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?

Nadat ’n bemoeisieke tante haar neus in haar sake steek, begin Nian teësinnig ’n nuwe pos by die familiesaak Durandt Ingelyf. Sy stamp egter dadelik koppe met die knorrige grootbaas…

Reese Durandt moet as uitvoerende hoof ’n voorbeeld aan sy personeel stel. Daar is ’n rede hoekom maatskappybeleid romantiese verhoudings tussen kollegas verbied. Nian vryf hom buitendien uit die staanspoor verkeerd op.

Hoekom kan die twee dan nie ophou om aan mekaar te dink nie? En wat voer daardie rooikopfeeks in Durandt se kantoor in die mou?

Kaapstadse sielkundige Chris se rustige lewe word bedreig. ’n Trigger-happy vrou uit sy verlede probeer hom afpers, sy pasiënte se koppe haak een vir een uit, en sy dirty little secret begin hom kriewelrig maak.

Boonop irriteer sy gay eksvrou hom met haar verhoudingsprobleme, amper net soveel soos sy skoolvriend se skynbaar sorgelose lewe. Op Bella, sy jong Portugese vrou met haar voorliefde vir lawwe YouTube-videos, kan hy darem werklik staatmaak – of hoe?

Hierdie genuanseerde, ironiese blik op seks, intieme verhoudings en eksistensiële krisisse word uit die oogpunt van verskeie karakters vertel, en elkeen het ’n kinkel-einde. Besluit self wie s’n is gelukkig en wie s’n nie . . .

In Verwonde jare spat Daniël Pohl se wêreld aan skerwe met die verskyning van ’n skokkende nuusberig: ’n Man in ’n silwergrys Mercedes het ’n vrou se baba in sy stootwaentjie doodgery en weggejaag. Daniël het presies só ’n motor, en hy’s dieselfde middag opgemerk in die omgewing waar die voorval plaasgevind het.

In Môre lê ver word die rykmansdogter Tania Erasmus se gemaksugtige bestaan op sy kop gekeer toe ’n vreemdeling onverwags by haar verlowingspartytjie opdaag. Sy word ’n baie belangrike lewensles geleer: dat ryk nie gelyk is aan beter nie.

En in Die meisie van Klaradynstraat het prokureur Owen Kemp Elsa Brits van haar agterbuurtbestaan verlos, maar nie van probleme en pyn nie. Te midde van al die welvarendheid besef Elsa dat ongelukkigheid nie beperk is tot die agterstrate nie. Hul dogter Isobel het alles wat haar hart begeer, maar sy kry pynaanvalle wat deur ’n diep ongelukkigheid veroorsaak word.

In the small rural town of Qonda, South Africa, the power and water supplies are unreliable, property prices are down, and citizens are slowly suffocating in the acrid smoke from the municipal dump. Recently retired English teacher Megan Merton has lived here all her life, most of it at No. 8 Serpent Crescent. So who better than this self-styled pillar of society to shine a spotlight on the decline and dysfunction, not to mention the dubious activities, past and present, of many of her neighbours.

Nefarious deeds and bad behaviour deserve harsh treatment and appropriate retribution, if not consignment to one of Dante’s fiendish nine circles of hell. At least that’s what Megan believes – in fact she’s been taking matters into her own hands, unnoticed, for years. And now she has decided to write it all down, to shake all of the skeletons loose, and rejoice in the inventive punishments she devised and personally delivered to the wicked.

Then her neighbour Elizabeth Cardew, a lecturer in Classical Studies, suffers a stroke and Megan is entrusted with the keys to No. 9. While Elizabeth begins a long recovery at the local care facility, Whispering Pines, Megan relishes the chance to snoop. Curious as to ‘what a stroke victim looks like’, she decides to visit and see for herself. A bond develops between the two women – one a cold and calculating sociopath, the other a courageous and lonely academic – something that takes both of them by surprise.

Vivian de Klerk’s sharp observations and brilliantly acerbic satirical wit make this multi-layered novel at once horrifying, shocking and poignant – and very, very funny.

Jare lank al is Lauretta Blom ’n gedienstige huisvrou in haar beige paleis, die eggenoot van Tobias Blom, ’n suksesvolle sakeman met belange in Johannesburg én die Kaap. Maar met hulle seunskinders wat nou groot en uit die huis uit is, begin die stilte en die pynlike netheid van Retta se praghuis in die Johannesburgse sekuriteitslandgoed haar vasdruk. En sy wonder oor al die dinge wat sy nié gedoen het nie en hoe dit haar lewe gevorm het.

