This is not a love story. This is IMPOSSIBLE.

"Sometimes love doesn’t come in the form you think it will."

Nick: Failed writer. Failed husband. Dog owner.

Bee: Serial dater. Dress maker. Pringles enthusiast.

When fate brings them together over a misdirected email, the connection is instant. They feel like they’ve known each other all their lives...

It should have been the perfect love story. Instead it was IMPOSSIBLE.

This short story collection is filled with memorable characters, intriguing plots and twist endings.

With his keen observations and insights into human nature, Mhlongo explores the things people do for each other, but also to each other. Injustice, corruption, love and desire are just some of the aspects of human interaction featured here.

A family refuses to leave when the bank repossesses their house; stalking has an unexpected outcome; a desensitised morgue manager is spooked; and more!

Kapteine McKelly en Mhlanga ontmoet op die misdaadtoneel van ’n mislukte plaasaanval in Muldersdrift. Nog ’n lyk met ’n gapende linkeroogkas word gevind. Dit bring die getal slagoffers wat vanaf Februarie in die Gauteng-area met dieselfde modus operandi vermoor is op ses te staan.

Die wet van Gauteng het ’n eg verweefde Suid-Afrikaanse intrige: politieke faksiegevegte, korrupsie en geldwassery. Hoogs leesbaar, aksiebelaaid en meesleurend.

Durban North, 1997. Following two shocking and insidious incidents of violence, nineteen-year-old Mary Da Costa is flying to Auckland ahead of her parents to make a new start. She is riddled with reservations – New Zealand is where her late brother was supposed to move – and all she really wants to do is keep to herself and work on her art.

On arrival, Mary comes under the wings of the South African ex-pat community, struggling with its own tensions between homesickness and belonging. Finding work at a local dairy, she meets self-appointed Māori leader Nepukaneha Cooper – Buck, as he’s better known. He and his family have some history with these rugby-mad lovers of apartheid, even more now that they’re encroaching on his turf. If only he had the means to fight them off and realise his life-long dream of establishing a marae on the beautiful strip of coast he has always called home.

Meanwhile, adrift between past and present, Mary is forced to dig deep in order to find her own truths and place in the world.

Nick Mulgrew’s long-awaited debut novel – of grand metaphors, silences, absences, and two cities and countries in flux – is a delightfully innovative, surprising, and warm-hearted meditation on family, loss, and home, as well as a deft examination of dislocation, dispossession, and the cultural blind spots of two very different (and in some ways similar) communities.

First there is the killing of the minister of energy. Then the cop investigating the murder commits suicide. Fearing a conspiracy, the minister’s lover hires pi Fish Pescado to find the killer.

Then she goes missing. And Fish is being stonewalled by the cops because in the dark shadows of Cape Town there’s another game being played out. A complex one involving Iranian agents, the theft of highly enriched uranium, the kidnapping of a top scientist, and ex-spy Vicki Kahn being bribed by her former handler to track the terrorists.

The hunt is deadly and nothing is what it seems. A sleeper has been awoken. ISIS is involved. So is the CIA. And chatter leads to talk of a dirty bomb...

20 South African Short Stories brought to you by Short.Sharp.Stories.

A fraudster cashes out of a life of crime, a mother has a splendid affair, a brave woman never gives up, a graffiti artist spray-paints the city; a poignant friendship comes to a climax in a retirement home, a storyteller understands his true power, a friend delivers a heart-rending eulogy; a young South African searches for belonging in Hong Kong, while another takes a risk assisting a local artist; a photographer explores eroticism through the lens and the body, a group of reggae fans cross borders to seek freedom with Bob Marley, a drummer is haunted by the jazz of Sophiatown; a book on slavery offers a troubled woman a way out, a student faces an impossible choice, the blood moon shines on a forbidden passion … and so much more, as each short story captures the unique moment and meaning of ONE LIFE.

