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.

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.

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!

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...

Evil is stalking South Africa’s Sabi Sand Game Reserve. Viewers around the world are shocked when a live lockdown webcast of a safari game drive exposes them to the brutal reality of rhino poaching. A wily poacher then disappears into thin air, confounding logic and baffling ace trackers Mia Greenaway and Bongani Ngobeni.

Detective Colonel Sannie van Rensburg, still reeling from a personal tragedy, is dealing with an angry community on the border of the Kruger National Park – two young girls have been abducted and the local people fear the children have been taken for use in umuti, sinister traditional medicine practices. Umuti is also being employed by poachers, who pay healers for potions they believe will make them invisible and bulletproof.

When another young girl disappears, this time a tourist, Mia and Sannie must confront their own personal demons and challenge everything they believe, in order to follow a trail that seems to vanish at every turn.

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.

Speurder-kaptein Alek Strauss van die FSO word saam met sy span uitgeroep na ’n raaiselagtige moordtoneel. Die liggaam van ’n vrou is in ’n afgeleë bouval in Pretoria-Oos gevind. Advokaat Lynn Rawlins is skynbaar verwurg. Teen die muur staan in bloed geskrywe: Sprich nichts Böses.

Doktor Nadiya Patel, forensiese sielkundige, is vas oortuig die moordenaar se modus operandi is ’n waarskuwing dat nog lewens in gevaar is.

’n Meesleurende spanningsroman deur Marie Lotz, die skrywer van Roofdier.

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.

Tannie Maria is wrestling with a fear of the dark, and her hen, Henrietta, has PTSD. But this doesn’t stop this intrepid agony aunt from going undercover with her fiancé, Detective Henk Kannemeyer, to the Karoo Wilderness Reserve. Their mission: to save the vetplantjies.

At the KWR luxury game lodge, they spy on guests and support the Anti-Poaching Unit in a battle against dangerous criminals. Jessie attends the succulent symposium addressing international succulent poaching. Then, there is a murder ...

Our favourite Ladismith sleuths – Maria, Henk, Jessie, Hattie, Reghardt and Piet – engage with a colourful cast of characters, including a barefoot artist, a botanist cowboy, a singing gardener, a shaman, and a san goma. Between spying on tourists, solving murders, writing agony-aunt letters, eating divine food, and having epiphanies, Maria and Henk get fabulous fashion tips from a couturier and his Baroness.

But soon they too will be in the crosshairs …

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.

From the acclaimed and award-winning author of What Will People Say?, Rehana Rossouw takes us into a world seemingly filled with promise yet bedevilled by shadows from the past. In this astonishing tour de force Rossouw illuminates the tensions inherent in these new times.

Ali Adams is a political reporter in Parliament. As Nelson Mandela begins his second year as president, she discovers that his party is veering off the path to freedom and drafting a new economic policy that makes no provision for the poor. She follows the scent of corruption wafting into the new democracy’s politics and uncovers a major scandal. She compiles stories that should be heard when the Truth Commission gets underway, reliving the recent brutal past. Her friend Lizo works in the Presidency, controls access to Madiba’s ear. Another friend, Munier, is beating at the gates of Parliament, demanding attention for the plague stalking the land.

Aaliyah Adams lives with her devout Muslim family in Bo-Kaap. Her mother is buried in religion after losing her husband. Her best friend is getting married, piling up the pressure to get settled and pregnant. There is little tolerance for alternative lifestyles in the close-knit community. The Rugby World Cup starts and tourists pour up the slopes above the city, discovering a hidden gem their dollars can afford.

Ali/Aaliya is trapped with her family and friends in a tangle of razor-wire politics and culture, can she break free?

Told with Rehana’s trademark verve and exquisite attention to language you will weep with Aaliya, triumph with Ali, and fall in love with the assemblage that makes up this ravishing new novel.

Speurder-sersant Luna Joubert van die Stellenbosch polisiediens word gestuur om die eienaardige dubbele moord op die eienaar van ’n kwekery en sy vrou te ondersoek. Die De Winters is beide met ’n skerp voorwerp aangeval, maar daar was geen teken van ‘n struweling of enige getuies om sin te maak van die voorval nie.

Terwyl Luna sukkel om ’n moord sonder verdagtes of leidrade op te los, maak Mike Grant weer sy onverwagte verskyning. Hierdie keer is hy op ’n geheime sending onder die geledere van ’n plaaslike dwelmsindikaat. Ten spyte van sy nuwe voorkoms vind Luna dit onmoontlik om nie die deur oop te maak wanneer hy klop nie.

Soos Mike homself in die onderwêreld ingrawe, begin Luna op tone trap om haar eie raaisel op te los. Was die De Winters wie almal dink hulle was? Weet die kinders dalk meer as wat hulle voorgee? Wat gaan aan by die studentehuis oorkant die straat? En wie is die man in die sportmotor wat so op die buitewyke van haar ondersoek beweeg?

Om antwoorde te kry sal Luna die donkerte en als wat daarin skuil moet trotseer. Bloedbande is die vierdie boek in Jeanette Stals se Luna Joubert-reeks.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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 . . .

Adam Askew, a young man in a hurry, always wanted to be financially independent. Armed with guts, determination and a cocky self-assurance, he sets up a shipping company with a view to take on the world, one ton of cargo at a time.

Fed up with the cliquey set-up in Durban, he takes a gutsy gamble – the biggest risk of his life – one that will ultimately make or break him. He heads for the big city lights of swanky 80s Joburg and is soon wining and dining at the top of the Carlton, sipping the best champagne in London and making some enemies along the way.

Set in the closing decades of the 20th century in sanction-wracked South Africa, Pleasures of the Harbour navigates a world of dodgy business partners, dubious deals and a few failed attempts at love before Adam can finally, and honestly, say he’s made it.

Part adventure, part action, and lots of wheeling and dealing means readers are in for a rollicking ride in this highly entertaining novel that traverses the high seas and low roads of Southern Africa, while opening boardroom and a few bedroom doors along the way.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Samuel has lived alone for a long time; one morning he finds the sea has brought someone to offer companionship and to threaten his solitude …

A young refugee washes up unconscious on the beach of a small island inhabited by no one but Samuel, an old lighthouse keeper. Unsettled, Samuel is soon swept up in memories of his former life on the mainland: a life that saw his country suffer under colonisers, then fight for independence, only to fall under the rule of a cruel dictator; and he recalls his own part in its history. In this new man’s presence he begins to consider, as he did in his youth, what is meant by land and to whom it should belong. To what lengths will a person go in order to ensure that what is theirs will not be taken from them?

A novel about guilt and fear, friendship and rejection; about the meaning of home.