Wanneer sy boonop begin vermoed dat Tobie vir haar iets wegsteek, besluit sy dat dit tyd is om dié dinge te doen wat sy nooit tevore aangedurf het nie.

Eerste op die lys is ’n road trip Kaap toe saam met haar hond, Charlie, en haar kunstenaarsvriendin, Leigh. Die reis lei na die ontwaking van ’n nuwe Retta op ’n kleinhoewe buite Bethulie, maar ook na onthullings in die Kaap wat haar hele lewe omverwerp.

Die verhaal van Cato van Johannesburg, wat in haar middeljare op ’n hartsreis na die Nyl gaan ná ’n ernstige verlies. Op haar tog word sy vergesel van ’n Egiptiese artefak, wat trouens een rede vir die reis is – dié antieke klein klipskilpadjie moet huis kry.

Vroeg in haar Nylbesoek ontmoet sy vir Da’oud, ’n jong Koptiese Egiptenaar op ’n eie lewensveranderende sending. Sy familie is intens geraak, oor etlike generasies, deur sosiopolitieke onrus en ongeregtigheid, met 2011 se onlus op die Tahrirplein as onlangse laagtepunt.

Op hul bootvaart op die Nyl ontmoet dié twee ietwat ongemaklike vriende ’n bonte verskeidenheid soekers en swerwers, en die terugkeer van die skilpadartefak na sy plek van heenkome word ’n simbool vir die afleggings en totruskom wat Cato en jong Da’oud, op sy eie, verskriklike manier, moet deurmaak – elkeen alleen.

’n Roman vir die fiksiefynproewer.

Naomi Mandisa Nel leads a secret life as a vigilante assassin, making sure justice is served where the system has failed to bring criminals to book. It is a life her policeman fiancé knows nothing about.

Now she has been recruited to join a team of operatives on a risky mission to save schoolgirls who have been kidnapped by terrorists in Northern Mozambique. They have a window period of only nine hours to infiltrate the enemy camp deep in the Doente Forest and extract the girls before they are moved and might disappear forever. Before the terrorists grow stronger and succeed in their plan of toppling the government. Meanwhile, Aisha Ezekwesili, one of the abductees, has a daring escape plan. But if she fails and is recaptured, she will surely be killed...

Filled with adventure and suspense, Nine Hours is a novel about courage and justice that will keep you reading with bated breath until the very end.

Athol Fugard is South Africa’s most prominent international playwright. This is his only novel.

Tsotsi has been adopted as the Grade 11 official English novel in South Africa for 2016; a new generation will be exposed to Tsotsi and help it on its way to becoming a modern classic.

Wat gebeur eintlik wanneer reisigers mekaar raakloop, maar dalk miskyk? Kry hulle dan ’n tweede kans om weer te begin of het die noodlot altyd die oorhand?

Die verhaal speel af in die wêreld van Marleen, ’n jong vrou wat snags deur “verdwaaldes” wakker gehou word. Gideon, die blinde man wat die toekoms in visioene sien, is sentraal in Marleen se lewe, maar net sy weet dit. Wat kan Gideon haar oor die “verdwaaldes” vertel en wat weet hy wat sy nie weet nie?

Wat vir sommige mense vreemd is, is vir ander deel van die lewe. ’n Siener wat in geheimsinnige wêrelde leef en wat lig en insigte kan bring vir die wat soek na antwoorde, sal dalk verstaan wat ná die dood met die agtergeblewenes gebeur. Hy weet ook wat word van die wat die oorgang na die ewige lig moet maak. Marleen sal doodeenvoudig met hom moet gaan praat, maar sy vrees vir dit wat hy weet. Soms is dit moeilik om die werklikheid van drome te onderskei.

Dan Sleigh’s latest work is once more an historical novel. While Eilande was published in English set at the beginning of the Western presence in the Cape, Afstande is much closer to the foundations of Western civilisation itself. It is based on the Anabasis of the Greek soldier and writer Xenophon, in which he reported on what has been described as one of the great adventures in human history. This “adventure”, which began in 401 BC, was nothing less than one of the clearest examples of human hardship and endurance. The adventurers were an army of ten thousand Greek mercenaries who were hired by a Persian prince to overthrow his brother, the king of the mighty Persian Empire.

He ingeniously introduced another main character besides Xenophon, namely the Jewish eunuch Nagri, who was hailed as a prophet in Babylon, where the Israelites were in exile at the time. In Sleigh’s version the prisoner, Nagri, is used by Xenophon to compile the Anabasis from his cryptic notes. Afstande is therefore an intertwinement of the stories of two writers, namely the soldier-writer and the writer-prophet.

