Detectives in pursuit of criminals, a brother desperate to find his wunga-addicted sibling, a search for abducted girls, a quest to be reunited with a long-lost lover – these are just some of the searches that form the basis of the stories in this collection. On a more metaphysical level there are characters seeking some form of faith or purpose. Entertaining tales that keep the reader enthralled with tension and suspense, while reflecting the realities of contemporary South Africa.

Bessie Botha, deesdae weduwee Botha, woon saam met haar broer, Willem, op ’n kleinhoewe buite Bloemfontein. 1974 was tot dusver nie ’n goeie jaar nie, en om alles te kroon is oorlede Stefaans se welgestelde broer en sy jong neus-in-die-lug vrou op pad om te kom
kuier.

Bessie ontferm haar oor al wat kind en dier is in die gemeenskap. Sy meng ook graag by ander se sake in wanneer dit lyk asof Dominee of Gezina, die nuwe voorsitster van die sustersvereniging, nie hul kant bring nie.

Wanneer die veertienjarige Annatjie de Villiers weer een Sondag ná kerk langs die treinspoor staan en flikkers gooi vir al wat ’n treindrywer is, besluit Bessie om die meisiekind ’n boek in die hand te stop sodat sy kan léér waar babas vandaan kom.

Bessie se hangkasbiblioteek is propvol heimwee en humor, met uiteenlopende karakters net so kleurryk soos die boeke in Bessie se spaarkamerhangkas. Madelein Rust op haar beste!

This is the future world that haunts portrait photographer and narrator, James Baldwin, as he alternates between present-day South Africa and the Frontier — an existential dystopia where women are inexplicably completely and permanently wiped from the world. This, according to him, can only mean extinctions of varying and catastrophic degrees.

He is a lover of women, and there are countless things he would terribly miss: how women hold and shake rainwater from umbrellas, the musical click of stilettos on concrete or tiled floors, the way light falls on their face during cosy, candlelit dinners. He would miss the patience of female psychologists who fix the world one madman at a time, there would no longer be eye-catching and dramatic fashion statements at weddings or funerals, florists would eternally be emptied of their stock, and the rate of tunes belted out in showers would drop dramatically if not completely cease, the world would not be the same without the gossip mill of some women, their petty jealousies and catfights, their ever-evolving and varied insecurities…

A lull would befall the land.

Erotic, perceptive and transcendental; Breasts, etc. is a novel of double consciousness. It is an exploration of, and meditation on the existential strife and tragic comedy at the Frontier, a post-apocalyptic and desolate landscape that forms the backdrop to an examination of masculine vulnerabilities and wickedness in a world stripped of feminine presence and wisdom.

’n Vreemdeling by ’n familiebegrafnis keer Kristie se lewe onderstebo. Haar daaglikse take by die argiteksfirma beleef ook ’n wending: Erik is ’n moeilike kliёnt en ook die onweerstaanbare tipe. Toe Kristie se werklikheid ineenstort, vlug sy na Phuket in Thailand. Maar die eiland bring nie vir haar die gemoedsrus waarop sy gehoop het nie. Terwyl sy van haar omgekeerde wêreld probeer sin maak, begin een van die laaste bastions in haar lewe wankel.

Joelle Jesson is 40 and single and now suddenly unemployed. After a long and distinguished career as a fiction editor at powerful publishing companies, her future is extinguished by a world that no longer cares as much for books as it does for faster and more superficial digital pleasures.

Buddy Rappaport, the young, glamorous new CEO of her famed publisher, CrossMedia, is tasked with letting her go. Soon after, he is found dead at his desk, with no apparent cause. Joelle’s plot instincts light up. Was he killed? And if so, why? Did he commit suicide? A lifetime of massaging the plots of stories leaves her obsessed with getting to the bottom of his death. Is it the dark and taciturn brother, Cubby, a near-unknown artist painting strange canvases in his small apartment? He is a dead ringer for Buddy, volcanically sexy, but so different to his charismatic and successful younger brother.

