Born on the cusp of democracy, the crew of young friends in Born Freeloaders navigates a life of drinking, wild parties and other recklessness. The siblings at the centre of the novel, Nthabiseng and Xolani, have been raised in an upper middle-class family with connections to the political elite. Nthabiseng is lauded by her peers as she whimsically goes through life, unable to form her own identity in a world that expects her to pick a side in the fractured classifications of race.

Xolani, not having known his late father, longs for acceptance from an uncle who sees him and his generation as the bitter fruit borne of a freedom he and countless others fought for. As the story moves across multiple spaces in the nation’s capital over a weekend, Born Freeloaders captures a political and cultural moment in the city’s and South Africa’s history. Interwoven is an analogous tale of the country’s colonisation and the consequences that follow.

And alongside the friends’ uneasy awareness of their privilege is a heightened sense of discomfort at their inability to change the world they were born into.

Kassie has never had to cope with a case like this before, and his emotions are getting the better of him. As a rookie cop he learned to keep his distance from a case, not get emotionally involved, because that’s when mistakes happen. But this case makes distance impossible . . . children’s lives are at stake. And every time he and Rooi seem to be making progress with the case, it slithers out from under them, like a venomous snake.

Andzani is an emotionally distant accountant on a Grindr binge, with an unresolved attachment to someone from his past.

For him, home has always been a site of anxiety. Andzani’s community of Mbambamencisi becomes a shadow in his Cape Town life that holds him hostage to the violence he thought he could escape by leaving. Then an unexpected trip to his childhood community forces him to pay attention to long-repressed memories.

A powerful coming-of-age story about a boy from rural Limpopo who must find ways to manage loss and to become fully himself as a gay man, A Soft Landing explores the implications of a past not decisively dealt with.

Odette is a script writer for a popular TV soap opera. When she moves to the small Free State town of Nagelaten she hopes to leave her problems – of family, fraught relationships and experiences of crime – behind in Joburg. To the dwellers of Nagelaten, Odette appears to be escaping a painful break-up in a place she knows no-one – and won’t have to share her secrets.

When Odette begins seeing the local engineer, Adriaan, also an outcast in this small town, secrets begin to surface around the murder of Adriaan’s wife. Odette’s world begins to unravel, when her ‘troubled’ daughter, Mandy, is suspected of killing the baby she was au-pairing in the UK and soon comes to live with Odette, who has a secret of her own. It isn’t until Mandy befriends a strange man named Wolfie that Odette finally begins to question the mysteries of the small town.

Odette is forced to face her mistakes of the past and the truth of a murder long since buried with the dead. The Imagined Child is a carefully plotted ‘whodunit’ that combines Jo-Anne’s trademark lyrical style with tight suspense and will keep you guessing until the last page.

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.

The SMS said, ‘don’t look for me’. I died right there. MaZwane, please no matter what happens, we can fight until we mutilate each other but do not leave me. Anelisa, I hope you have spoken to her seriously. We are married, we don’t leave each other. We stay for better or for worse, through thick and thin. The three of us do not part ways no matter what caused the misunderstanding. They both look at me attentively, I can’t be more serious than this.

Marcus Moore, half-Iers, roep sy armoedige ouerhuis in Skotland vaarwel toe ná 'n gewelddadige voorval. Sy oë is vol blink klippies en hy klim op 'n skip na Suid-Afrika. Sy droombestemming is die diggings in Kimberley en later die woelige Goudstad.

Hy is nie alleen nie: die myne wemel van dromers. Hy leer legendariese fortuinsoekers, swendelaars en selfgemaakte magnate soos Barney Barnato, ken. Hy skuur ook skouers met historiese figure soos Olive Schreiner, Cecil John Rhodes en Paul Kruger.

Dieper as Drome handel oor 'n fassinerende tyd in ons geskiedenis en die verhoog is wyd – dit wemel van aksie en drama. Oor alles val die skadu van die Empaaier. Daar is ook 'n tydlose liefdesverhaal aan die hart van hierdie roman.