Apart from being a grueling, authentic portrayal of one of the most remarkable military adventures in history, Sleigh’s novel is a representation of man’s search for identity and stability in a fast-changing, turbulent and unforgiving time. He shows how religion and ideology paradoxically guide and complicate this search. Through his two writer characters, their alliance and the friction between them, he also investigates the passion, desires, conflicts, but above all the emotion that underlies being a writer. In this way Sleigh transforms antique material into something absolutely contemporary and he achieves what all great writers achieve, and that is to confirm the permanence of that which is universally human.

In London, surgeon Carl Kleinhans faces a moral dilemma.

Should he perform a risky living donor liver transplant on a patient with a history of alcoholism? Especially when this patient is relying on his estranged Trinidadian son to be the donor? And what of Carl’s own dark past that is threatening to sink his relationship? Meanwhile, at Carl’s childhood home in South Africa, young Promise becomes aware of things spoken of in hushed tones.

A sweeping story of betrayal, secrets, hope and healing.

Daar is ’n kluis in ’n winkeltrollie op die dak van Wille Willemien se 4×4.

Want sy en haar sus is op pad. Richtersveld toe. Om tussen Eksteenfontein en Khuboes hul pa se kluis – en sy sneeujas – nou ná sy dood oor ’n afgrond te boender.

Terwyl die twee vroue reis, ontvou die verhaal van Willemien en haar pa:

’n Storie oor ’n Afrikaanse Al Capone, ’n man wie se duister sakeondernemings nie net tot die grense van Suid-Afrika beperk was nie. In Palm Springs dra sy lyfwagte koeldrank vir die fbi-agente aan vanwaar hulle sy huis dophou. Vroeër jare moet Willemien in haar pa se kattebak wegkruip terwyl hy sake in verlate parkeerareas doen. Ná sulke uitstappies was haar beloning altyd ’n lekkerny, en só word haar lewenslange stryd met kos aangevuur.

Van Kaapstad na San Francisco en selfs Sri Lanka, met ’n wavrag vol seks, drugs & rock ’n’ roll, tref Anoeschka von Meck se nuutste roman jou soos ’n reusegolf en spoel sy die verhoudings oop wat van ons denkende, spirituele wesens maak.

Sunday. Christmas Eve. There is a break-in at the Stables Estate in Pretoria East. Businessman Lafras van Zyl is left for dead and his family has disappeared without a trace. After six weeks there are still no clues, and Captain AJ Williams has been summoned to solve the case. Alex Derksen and Ranna Abramson are on the trail of Martina Buitendag (17), who went missing in Yeoville. Two crimes. Too many secrets. Nowhere to hide.

Van In is terug! Hierdie keer het hy net 'n skeenbeen en sy intuïsie om die donker raaisel mee op te los, maar hy moet gou speel.

Dis nie net sy loopbaan wat op die spel is nie, 'n mooi jong meisie is deur sy toedoen in die booswigte se mag.

Ná haar verloofde se kapingsdood worstel Frieke met skuldgevoelens. Sy soek troos by haar stiefbroer wat as argeoloog in Italië werk.

Op haar ontdekkingsreis tussen Middeleeuse geboue vind sy vertroosting en heling, en die kosbaarste skat: ware liefde.

Toemaar, jou dag sal kom . . .

​Dis die woorde wat Diana Botha, wynmaker van die spoglandgoed Soeterwijn, help om staande te bly en telkens weer die lewe met nuwe ywer aan te pak. As jong meisie erf sy die las vir ’n skande vir iets waaraan sy geen skuld het nie. Dit pla haar tot ’n studiebeurs haar help om haar passie vir wynmaak te laat ontluik.

Maar in die Boland leer sy opnuut dat vooroordeel steeds stewig in die mensdom sit.

Emma reis na Clarens om haar man se as te strooi. Terwyl sy by tante Vera tuisgaan, daag ’n geheimsinnige koevert op waarvan die inhoud Vera angsbevange maak. Dit blyk dat sy jaarliks anoniem só gedreig word voordat daar op iets wat vir haar kosbaar is toegeslaan word.

Wie koester ’n wrok teen Vera? Waarom? Sal Emma antwoorde vind voordat die teisteraar se wraak toeneem?

Met die spannende ontrafeling van ’n skrikwekkende raaisel word temas van skuld, straf, boetedoening en vergifnis ondersoek.

Boek een van 'n trilogie.

Op sy kleinhoewe buite Johannesburg bewerk Abel Lotz die velle van klein diertjies om te verruil vir die maskers uit Afrika en tsantsas uit Suid-Amerika wat hy in sy galery in die stad verkoop. Vir sy vyftigste verjaarsdag beplan Abel iets besonders. Hy soek ontwerpe vir die omslae van sy Kosmiese Reise. En hy soek 'n nuwe gesig.