Or is it the handsome and cynical LAPD detective, Corelli, who accosts Joelle at Buddy’s funeral, trying to get her to read his first manuscript for a novel, a murder story eerily reminiscent of what happened in the corner office of the company where she spent so many years?

Or perhaps the deranged and talentless loner, Thron, desperate for fame and fortune, trying to foist an absurd science fiction manuscript on all and sundry, driven mad by constant rejection and derision, stalking elite publishing executives with a gun in his pocket?

Leaving Word is a literary mystery; a story of homicide; a comic and probing look at our need for stories; a satire about fame, fortune, art and books; a love story and one woman’s quest to find meaning in a chaotic world.

Markus Gerlach en sy kameraad Domingos Magadzi vlug oor die grens van Suid-Afrika na die noorde van Mosambiek omdat hulle vrees dat hulle van die moord op drie mense aangekla sal word. Vir Phoebe Maritz, ’n kleindorpse joernalis, is dit ’n kans om eindelik ’n storie van internasionale belang na te jaag en sy sit die twee met die hulp van ’n veiligheidskontrakteur, Paul Fryer, agterna.

Sy hoop om ’n eksklusiewe onderhoud met Markus los te slaan en die waarheid te ontbloot. Maar Cabo Delgado, waar Markus wegkruip, word deur verwoestende terreur geteister en niemand is daar veilig nie.

Gou bevind Phoebe haar in die middel van ’n plofbare botsing tussen gevreesde insurgente, kastige filantrope, private militêre kontrakteurs, agente van internasionale olie-en-gasmaatskappye en – erger nog – ’n bloeddorstige reeksmoordenaar.

Die driejarige seuntjie van Elias en Barta van Rooyen raak spoorloos weg in die Knysna-bos. In die Lange Kloof, anderkant die berg, ontferm Fiela Komoetie haar oor ’n weggooilam wat een nag voor haar deur kom huil. Die een kind is Lukas, die ander Benjamin. Is dit dieselfde kind? Dié raaisel word nege jaar later oopgekrap deur twee sensusmanne wat die wit kind met die blou oë by ’n bruin gesin in die Lange Kloof kry.

Fiela se kind is ’n boek met ’n warm hartklop, dit is ’n boek oor moederliefde, oor liefde wat oor alle grense heen strek.

“Hierdie roman bevestig op skitterende wyse dat min mense by Dalene Matthee kan kers vashou as dit by die vertelkuns op sy eerste en onderhoudendste kom.” - André P. Brink, Rapport

A farmhouse is being reproduced a dozen times, with slight variations, throughout a valley. Three small graves have been dug in the front garden, the middle one lying empty. A woman in a wheelchair sorts through boxes while her husband clambers around the old demolished buildings, wondering where the animals have gone. A young woman - called 'the barren one' behind her back - dreams of love, while an ageing headmaster contemplates the end of his life. At the entrance to the long dirt driveway, a car appears and pauses - pointed towards the house like a silver bullet, ticking with heat.

So begins The Dream House, Craig Higginson's riveting and unforgettable novel set in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal. Written with dark wit, a stark poetic style and extraordinary tenderness, this is a story about the state of a nation and a deep meditation on memory, ageing, meaning, family, love and loss.

This updated 2016 edition contains new content, with Craig Higginson exploring the background to The Dream House, his varied experiences in a farmhouse in KwaZulu-Natal and the subsequent and poignant motivations for this moving novel.

Growing up in a Northern Transvaal town during the State of Emergency in the 1980s, Ben Aronbach doesn’t fit in anywhere. Among the predominantly Afrikaans, Christian inhabitants, he is the Jewish kid, but in the Jewish community he is the boy from the family of lapsed shul-goers. Even though he is learning Hebrew for his bar mitzvah, he feels like an outsider learning a foreign language.

Then Ben meets Leo Fein, a man who knew his father before he died. When Leo includes the boy in his schemes, Ben feels exhilarated. Little does he know the far-reaching impact that Leo will have on the Aronbach family’s life.

It is only years later, in the run-up to the 1992 Referendum, that Ben gets a chance to confront the charlatan . . . but he also has to face his own guilt over his family’s downfall.