The anthology’s contributors are largely established South African authors who have a track record in the publishing industry, as well as exciting emerging writers. The writers include Stella Douglas, Carmen Gee, Karen Jennings, Joel Kelly, Werner Labuschagne, David Mann, Lerato Mahlangu, Don Makatile, Juliette Mnqeta, Tshidiso Moletsane, Nontobeko Mtshali, Vuyokazi Ngemntu, Jana van Niekerk, Thango Ntwasa, Andrew Prior, Sihle Qwabe, Srila Roy, Khensani Sayiya, Megan Tennant and Jarred Thompson.

Although conceived and birthed well before the ANC’s December 2017 elective conference and the changes of the political and governance guards that ensued, The List imagines a ‘New Dawn’ for South Africa in the closing years of the second decade of the 21st Century.

Rumours have abounded since the early days of South African democracy of a list or lists given to Nelson Mandela and the TRC by old apartheid securocrats of their agents infiltrated into the upper echelons of the ANC during the struggle years. These rumours gained new currency with the death of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in April 2018 and the revelations of the machinations of apartheid’s Stratcom securocrats.

The List tells the story of a group of veterans of MK, of ANC intelligence and of the post-apartheid intelligence service, who are formed into a highly secret task team by the newly elected president to investigate the possibility of such remnants of apartheid security threatening to obstruct the radical changes the new president and his team are planning.

The List follows these veterans and their nemeses through the struggle years, exile, the MK camps and into the years of democracy and hope, disillusion and hope again. It observes while the struggle veterans painstakingly attempt to pick through the detritus of the old regime in the new, but just as the moment of optimism begins to blossom, the task team uncovers a ghastly betrayal. Is it too late to save the president and the country?

The novel is narrated from the future by one of the veterans of the task team from his second exile in a bedsit in London.

The Cape Peninsula carries secrets known only to the wind, the fynbos, and the creatures that live there. One day, six teenage boys are found raped, murdered, and dumped down the side of its mountains.

It is two years since the discovery of the first body and Detective Junaid Japtha is no closer to cracking the case. With pressure mounting, and without any tangible evidence, he can only rely on his experience and instinct to track down the killer.

Fifteen-year-old Tyrone May from Macassar spends his days in limbo. He has no one to talk to. No one listens. He is curious and confused about his feelings. Like most boys, he has yet to develop a sense of his own mortality. It allows for a daring that will dissipate as he grows older, but, for now, Tyrone will accept the friend request a handsome stranger sends him.

Elton Baatjies is the newly appointed teacher at a local high school. These are his people, and he is soon embraced by the close-knit community. But he is tied to the six dead boys in ways no one could have predicted, and the secrets among them threaten to tear the sleepy mountain town apart.

Enemies by birth. Brothers in blood. Vengeance will be had.

1829. Mahikeng Mission Station. Highveld, southern Africa. The warrior king is dead. Ralph Courtney and Ann Waite have escaped...

From the chaos and bloodshed that consumed the Zulu nation after the murder of King Shaka. From Ralph's enemies. From the man who would have enslaved Ann and sold her to the highest bidder. Now Ralph and Ann, and their son Harry, are safe. Rescued by the missionaries at Mahikeng, they can finally dream of a new life. Or can they?

For what awaits them is a journey of unimaginable horrors, that will take Ralph from the bandit outposts on the border of Cape Colony, across oceans, and into the dark heart of the brutal system by which the British Crown imposes obedience on its subjects, while Ann is drawn inexorably back into her old life in Zululand.

Can Ralph finally lay to rest the ghosts that haunt him? Can Ann overcome the enemy she believed they'd escaped forever? Can Harry make his peace with the secrets and lies that have shaped his life? On a blood-soaked battlefield, as a new nation is forged in violence and slaughter, all three will be given a choice - to succumb to the past, or to stand and fight for their family's future.

Blood, vengeance and destiny collide in the latest thrilling adventure from the bestselling master of adventure, Wilbur Smith.

If You Keep Digging is a moving collection of short stories, which will resonate with a South African audience. The selection of stories highlights marginalised identities and looks at the daily lives of people who may otherwise be forgotten or dismissed.