Huilboek​ is Hattingh se eerste boek in negentien jaar. Dit is ’n verweefde teks wat afspeel tussen die hier van Nieu-Seeland en die verlede van Ryk se kinderjare in die 1960’s aan die Oosrand.

Wie wás die kind op die stoep saam met sy ma en pa en ouma en boeties en Outa Toon? En wie was Outa Toon, van wie ons slegs die skouer en rug sien op ’n foto met pa en seuns? Die man wat vir Ryk gesê het, “Jy is mos die een met die hart.”?

Huilboek is ’n kragtoer.

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.

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.

Privaat speurder Zeus van Wyngaardt sou nooit kon droom dat ’n godin soos Diana Engelbrecht (sy naam is Zeus, hy ken godinne) op ’n dag by sy gehawende kantoor in Springs sou instap nie. Haar opdrag: Vind die vermiste Esias Kok.

Zeus besef gou agter elke storie is daar baie stories, en dié godin is dalk nie wat sy voorgee om te wees nie. Soos wat hy elke spoor begin volg, vervaag die grense tussen die reële en die digitale wêreld, oortreder en slagoffer, skuld en onskuld …

In hierdie aweregse roman vervleg Julio Agrella die lewens van uiteenlopende karakters op vindingryke wyse. Dit wat agter die geslote deure van die armstes tot die rykstes in die samelewing gebeur, wys dat misbruik en geweld nie onderskeid tref nie. ’n Boek wat die leser sal skok, sal laat lag met die donker humor daarvan, en aan die raai sal hou tot die einde.

Have you ever had a terrible boss? Maki dreads the alarm clock a bit more than for the extra five minutes of sleep. Her work troubles follow her home like shadows that unwittingly creep on to the quality of her life. Can she find the courage to stand up to her boss or will she collapse under the weight of the boss lady’s words? “Making Life and Lemonade” is a novel about the story of a hard working career woman, Maki Mako, as told by herself (in other words, written in first person). Maki takes the reader through her experiences as an unhappy employee, and the complications of also being a mother, and a wife.

A story of a woman’s coming of age in war-torn Paris. Her challenges, adventures and passions.

Odette is a young, highly intelligent, headstrong Parisian woman, from a bourgeois military background. She finds herself flirting around the edges of a bohemian lifestyle during the heady days of resistance fighters and WWII. Her story takes us through her work in Paris at the French Ministry of Defence, their relocation to make way for German occupation, her meeting of an enigmatic man, her journey into a world of resistance fighters and espionage during which time she discovers the pleasures of womanhood and love.

Jean is Mauritian-born of a German father and an Irish/French mother. He is an enigma. Nobody really knows who he works for. Is he a spy or not, if so, for friend or foe? He is charismatic, a born leader and undertakes daring missions as lead of a Parisian resistance cadre. He is captured and interred at Gurs internment camp. His story takes us from Mauritius to the heart of Parisian artistes and intellectual bohemians, and to the underground resistance movement, where as a leader, he sets up escape routes for the Jews of Paris.

This is their story.

In her debut novel, Dreaming in Colour, Uvile Ximba explores with subtlety, humour and probing insight the connections between the joyful reclaiming of pleasure and the healing of buried traumas.

As students at university in Makhanda during the #RUReferenceList campaign, Langa and her lover Khwezi have a passionate and complex relationship. Puzzling gaps in her memory haunt Langa, yet her dreams are vivid with colours and symbols that hint at a nightmare of forgotten violations and losses. So many secrets -- and Langa has had enough of secrets and silences. Who can she turn to? Her mother? Her grandmother? Khwezi? Or herself?

Dreaming In Colour is Langa's story of coming out to herself, of discerning the history behind the closed door of conscious memory.