Set during two important moments in South Africa’s history, Lucky Packet is told with humour and poignancy.

“One of the best novels of recent years, and likely the most readable.” – Imraan Coovadia

Bippie se pad word onderbreek met haar onbeplande swangerskap, dus moet sy nou ’n nuwe een soek. Sy maak 'n belofte teenoor die Here - sy sal nie weer ’n man in haar lewe toelaat as hy nie met haar wil trou nie. Maar die man wat skielik al onder haar voete is, Riekert Tredoux. Hy het lankal besluit hy wil nooit trou nie. Toe hy en sy broer klein seuntjies was het sy ma hulle net so gelos en by die voordeur uitgestap. So hy het allerhande issues. Sal Bippie haar belofte gestand kan doen en Riekert wel wil trou?

Q is diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder and resigns as lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Good Hope in Lumumbaville. In quiet moments he reflects on his childhood; the passing of his mother and the strained relationship with his father. Bernice, his pregnant older lover, vanishes one day – without ever confirming that the baby was his.

Now unemployed, Q’s life takes a peculiar turn as he searches for her. He finds himself on a haphazard journey to Misty Hills. And it is here, in a field of sunflowers, that he may find the answers that he’s been seeking.

The Scent of Bliss is an intimate look into Q’s life as he struggles with his anxiety disorder, the sombre memories of his childhood and the sense of not belonging. This novella is also a love tale that explores anguish and survival, and the absurdities that define the human condition.

Roshana Peterson, a science journalist, wants to escape her traumatic past and mundane reality. She's wondering whether she should leave this world on her own terms. Her failed relationship and dwindling mental health lead her to KwaZulu-Natal to meet a man with a story. The man claims to know the origin of an enigmatic cure that eradicated a global pandemic decades ago. Roshana’s journey takes her to an old, rundown house where the curious lives of Dr Igor Evermore and his intern, Bo Bantu, are unravelled.

Bo dreams of prominence in the science world and discovers a cure for The Worm, but Dr Evermore has secrets and a troubled past of his own. Through their gnawing failures and uncanny methodologies, Bo and Dr Evermore make the scientific discovery of a lifetime, sacrificing their friendship and, eventually, their sanity.

A story that delves into the realms of science, death and consciousness to reveal what it means to die and to truly live.

Daar is ’n klop aan die deur. My vinger wil nie verder saamtrek nie. My hart hamer die sekondes in my ore om. Wat sal gebeur as ek die sneller trek?

Johan is negentien en in die weermag. Wanneer die adjudant hom inlig dat hy na Seksie C in die Zambesivallei gestuur word om onreëlmatige ontgroening te ondersoek, pak ’n ongekende opgewondenheid hom beet. Maar dit is korte duur, want Johan besef gou hy is nie opgewasse teen die weermag nie. Ter ontvlugting besoek Johan pasnaweke sy ouer neef Ben in Pretoria. Ben, die rebelse seun van die generaal. Ben wat sy eie oorlog veg.

Die Generaal is ’n onthutsende, oorrompelende en aangrypende verhaal wat die absurditeit van die Grensoorlog en die verwoestende impak daarvan op jong mans se lewens met sensitiwiteit teken.

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.

When Natasha, a novice writer from South Africa, is nominated for a major British literary prize, Terence, a young university lecturer, undertakes to introduce her to the sights of London.

However, London and its literary cliques are a far cry from Natasha’s Karoo hometown: through no fault of her own, she is disqualified, and their affair ends in tragedy. Terence, whose best friend accuses him of suffering from a Good Samaritan complex, now takes an interest in a rough sleeper and his dog that he meets outside a tube station.

This turns out to be a complex undertaking. As the ghosts of his past relationships are visited upon him, Terence is forced to reconsider the meaning of human connections – how our lives touch, and are touched by, others.

Michiel Heyns’s Each Mortal Thing shows us the metropolis through fresh eyes, calculates the cost of acts of kindness, and speaks to the grace that friendship can bestow on us.