Monkeys is a skillful commentary on domestic violence, toxic masculinity, patriarchy (and how it is racialised), power dynamics between white and black men and how children come to “know” that they are white or black. Skinned, whose protagonist is a woman with albinism, is a powerful story about learning to accept that you deserve love when the world constantly tells you otherwise. In Fourteen the author deftly demonstrates the ability to play with concepts of time and reality. It is a compelling story about potential and how one can feel unfulfilled despite having hopes and ambitions.

The collection is also deeply concerned with covering the early post democracy years in South Africa. Each of the characters deals with questions around the “new” country. The book implores one to think about diverse topics and perspectives, difficult family relationships, abandonment, social and class issues, power dynamics at school and at work, mental illness, witchcraft, sexuality, domestic abuse and the ancestral realm, among other things.

Speuradjudant Storm van der Merwe is terug vir die grootste uitdaging van haar loopbaan. Al is sy steeds besig om haar pa se dood twee jaar tevore te verwerk.

Intussen hou Hermanus ’n eerste skrywersfees. Deel van Storm se afgesaagde verpligtinge is om by die gemeenskapsaal kywie te hou voor die laaste Covid-regulasies uiteindelik opgehef word. Maar toe daag Isa du Bois, die sterskrywer van die dorp, nie op vir haar sessie nie. Haar liggaam word dieselfde oggend nog in Kwaaiwater se Mosselrivier gevind. Vier en twintig uur later kom ’n visterman af op nóg ’n lyk – weer ’n vrou, dié keer jonk en swart. En dan is daar ’n derde slagoffer, ’n belangrike kulturele rolspeler op die dorp. Drie dae, drie vroue. Hoekom drie, hoekom hierdie drie?

Storm is so toegegooi onder werk, sy is skoon bly oor oudkollega Andreas Moerdyk se knaende aanbod om haar te help. En al sukkel sy om dit aan haarself te erken, is dit nogals lekker om ’n slag weer spanmaats te wees . . .

The lives of South Africans have always been interwoven in complex ways. There is a long history of division; but also of profound (and often surprising) instances of mutual recognition. Recognition is an exciting anthology of short stories in which twenty-two South African writers render these intricate connections.

The writers whose stories have been selected use the transformative power of the imagination and the unique appeal of the short story to illuminate aspects of our past and present. Cumulatively their stories tell of a history tainted by misrecognition but not, finally, bound by it. Amongst the twenty-two contributors are some of our best-known short story writers: Pauline Smith, Herman Charles Bosman, H.I. E. Dhlomo, Can Themba, Nadine Gordimer, Alex La Guma, Dan Jacobson, Miriam Tlali, Ahmed Essop, Njabulo Ndebele, Mandla Langa, Chris van Wyk, Damon Galgut, Achmat Dangor and Zoe Wicomb. And there is also a selection of vibrant newer voices: Makhosazana Xaba, Nadia Davids, Mary Watson, Lindiwe Nkutha, Wamuwi Mbao and Kobus Moolman.

Chronologically the collection ranges from the 1920s to the twenty first century. It builds on its predecessor, Encounters, but devotes significant attention to the transitional and post-apartheid years: almost half the stories were published after 1994. The anthology includes a generous and detailed introduction, written by David Medalie. It traces the motif of recognition, discusses the general characteristics of short stories and the narrative devices used by writers, and includes a brief analysis of each short story.

Recognition will appeal to teachers and students of literature. It will be enjoyed by all those who love short stories and appreciate the craftsmanship involved in telling a memorable tale.

A thrilling array of African writers, including Fred Khumalo, Sibongile Fisher, Lucas Ledwaba, Vonani Bila, Lynn Joffe and Christopher Mlalazi, tell surprising and unnerving tales in this collection of commissioned stories from the master of narrative writing, Niq Mhlongo.

These stories give answers to the question: what does being haunted and hauntings mean in our southern African world, in the past, the present and the future?

Jou diepste vrees is sy grootste begeerte...

Geen lang naels nie. Geen skoenveters nie. Dit is maar enkele van die reëls in die Molenberg-Psigiatriese hospitaal. Selfmoord is ʼn inwoner hier, en die pasiënte word as psigopate bestempel.