Tikkop is 'n roman oor verraad, maar ook oor vriendskap en die liefde vir 'n taal en 'n land. Die Nederlander, Mulder, en die Suid-Afrikaner, Donald, hernu hulle weer hul vriendskap en verken weer hulle gevoelens van weleer: daar is 'n gedeelde liefde, vriende wat verraai is en ideale wat verloen is. Mulder, wat in Parys woon, besluit om in die Kaap te kom bly, terwyl Donald sy stryd voortsit in 'n verstikkende klein vissersdorpie. Die plaaslike bevolking voel verraai: hulle visregte is opgeskort deur korrupte leiers, daar is geen werk nie en hul kinders ontvlug deur TIK te gebruik. Die twee manne ontferm hulle dan oor 'n talentvolle verslaafde seun aan wie hulle 'n nuwe toekoms wil bied - mits die knaap die TIK kan oorwin.

‘Akwaba ndandingambonanga’, uvakalisa ukuzisola uFikile.

Ukuthandana kukaFikile noNandipha kuqala ngendlela emsulwa kodwa ukudizwa kweem­fihlelo ekukudala ziqhushekiwe, uthando olungavumelekanga nezinto eziyindaba yakwamkhozi kushiya ubomi bamakhaya esi sibini, nkqu nabantu basemaMpondweni, butshintshe unaphakade.

Dora en Whashiela patsy graag op lit aande in die holte van Hoerikwaggo se skaduwee. Die girls is nie op hul bek geval nie. Maar albei weet ook die veilige hawe van sisterhood kan hulle nie beskerm teen die geweld wat snags op donker sypaadjies sluimer nie.

Een oggend op Bellville-stasie gebeur iets wat hul lewe onherroeplik verander.

Dianne Du Toit Albertze se debuutroman is ’n aangrypende ondersoek na identiteit, na huis en behoort. Opreg, vlymskerp én hartverskeurend.

In hierdie ambisieuse bundel word die leser op reis geneem. Na wêrelde van verstommende – dog onmiddellik herkenbare – tegnologiese vooruitgang.

Waar bespiegeling en die magiese skouers skuur met die “alledaagse”. Waar waarheid en versinsel nie meer onderskeibaar is nie. Waar nuwe, onthutsende eksistensiële vrae opduik, en in gesprek tree met die oerbekende een: waar begin menswees, en waar eindig dit?

Bot is ’n verrassende debuut wat ’n eiesoortige staanplek in die Afrikaanse verhalewêreld kry.

A new collection of short stories by one of South Africa’s most original writers, A Little Light is a timely and sensitive evocation of places, bodies, politics, regrets and hope, all revealed in tightly controlled and beautifully lit stories.

Mohlele’s daring writing is on full display with the publication of this volume.

Wanneer Josua een middag vir Eva de Winter in ’n Rotterdamse koffiewinkel ontmoet, voel dit vir hom onwerklik dat ’n begaafde regsgeleerde soos sy in ’n verhouding sou belangstel.

Maar sy getuienis vroeër in ’n hofsitting interesseer haar – dit lei tot verdere afsprake, en algaande word hulle vriende. Dis eers ná hul huwelik voltrek is dat Josua begin begryp daar is iets onpeilbaars aan Eva.

Hoeveel raaisels het sy van hom weerhou, en wat hy slegs d.m.v. obskure soekenjins oor haar kon naspeur?

Oor net twee dinge is Rakie Bouwer seker: Haar broer is as kind dood, en sy moet uitvind hóé.

Die soektog stuur haar op verborge paaie na haar verlede – waar familiegeheime gevaarlik lê en skuil. Intussen daag haar tweelingsuster, Mara, ongenooid op . . . Wat probeer Mara wegsteek en hoekom?

Terwyl Rakie desperaat probeer om antwoorde te kry, loop sy die gevaar om haarself te vernietig. Want eindelik is die skrikwekkendste vraag van almal: Wat is donkerder as jou eie bloed?

Spanning from present day until the near future, this novel tells the story of three men facing the rapid unravelling of their world, due to cataclysmic climate collapse.

Luthando’s environmental activism leads to a clash with the government. His life partner, Viwe, becomes embroiled in religious end-of-days fanaticism. And their friend Malcolm worries that his work in biotech augmentation will be used for sinister purposes.

A story about resilience and our capacity for love in the face of fear.