Dis 1933 – ses jaar voor die Tweede Wêreldoorlog. Kate Woodroffe was nog die heeltyd in watte toegedraai en soos ’n porseleinpoppie opgepas totdat sy besef dat daar ’n ander wêreld bestaan as die herehuis in Parktown Ridge. Haar studierigting bring haar in aanraking met die verwoestende armoede van Vrededorp, skaars tien kilometer van waar sy woon, en sy besluit om ’n verskil te maak in die stukkende wêreld om haar. Maar die man wat haar pa aanstel om haar op te pas terwyl sy navorsing doen in die agterbuurte, krap haar netjiese planne deurmekaar. Want hy leer haar hart vlieg, laat ’n vreugde diep binne-in haar oopbreek. Maar hy ketting haar ook vas. “In die regte lewe is daar nie ’n óns nie, Kate …” Kate weet dit. Sy is ryk John Woodroffe se dogter, midde-in die wurgende depressie, die armblankes oral, die woedende myners diep in haar pa se goudmyne. En Bernard Neethling is ’n mynwerker. Hul wêrelde is onversoenbaar. En dis ononderhandelbaar. Albei weet dit. Maar hy skulp haar toe met sy krag, sy warmte. Hy wil die Suiderkruis vir haar pluk. En dit, weet Kate, sal makliker wees as om hul liefde te laat blom.

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

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.

Daar is min mense wat ’n storie soos Jan Spies kan vertel. Die antie met die pienk rok en ander stories is ’n keur uit sy humoristiese vertellings in Pilatus tot molshoop, Poort deur die koue, Profeet met kondensmelk en Pille vir servette.

En hierdie nuwe keur word van Woensdag 17 Junie 2020 op weeksoggende om 10:45 op RSG voorgelees. Die akteur-skrywer Lochner de Kock skuif agter die mikrofoon in om hierdie “Spieserye” nuwe lewe te gee. RSG se dramahoof, Kobus Burger, is die regisseur.

Winner of the M-Net Book Prize
Shortlisted for the CNA and Noma Awards

In Ways of Dying, Zakes Mda's acclaimed first novel, Toloki is a "professional mourner" in a vast and violent city of the new South Africa. Day after day he attends funerals in the townships, dressed with dignity in a threadbare suit, cape, and battered top hat, to comfort the grieving families of the victims of the city's crime, racial hatred, and crippling poverty. At a Christmas day funeral for a young boy Toloki is reunited with Noria, a woman from his village. Together they help each other to heal the past, and as their story interweaves with those of their acquaintances this elegant short novel provides a magical and painful picture of South Africa today.

Ways of Dying was awarded South Africa's prestigious M-Net Book Prize, awarded by the TV channel M-Net to books written in one of South Africa's official languages, and was shortlisted for the Central News Agency (CNA) Award and the Noma Award, an Africa-wide prize founded by Shoichi Noma, onetime president of Kodansha International.

A story of two passionate people who share a shameful past and a tenuous present, this remarkable narrative follows headmistress Mohumagadi--of the elite Sekolo sa Ditlhora school for talented black children--and Father Bill, a disgraced preacher, as they are brought together again decades after a childhood love affair expelled them from their communities. Much to the dismay of her students, Mohumagadi hires Father Bill as a teacher, resulting in a battle of wills and wits for the hearts and minds of the children living in the shadow of revolution and change. Entertaining and thought-provoking, this unique account offers insight into the workings of African culture.

An eminent, aging Australian writer is invited to contribute to a book entitled Strong Opinions. For him, troubled by Australia’s complicity in the wars in the Middle East,it is a chance to air some urgent concerns: how should a citizen of a modern democracy react to their state’s involvement in an immoral war on terror, a war that involves the use of torture?

In the laundry-room of his apartment block he encounters an alluring young woman. When he discovers she is between jobs, he claims failing eyesight and offers her work typing up his manuscript. Anya has no interest in politics but the job provides a distraction, as does the writer's evident and not unwelcome attraction toward her.

Her boyfriend, Alan, an investment consultant who understands the world in harsh neo-liberal economic terms, has reservations about his trophy girlfriend spending time with this 1960's throwback. Taking a lively interest in his affairs, Alan begins to formulate a plan that will have far-reaching consequences for all involved.