Dominique du Randt word in Molenberg opgeneem ná haar ma se wrede moord. Niemand glo dat sy nie verantwoordelik is vir haar ma se dood nie. Niemand glo dat sy deur ʼn man agtervolg is wat homself die Bewonderaar noem nie. Haar sielkundige, Martin, het wel sy bedenkinge. Daarom dat hy sy eie speurwerk doen.

Wat Martin ontdek, is die Ophelia-klub. ’n Plek van grusame geheime, fantasieë en donker vergrype. Wanneer een van die vroulike pasiënte in Molenberg-Psigiatriese hospitaal verdwyn, is Dominique oortuig die Bewonderaar weet presies waar sy is. Hy is, soos voorheen, weer in beheer van dié skrikwekkende spel.

Maar hoe beskerm jy jouself in ’n plek soos Molenberg? Hier waar niemand jou glo en jy geen vryheid of beheer het nie?

Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido are languishing in Stellenbosch. Run-of-the-mill police work in the leafy university town is a far cry from their previous life in the elite HAWKS. But when a student is found dead on a mountain trail, the two detectives find themselves trying to unpick a stubbornly difficult mystery.

In the north of the country, meanwhile, a beautiful wildlife guide is recruited by a group of special forces soldiers to act as a honeytrap, part a dangerous multi-million-dollar heist that goes tragically wrong. Then back in Stellenbosch, a local businessman is found murdered in what looks like a professional hit - suffocated by fast-action filler foam sprayed down his throat. A message to keep silent - but about what?

You need a cool head to unravel it all, because sadly, the thieves and criminals are as likely to be in government - or even the police - as on the streets. You need to stay calm, focused - and sober. Benny may be sober these days, but he's not feeling calm. Solving this puzzle is turning into a deadly race against time and there's another date that's coming towards him like an express train. Alexa has fixed the date for their wedding. Big trouble, on every front.

Na ’n huwelik van twaalf jaar wat sy aan Gerhardus se magsbeheptheid en seksuele sadisme onderwerp was, het Maria genoeg gehad. Op 10 April 2022 verlaat sy die Baai met net haar handsak, ’n koff er en haar viool in die kar. Sy wil die deur fi naal toetrek op ’n lewe van aftakeling, perversie en die dreigemente waarmee Gerhardus haar sedert hul egskeiding aanhou teister.

Nie eens haar ma, Selina, weet waarheen Maria op pad is om ’n nuwe begin te maak nie. Die enigste mens wat van haar planne bewus is, is Lukas Delport, eienaar van Matoli Meadow, ’n gastehuis op ’n plaas in die Maclear-distrik waar Maria haar voete as bestuurder gaan vind.

Maar binne minute nadat sy op die plaas aankom, tref die godsverskrikkende wete haar dat al die jare saam met Gerhardus net ’n leerskool was om haar voor te berei op hierdie dag van ontgogeling. Hier, in ’n donker kelder, gekatvis deur ’n gewetenlose bedrieër, is elke oorlewingsminuut suiwer grasie.

Op ’n winterdag in 1945 ontferm ’n kinderlose wit egpaar, Sara en Erik de Graaff, hulle oor ’n driejarige halwe weeskind – Mina Afrika. Hulle wil haar graag ’n kans in die lewe gee. Terwyl Mina nog vol ambisie haar toekoms beplan dryf die verraderlike daad van ’n ryk jong wit man haar weg uit die Vallei, laat haar beland in ’n eindelose spiraal van bedrog. ’n Lewe van vernedering in Groenpunt en tussen die bendes van Distrik Ses.

Following on from his bestselling novels A Year in the Wild and Back to the Bush, James Hendry returns to the setting of Sasekile Private Game Reserve for another tale that takes the reader behind the scenes with the MacNaughton brothers, Angus and Hugh.

It is three and a half years since Angus’s last year in the wild when he was newly appointed to the position of head ranger at Sasekile. Much has happened in the interim.

In Return to the Wild there is high drama, much hilarity and many close encounters with wildlife, fire and human incompetence as Angus unexpectedly returns to Sasekile to take on the training of a motley group of would-be game rangers with his usual stark but eloquent honesty. Alongside him, Hugh manages the lodge and its colourful staff with a varying degree of competence as events lurch from mishap to potential catastrophe.