Ella Neser gryp die kans aan om haar eerste moord as ondersoekbeampte te hanteer. Hierdie moord is egter ongewoon.

Die derde boek in die Abel-rillertrilogie. Die polisie word ontbied na 'n hotelkamer in Johannesburg. Bloed en hare in die bad dui op 'n slagting, maar daar is geen lyk nie. Wanneer 'n gelooide en onthaarde vel gevind word, weet Ella Neser sy is weer op reeksmoordenaar Abel Lotz se spoor. Abel bevind hom in Brugge, en kort voor lank soek hy weer na velle met tatoes vir die omslae van die tien volumes van sy Kosmiese Reise, hierdie keer met Ignaz Bouts se hulp.

It’s been a year since Nonhle Ngubane was held hostage on a windswept mountain by two crooked and murderous men. She’s settled into her new job at The Last Outpost Lodge and her greatest concern is whether the man she loves, feels the same way.

While she contemplates matters of the heart, the rhino poaching war continues to escalate and kingpins are partnering with corrupt judges. Her friends, Thomas McKenzie and Senzo Mdletshe, find themselves fighting a daily battle to keep the poachers at bay.

Then Nonhle discovers that leopard populations are also under attack. While their skins are worn with pride as a symbol of power and royalty across the African continent, farmers destroy leopards that threaten their livestock, and big game hunters offer illegal hunts to paying guests.

Painter Nick Steyn moves to Cape Town after separating from his partner. A young boarder moves in and they soon become friends. But one night she does not come home, and his attempts to trace her come to nothing. Could Nick’s former friend, Victor Schoeman, the author of the outrageous novel The Shallows, have a hand in them? A fantastical, absurd yet haunting novel by the award-winning novelist Ingrid Winterbach. Translated as always by Michiel Heyns.

Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature: silver (1990)
Alba Bouwer Prize (1990)
C.P. Hoogenhout Award (1990)

Paul kan die ontydige dood van sy pa nie verwerk nie en bly droom van hom. Hy maak vriende met die ou skoonmaker by hulle woonstelgebou, maar konflik ontstaan wanneer hy Paul se pa se ou Buick, sy "droomwa", wil koop.

It is winter in London in 1947. When Arthur Bailey, an elderly painter who lives alone, catches sight of a young woman, Felicity, about to move into the neighbouring bed-sit, he is stirred to recall in haunting detail a long-suppressed narrative.

The Landscape Painter is a double tale of obsession, betrayed trust and irrepressible hope, which emerges as Arthur’s story unfolds. As a young, brilliant landscape painter he travelled to South Africa in 1898 in pursuit of his best friend’s sister, the beautiful and mysterious Carwyn Hamilton. Carwyn’s subsequent shocking betrayal led Arthur down a dark path of humiliation and haunted him for the next fifty years.

As Arthur delves ever deeper into his most intimate thoughts and desires, the past and present come together in a series of surprising turns and parallels and we meet a range of memorable characters – from the malevolent German governess, Miss Klimt, to Carwyn’s flirtatious and increasingly senile grandmother, Mutti. Finally, Arthur is forced to confront Felicity with the irreducible damage done to him.

From the gold-crazed streets of early Johannesburg to the epic battlefields of the Anglo-Boer War, and the austerity of post-Second World War Britain, The Landscape Painter is a spectacular historical novel packed with wit and insight and crafted in Higginson’s lyrical and sinuous but surgical prose.

Welcome to Vivo, where the only cemetery is run by old Mateus and his dog, God. Mateus’s eyes aren’t so good these days, which is why he has been burying bodies in the wrong graves, and also why, while out walking with God, he trips over a young homeless girl. On a whim, Mateus decides to appoint the girl as his apprentice.

Novo, who has been sleeping on the street with a dog-eared copy of The Savage Detectives as her pillow, is determined to reorganise the cemetery, but she will have to hurry: buried awry, divorced from their names, the ghosts of Vivo are accumulating, unable to proceed to the afterlife without knowing who they are. Also, someone, or some thing, is on the loose, killing people and closing in on the one person who can make things right.

Vivo is a town with a pigeon-messaging service, a phone booth used for romantic encounters, and a number of residents who are not quite what they seem, including a prostitute, a professor and a prophetic flower-seller. Oh, and the coffee is hellishly strong.

Erudite and wise, magical and quirky, Sven Axelrad’s debut novel is an enchanting adventure that explores what our names mean to us and who we are without them.