Paul Rayment is on the threshold of a comfortable old age when a calamitous cycling accident results in the amputation of a leg. Humiliated, his body truncated, his life circumscribed, he turns away from his friends. He hires a nurse named Marijana, with whom he has a European childhood in common: hers in Croatia, his in France. Tactfully and efficiently she ministers to his needs. But his feelings for her, and for her handsome teenage son, are complicated by the sudden arrival on his doorstep of the celebrated Australian novelist Elizabeth Costello, who threatens to take over the direction of his life and the affairs of his heart.

Marlize Hobbs se jongste roman raak roerende temas aan. Iza is ‘n lesbiese vrou en die leser volg haar soos wat sy die herinneringe van haar kindertyd en haar daaglikse ervarings in fyn besonderhede deel. Sy probeer sin maak van die lewe en span verskeie oorlewingsmeganismes in. Sy ly onder andere aan epilepsie en ‘n geestesversteuring.

Sy vertel van haar worstelinge en onsekerhede oor kwessies soos seksualiteit en geloof, veral as jong kind en tiener, maar ook van haar persepsie van die wêreld rondom haar as volwasse vrou. Sy ontvlug na verskillende fantasieë en het voortdurend gesprekke met haar alter ego’s.

Hobbs kry dit reg om tegeleykertyd op reguit en senitiewe manier die samelewing aan te spreek en laat baie stof tot nadenke. Hierdie boek kruip regtig op aangrypende wyse in die hart van die leser en sal beslis broodnodige gesprekke aanwakker.

Komies, hartroerend, meditatief, verruimend! Hierdie kick-ass roman bied ’n priemende blik op twee parallelle reise: ’n man en ’n vrou elk op soek na die oorsake van ’n broer en ’n suster se ondergang.

Na ’n onthutsende oproep van ene Josias Brandt, vertrek Karl Hofmeyr teësinnig om sy broer, Iggy, wie se kop skynbaar uitgehaak het, te hulp te snel. Karl – heavy-metal-fan de luxe – se reis word vertraag deur sy obsessies wat hom in verskillende situasies lelik kniehalter.

Maria Volschenk word op ’n dag oorval deur ’n groot leegte. Sy reis na die Wes-Kaap op ’n sending waarteen sy lankal opsien, in ’n poging om hierdie beleërende leegte af te weer. Die twee verhaallyne vloei saam op ’n onwaarskynlike stadsplaas iewers in Kaapstad, waar die broer, Ignatius Hofmeyr, in ’n bitter tweestryd met die onpeilbare Brandt-kêrel gewikkel is.

Daar is iets aan die stil blik van die donker oe wat nie heeltemal reg lyk nie, en die oomblik dat die hees stem oor die luidspreker kom, weet Mattheus wat dit is. "Matt," se die hondebek, "dis ek. Maak oop asseblief."

Mattheus Duiker, seun van Benjamin Duiker, eertydse eienaar van Duiker's Motors, maak die hek van die Kaapse herehuis oop vir sy minnaar Jack. Vermom soos 'n wolf dring Jack die intieme donkerte binne waar Matt wag dat sy pa doodgaan sodat sy lewe kan begin. Blinkoog oor die vooruitsigte sluip die twee jonges verby die studeerkamer waar die blinde ou man, deurdrenk van droewe verknogthede en donker vermoedens, sit en wag vir die voetval van die dood.

Eben Venter se roman is 'n diepsnydende ondersoek na die verhouding tussen pa en seun, na die ontreddering van 'n man wat bitter min uit die verlede kan neem om hom toe te rus vir 'n lewe in 'n snel veranderende bestel. Intens. Ontstellend. 'n Meesterlike ontrafeling van die dun lyn van gevoel – Venter aan die toppunt van sy vermoens.

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

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

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

Pretoria, 2057. Dertig jaar ná Johannesburg in ’n spookstad verander het, word die Nuwe Republiek van Suid–Afrika deur die Toekomsparty en ’n Raad van Twaalf regeer. Kel de Jong werk as ’n programmeerder in die Intelligensieburo. Sy geordende lewe word in chaos gedompel wanneer ’n militêre observasiesatelliet ’n jong kind op die verlate N1 tussen Pretoria en Johannesburg ontdek. Op dieselfde dag word In–Grid, die Intelligensieburo se sentrale kunsmatige intelligensie, in ’n aanval vernietig. In chaos wat volg, aktiveer Kel In–Grid se prototipe en ontdek dat dit die herinneringe van Agnes Baumer bevat, ’n vroulike spioen in Duitsland gedurende die Tweede Wêreldoorlog. Met behulp van tydreise ontdek Kel in die verre verlede die waarheid agter die gebeure in sy hede.