Whether you are a fan of the MacNaughtons’ previous misadventures or a reader new to their story, Return to the Wild is a highly amusing, engaging and heartfelt read.

In order to get to the truth, we might have to burn the house down and rebuild it. It has been said that only rats come out to play at night, yet eagles don’t sleep. South Africa has been captured by criminals who seek to go nameless, but there is one man whom everyone fears. South Africa is an illicit treasure and The Big Five are controlled by the Ghost who lives with lions.

On 6 July 2025, a press conference sets off a domino effect in a country that has a bleeding heart. The kidnapping of a man opens a Pandora’s Box that leads to a career criminal and his mysterious bosses. While he tries to run from the truth, he makes a deadly mistake that might bring down the entire pyramid.

While the General is weeding out criminals, Imani Lebone meets a man whom she will never forget. A young pilot running a private emergency-rescue company, Imani struggles to cope with her mother’s death as she clings onto her fragile business, the same one that propels her into the hands of the man the General has been seeking. Many will watch as their lives are upended and people disappear.

In this thrilling love-and-hate story depicting the most powerful figures in the land, the truth finally reveals itself. Gibson Kente is no ordinary businessman, but his desire to possess Imani distracts his focus and, in one moment of pleasure, the truth is finally set free.

The Big Five Cartel reveals the state of South Africa’s hidden mafias, from their after-nine sex orgies to human trafficking and Machiavellian traits.

A raw and unfiltered man can only have one love …

Paris, 1958. A skirmish in a world-famous restaurant leaves two men dead and the restaurant staff baffled. Why did the head waiter, a man who’s been living in France for many years, lunge at his patrons with a knife?

As the man awaits trial, a journalist hounds his long-time friend, hoping to expose the true story behind this unprecedented act of violence.

Gradually, the extraordinary story of Pitso Motaung, a young South African who volunteered to serve with the Allies in the First World War, emerges. Through a tragic twist of fate, Pitso found himself on board the ss Mendi, a ship that sank off the Isle of Wight in February 1917. More than six hundred of his countrymen, mostly black soldiers, lost their lives in a catastrophe that official history largely forgot. One particularly cruel moment from that day will remain etched in Pitso’s mind, resurfacing decades later to devastating effect.

Dancing The Death Drill recounts the life of Pitso Motaung. It is a personal and political tale that spans continents and generations, moving from the battlefields of the Boer War to the front lines in France and beyond. With a captivating blend of pathos and humour, Fred Khumalo brings to life a historical event, honouring both those who perished in the disaster and those who survived.

Joburg Noir is a collection of writings about memories, legends, loss, jokes, stories, myths and experiences by twenty-two gifted and versatile authors in South Africa. It makes the reader experience present-day Johannesburg as if one were in the past. The stories seek to understand, reconstruct, reinvent and recover this city space of loss, joy, deprivation, resistance and possibility by revealing its complex dynamics. They are funny, shocking, violent, absurd, strangely tender and memorable.

Their lasting resonance lies in the fact that they invoke the joys and traumas of the past and present, making the two to co-exist and interlock. After reading this uncompromising and gritty anthology, the reader is bound to feel like a time-traveller who has voyaged into a magical alternate city and a reality that was either misnamed or not named at all. The intention is to help the readers to delve into their own memories in search of pictures of their sweet childhood and fractured identities.

Contributors: Sam Mathe; Fred Khumalo; Lidudumalingani; Keletso Mopai; Sibongile Fisher; Kgomotso Masemola; Styles Lucas Ledwaba; Mapule Mohulatsi; Khanyi Magubane; Sifiso Mzobe; Gloria Bosman; Nedine Moonsamy; Yewande Omotso; Mabel Mnesa; Nthikeng Mohlele; Eusebius McKaiser; Siphiwo Mahala; Nkateko Masinga; Mzuvukile Maqetuka; Sydney Mojoko; Michelle van Heerden.