‘Those in the know claim Michael K disembarked from a diesel-smoke-spewing truck one overcast morning, looked around, and without missing a beat, chose a spot where he set down a small bucket (red, burnt and disfigured) that contained an assortment of seedlings, some fisherman’s twine and a rudimentary gardening tool – probably self-made.’

How is it that a character from literary fiction can so alter the landscapes he touches, even as he – in his self-imposed isolation – seeks to avoid them? How is it that Michael K, bewildered and bewildering, can remain so fragile yet so present, so imposing without attempting to be so? In this response to JM Coetzee’s classic masterpiece, Life & Times of Michael K, Nthikeng Mohlele dabbles in the artistic and speculative in a unique attempt to unpack the dazed and disconnected world of the title character, his solitary ways, his inventiveness, but also to show how astutely Michael K holds up a mirror to those whose paths he inadvertently crosses. Michael K explores the weight of history and of conscience, thus wrestling the character from the confines of literary creation to the frontiers of artistic timelessness.

Dinge ontrafel vinnig wanneer iemand speuradjudant Storm van der Merwe se ma voor ’n trein op Paddington-stasie instamp. Storm moet Londen toe, al is sy tot oor haar ore met ’n moordsaak: Beebee Bukelwa Babu, befaamde Suid-Afrikaanse modeontwerper, lê leweloos in ’n luukse hotel op Hermanus.

Hande om Storm te help met die ondersoek ná Beebee se dood is min, want protesaksie lê die dorp lam. Boonop sweep ’n charismatiese profeet die skare op tot ’n histerie.

Storm besef gou nie net haar ma se lewe is in gevaar nie. Sy is ook ’n teiken.

Intussen probeer haar ekskollega, Andreas Moerdyk, nou ’n privaat speurder, om ’n skaars rooi diamant van onskatbare waarde op te spoor.

Van Londen se donker strate tot Antwerpen se diamantebeurs, van Port Nolloth se verlate kuslyn tot Storm se geliefde Hermanus, ontvou die storie in Irna van Zyl se derde misdaadroman teen die pas van ’n sneltrein.

Wouter Wessels praktiseer as prokureur vanuit ’n omskepte woonhuis in ‘n voorstad van Pretoria. Na ‘n reeks terugslae in sy lewe, is beide sy regsloopbaan en persoonlike lewe weer besig om op koers te kom. Totdat daar op ’n gewone werksdag ‘n skynbaar gewone klient by sy praktyk instap.

Sy het egter nie die deursnee regsprobleem nie. Nadat hy haar begin bystaan, kom hy onverwags op ’n katnes van bedrog en swendelary af waarby hooggeplaastes en invloedrykes betrokke is. Skielik bars alle hel rondom hom los en sy lewe is in gevaar.

Hy betrek spoedig ’n vriendin, wat ’n joernalis by ’n dagblad is, asook ’n eksentrieke forensiese wetenskaplike om hom by te staan om dié bedrogspul te probeer ontrafel. Hy het egter nie die luukse van tyd nie, en boonop verdwyn sy sleutelgetuie skielik spoorloos.

Katrina Hunt has a disturbing secret. Since her earliest days fighting for survival in the poverty of a trailer park, she’s been able to sense moral corruption. And her gift is never wrong. This strange ability affects every relationship, for people have no way to hide from her.

Katrina harnesses her gift and sets it to work, sniffing out evil in positions of privilege and power. Yet she soon finds she is not the only one who can do it. On the far side of the world, a scientist cracks an algorithm that will forever change law-enforcement. His new scan can detect a person’s genetic propensity for wrongdoing, even before they act.

But what if the most corrupt man in the world, a political figure assuming ever higher office, is able to beat the scan? What if he alone can hide his true darkness? What if he is ... not quite human?

Katrina’s path will lead inexorably to confrontation with an immense power. But can she stop him, before it is too late for humanity?

It all began with the anger of Laduma, the Thunder God, and the birth of a special child with strange, flickering eyes. This is the tale of a rural family – Mabena, Mantombi and their grandson Duma – who are exiled from the ancestral home and thrown into the turmoil of township life. They take Duma to Boekenhout, on the outskirts of a city, where Mabena, the grandfather, becomes a bridge between the past and the present, the urban and the rural.