A letter among her deceased ex-husband’s belongings rips open Theresa’s world. For years she has turned her back on Theo, a man who spent the last two decades of his life institutionalised, and on their shared past in a country where teenage boys were conscripted to fight on ‘the Border’ in a war that those back home knew little about. Least of all Theresa, who spent her days dreaming of discos and first kisses.

Realising that the letter was written by a Cuban soldier and addressed to his child – who, if still alive, would be at least forty years old – Theresa heads for Cuba: to search for the soldier’s child, to deliver the letter, to atone in some way for Theo’s deeds and for her own ignorance.

In sultry Cuba, amid its picturesque 1950s cars and the fragrant smoke of its cigars, Theresa’s search connects her intimately with those branded ‘the enemy’ during the war in Angola as she begins to unravel what growing up in the South Africa of that time really meant.

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

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

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

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

When an emaciated little girl is found on an icy Cape mountainside, investigative journalist and criminal profiler Dr Clare Hart is baffled that no one has reported her missing. Where does she come from, who does she belong to? In another troubling turn of events, a distraught man approaches Clare to help him locate his granddaughter, a gifted cellist who has abandoned her music scholarship and been seduced by a cultish religious community and its charismatic leader. In a race against time, Clare battles to unravel the two cases which she discovers are connected in ways too horrifying to fathom.

Thalia, adrift in a small university town in South Africa in the nineties, heads to New York to study photography and to pick up the faint trail left for her by someone she has never known. The city helps her to find her way as an artist, but it never quite provides the answers she is seeking. Only years later in Johannesburg is she able to make sense of who she is and what her work might mean.

Robert is a photographer in New York in the 1970s, desperate to make memorable images in a time of spectacular experimentation in dance, music and theatre. He intuits the importance of what he is photographing, but finds it almost impossible to transcend the troubles of his own life and achieve something great through his work.

Paige leaves South Africa in the seventies to pursue her dream of being a ballet dancer. She does not anticipate the ways in which this pursuit will challenge her understanding of the art that she has known and practised all her life, and she is ill prepared for the catastrophic moment that will undo everything she has worked for.

Unbeknownst to them, Thalia, Robert and Paige share a story that links them to one another, to the turbulent worlds of New York in the 1970s and South Africa in the 1990s and, finally, to the photographs that hold the secrets of their lives.

Notes on Falling is about the hope that art will challenge perceptions and orthodoxy so that the world can be reinvented through new forms. It is also about trying to reconcile the large pictures of history with the small snapshots of our individual lives.

Back in South Africa after working with the FBI, Creed is haunted by his past mistakes, including the death of his fiancée. When a young woman is murdered and dismembered in her Johannesburg apartment, Creed’s long-time friend and head of the SAPS’ Investigative Psychological Unit, Major Eli Grey, enlists his help in investigating the murder – an attempt to save the self-destructing Creed from himself. But not all the Unit’s members welcome his involvement, and there are those intent on exposing his secrets while the murder is being solved.

The young woman’s community are convinced she was the victim of a witch called Nomtakhati, but Creed’s hunch points to an angry ex-boyfriend. Who, or what, is really behind the murder? Could it be Nomtakhati, who believes Nick Creed is uSatane?

In the Midst of Wolves is a dark psychological thriller about metaphorical demons from the past and the living monsters who target the innocent.

Set in South Africa at the zenith of the mid-1980’s Durban alternative club scene, Uptown Saturday Night, Downtown Sunday Morning re-captures in sensuous detail the technicoloured vibrancy of the city’s counter-culture and its struggle within the oppressive regime of the day.

Charting an erratic course through Durban’s underbelly, the novel’s obtuse sharp-focus lens pulls you into the unhinged psyche of James DuPont and the Durban he inhabits. Acidly honest, it is in turn shocking¸ poignant and seductive.

An astonishingly unique testament to a lost generation and their city.

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.

From the classical form of 'The Weight of a Feather', first published by The Huffington Post (2013), to the suggestive allegory of 'The Leopard and The Lizard', this collection of short stories by South African author Judy Croome is an ideal mix of the familiar and the startling.

These vibrant slices of life testify to the mysterious and luminous resources of the human spirit.

Whether feeling the harrowing emotion in 'The Last Sacrifice' or the jauntiness of 'Jannie Vermaak's New Bicycle', the reader will delight in a plethora of stories that cross boundaries to both challenge and entertain with their variety.

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.

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.