In Junie 2070 skenk die 27-jarige Jenesis Baron geboorte aan ’n tweeling in haar woonstel in Xin Xianggang, voorheen bekend as Bloemfontein. Maar swangerskap sonder ’n genetiese toestemmingspermit van die owerhede is taboe, en die pasgeborenes word deur generaal Ben Wagner uitgesnuffel en aan die MediBot oorhandig, ’n robot wat ontwerp is om ongewenste lewens te beëindig. Genadedood noem hulle dit. Want, sê die regering, daar is nie genoeg kos, water en blyplek vir almal nie.

Jenesis is hartgebroke. Met haar hele hart smag sy daarna om vir Adam te vertel van die twee seuntjies wat nes hý lyk. Maar Adam is weg. Haar halsstarrige siening oor die huidige bewind en haar onvermoë om in te sien dat slegs die elite in die slimstede floreer, het hom verdryf. Vir haar bestaan gewone burgers nie, diegene wat na die buitewyke van die oorloggeteisterde ou stede uitgewerp word om van honger te sterf.

Moederland bied ’n fassinerende blik op die toekoms. ’n Puik nagevorsde, aksiebelaaide riller.

Liela Oloffson se ouers is in ’n huisbrand oorlede toe sy tien jaar oud was, maar vandag het sy alles wat meeste mense begeer. Skoonheid, roem, en ’n blink loopbaan as aktrise. Maar dan verdwyn sy een Vrydagnag spoorloos en kaptein Kgomotso vra gesoute misdaadjoernalis Ami Prinsloo se hulp.

Soos ’n bloedhond volg Ami Liela se spoor van waar sy laas by ’n Engen-garage in Johannesburg gesien is. Maar waarom lyk dit op die CCTV-kamera of Liela alleen van die garage wegry? Kruip Liela weg of is sy gekaap? Of dalk ontvoer? En waaroor het sy en haar verloofde so hewig baklei net voor sy verdwyn het?

Die Verkeerde Vrou is die tweede boek in Irma Venter se nuwe reeks met misdaadjoernalis Ami Prinsloo as hoofkarakter. Die Verkeerde Vrou volg op Minder As Niks, maar kan ook alleen gelees word.

Die laaste voerings van oudpolisiespeurder Carl Bester se lewe torring los, en hy sluit aan by die Kaapse tak van Mercurius, ’n CIA-steunpilaar. Intussen word ’n Saoediese joernalis in ’n konsulaat in Istanbul vermoor, met ’n SA joernalis as onwillige ooggetuie.

Gevolge van dié joernalis se besluite kring uit na Kaapstad, waar Carl opdrag kry om die saak te hanteer.

Saoediese agente en ’n siellose mesmoordenaar is maar twee van die monster se vele tentakels wat Carl een-een moet afkap.

A woman in post-apartheid South Africa confronts her family’s troubling past in this taut and daring novel about national trauma and collective guilt—from the Booker Prize–longlisted author of An Island.

Cape Town, 2028. The land cracks from a years-long drought, the nearby mountains threaten to burn, and the queue for the water trucks grows ever longer.

In her crumbling corner of a public housing complex, Deidre van Deventer receives a call from the South African police. Her family home, recently reclaimed by the government, has become the scene of a criminal investigation. The remains of several bodies have just been unearthed from her land, after decades underground. Detectives pepper Deidre with questions: Was your brother a member of a pro-apartheid group in the 1990s? Is it true that he was building bombs as part of a terrorist plot?

Deidre doesn’t know the answers to the detectives’ questions. All she knows is that she was denied—repeatedly—the life she felt she deserved. Overshadowed by her brother, then left behind by her daughter after she emigrated, Deidre must watch over her aging mother and make do with government help and the fading generosity of her neighbors while the landscape around her grows more and more combustible. As alarming evidence from the investigation continues to surface, and detectives pressure her to share what she knows of her family’s disturbing past, Deidre must finally face her own shattered memories so that something better might emerge for her and her country.

In exquisitely spare prose, Karen Jennings weaves a singularly powerful novel about post-apartheid South Africa. It is an unforgettable, propulsive story of fractured families, collective guilt, the ways we become trapped in prisons of our own making, and how we can begin to break free.