The harder Mabena tries to keep the values of the past alive, the more intrigued and bedazzled Duma becomes by urban life and jazz music. The introduction of the apartheid homelands policies forces the family to return to their old village, where Duma is to be initiated into manhood. We Shall Not Weep is a beautifully written lyrical novel about a traditional African community in change, swayed by the forces of modernity and political change.

After years teaching Romantic poetry at the University of Cape Town, David Lurie, middle-aged and twice divorced has an impulsive affair with a student. The affair sours; he is denounced and summoned before a committee of inquiry. Willing to admit his guilt, but refusing to yield to pressure to repent publicly, he resigns and retreats to daughter Lucy’s isolated smallholding.

For a time, his daughter’s influence and the natural rhythms of the farm promise to harmonise his discordant life. But the balance of power in the country is shifting. He and Lucy become victims of a savage and disturbing attack which brings into relief all the faultlines in their relationship.

From Ensimbini, in the village of Somizi, in the shadow of the Ntokozo Hills, within the Kingdom of Langabi, during the reign of King Diliza, the cousin of Langabi’s founder, the late Queen Sukumani, there comes a hero.

King Diliza, sun of the sky and leopard of the many markings, Babengabuzang’ elangeni.

Owethu knows your secret.

Die selfmoord van haar vriendin, Mignon, laat Maggie met meer vrae as antwoorde. In 'n brief vra Mignon vir Maggie om 'n familielid in die tronk te gaan soek. Bea Mostert, 'n eks-Getuie soos Mignon, is tot dertig jaar tronkstraf gevonnis vir 'n onvergeeflike daad. Wat het hierdie twee vroue tot sulke uiterstes gedwing - en speel hul godsdiens 'n rol? Maggie se soeke na antwoorde word deel van haar eie pad na aanvaarding van haar man se dood en begrip vir haar Ierse pa se hardvogtigheid.

Ben se ma sterf toe sy hom as jong seun seun uit 'n vuur red. Dit leit tot verdere spanning in sy reeds moeilike verhouding met sy pa. Ben se broer, die windmakerige Andries, word sy pa se gunsteling. Andries pleeg later op 'n bisarre wyse selfmoord tydens 'n veldslag in die Anglo-Boereoorog. In 'n poging om sy broer te red word Ben gewond, en deur die Britte gevange geneem.

Ben ontmoet die pragtige verpleegsuster, Kate, in die hospitaal op Deelfontein. Hy raak verlief op haar, maar Kate het egter 'n donker geheim: morfienverslawing. Na vele probleme en omswerwinge, vind Ben onder valse voorwendsels verblyf in Montagu waar hy vir Kate wag. Hier ontmoet hy vir Helen, wie se man 'n Kaapse rebel was en wat ook na St. Helena verban was. Hy begin 'n vriendskap met Helen en gou is daar verwikkelinge.

Intussen probeer Ben en sy pa elk op sy eie manier ook om hul verhouding te red en leer baie lewenslesse in die proses. Hierdie verhaal spreek tema's van swaarkry en verlies aan, maar ook van hoop en die krag van liefde.

Cara and Grace are two young women. Cara is a medical doctor who has an exciting career, a loving marriage and a beautiful six-month-old son, Noah. Grace is a teenage girl – young, fit and talented, embarking on all that life has to offer her.

When each one of them is devastated by personal tragedy, neither one knows how to rebuild their own life. But when Grace has the idea, inspired by the Reach For A Dream Foundation, to cycle across South Africa from Durban back to her home city of Cape Town, Cara appears to be the most qualified companion for her.

‘Miles to Go’ is a story about the journey that these companions take – a journey of many physical miles but also one that is filled with just as many emotional milestones as they embark on their journey back to wholeness. It is filled with the struggles and fears, tears and more than a little laughter of two young women who are trying to overcome their loss and find their way back to life, in defiance of the hands that they have been dealt.