact, only three thousand people in the world. The climax on the edge of Lake Malawi revolves around a dramatic performance of the Gule Wamkulu spirit dancers that may – or may not – be instrumental in bringing it all together.

Yellow Means Stay is a collection of enthralling, sad, humorous, and heart-touching love stories from across Africa and the black diaspora. It features new and award-winning writers from across the African continent and beyond.

The stories are a dynamic blend of the poetic and narrative, the spousal and familial, the suggestive and explicit, the dramatic and measured, the straight and queer, the sad and humorous, the past and future, life and afterlife. Through its pages, readers enter the world of African literature, love, and romance

The Witches of Sark is Shiloh’s first novel, written on the heels of his 4 star Rolling Stone award winning rock history book, ‘Seeker’s Guide to the Rhythm of Yesteryear’. The Gothic fantasy novel was briefly aborted and then came to life in 2023, in parallel with his fascinating ‘Swimming with Salamanders.

Largely a gothic novel with the erring’s of HP Lovecraft, the book is set in the seventies backpacking era, where the quest for truth was the overriding goal. The dark adventures are so realistic, that one finds it hard to equate fantasy when the descriptive passages enter one’s subconscious. From hunting vampires in Prague alongside the Russian mafia, to unravelling the dark rites of Satanism on the Island of Sark, to uncovering the last dragon wing, preserved under the sands of the Sahara or the mystical Amazon excursions, very few books have expressed such widespread adventure. This is truly the ultimate fantasy novel that opens portals, closer to Nick Cave’s lyrical Edgar Alan Poe perspective.

The book is not some pretty witchy wonder, but the real deal, while its sexual adventures hold little back as they shatter all shades of grey and leave no prisoners.

As much as this compendium of short stories is fantasia, the title came from a hallucinogenic experience where the author swam in a drinking well with hundreds of Salamanders, and the strange events that followed. The book is enriched with fifty tales from the in between, which range from stories of the Great War to Tiger hunting in India; from adventures in the Kalahari with The San to the Anglo Zulu War. They all have a strange hook in the swell of Roald Dahl.

It’s rare to find a compendium of short stories these days that captivate the mind with intrigue, as you go back for more and more. The stories leading up to the epitaph hook are truly creative and within the pages are clues to life and secrets revealed, the ultimate book to be beside your bed, as a story a night will hook like ‘Scheherazade and 1001 nights’

When thirteen-year-old Erin Dearlove has to move in with her aunt on Cape Town’s bustling Long Street, she struggles to adapt to her new life, harbouring a dark secret. But her friendship with their upstairs neighbour, Mr Devilskein, soon helps her to adjust.

Like Erin, Mr Devilskein has something to hide: he is the keeper of six mysterious doors. He entrusts Erin with the key for one of these doors, and she discovers that they lead to infinite magical worlds. In wonder she explores an underwater paradise, the lost works of William Shakespeare, and a beautiful Chinese garden. During her adventures she meets a prisoner names Julius Monk, but Julius is not all he appears to be. The captive and his Book of Dooms prove dangerously enticing, and soon it is up to Erin to save the lives of those she’s grown to love.

Devilskein & Dearlove is as sinister and intriguing as it is quirky and colourful. With inimitable storytelling flair, Alex Smith weaves an enchanting tale of friendship, adventure and magic.

’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.

Sangomas and cops don’t mix. Usually. But this is Joburg, a metropolis that is equal parts flash and shadow, and where not everything can be easily explained.

Ian Jack, a disillusioned former police officer, teams up with Reshma Patel, a colleague from his old life, to investigate a routine housebreaking gone bad. But when they uncover links to a possible animal poaching and trafficking syndicate, things go from complicated to dangerous to downright evil.

Set against the richly textured backdrop of a livewire African city, this fast-paced thriller offers a disturbing contemporary take on justice and morality. To be read with the lights on.

Queen Celeste rose to the throne of Virdura a month ago, after the sudden death of her mother. Desperate to prove herself, she agrees to hear the case of a simple farmer who claims a neighbour stole his cow.

To help her in this task, she orders her chief advisor, the royal wizard Solon, to cast a spell and divine the truth for her. Solon, however, is keeping a terrible secret. He is unable to perform any magic, and he cannot afford to let the queen find out the reason why.

Demons, witches, extra-sensory perception, possessed animals, and an ever-loving God. There is much that exists, or is claimed to exist, in the world today, that we are yet to understand. A perfect introduction into the inner workings of the weird mind of Graham Downs, this collection of flash fiction paranormal stories contains: The Thing in the Window, An Automatic Decision, Telepathic Link, The Witch of Wellington, and The Christmas Bird.

All have been newly edited and polished since publication on his website in 2014, and some with new endings. It also contains the never-before published story, Under the Sheets, about an old woman who believes she is being haunted by a strange ghost, living under her bed, and this special edition paperback includes the hit short story, Billy's Zombie!

Never trust a werewolf.

That's Gia's first lesson as she enters the wolf cages at Special Branch, the police force that deal with the illegal use of magic. But working with the tracker-werewolves is not the greatest danger she faces: Gia is a spy. She risks torture and death if her secret is discovered.

Then Gia receives shocking news. Her little brother has disappeared, taken out of his bed, in the middle of the night. She doesn't want to believe that Special Branch is responsible, but who did take Nico? Could it be the magical terrorists, the Belle Gente? Or is there another, even stranger explanation?

Gia's brother Nico is different from other boys. And being different can be dangerous in Gia's world.

Cape Town is no longer the haven for magical refugees that it once was. The Purists want to get rid of all magic and the newspapers are full of dreadful stories about the Belle Gente, the magical terrorists.

None of this concerns Gia, until the Special Branch - police who investigate the illegal use of magic - come knocking at her door, looking for Nico. When Gia turns to her parents for help, she finds only more secrets. Then she realises that she was the one who put her brother in danger.

What if a story came to life? If the characters stepped off the page and into our world?

Cape Town in winter is a harsh place to be homeless. Rebecca has to keep her people safe until she finds a way to get them back into their story.

She turns to her sisters for help but finds that they have secrets of their own. And Rebecca's gun-packing neighbour is getting far too interested in her strange visitors.