A lightning flash of a novel that is at once a gripping emotional drama and a brilliant examination of the devices, digital and literary, we use to store―or to erase―our memories.

The narrator of Ben Lerner’s new novel has traveled to Providence, Rhode Island, where he is to conduct what will be the final published interview with Thomas, his ninety-year-old mentor and the father of his college friend Max. Thomas is a giant in the arts who seems to hail “from the future and the past simultaneously” and who “reenchants the air” when he speaks. But the narrator drops his smartphone in the hotel sink. He arrives at Thomas’s house with no recording device, a fact he is mysteriously unable to confess.

What unfolds from this dreamlike circumstance is the unforgettable story of the triangle formed by Thomas, Max, and the narrator, and an exploration of fathers and sons, male friendship and rivalry, and the challenges of parenting in a burning world. One of the first great novels about the early days of COVID, it is also a brilliant meditation on those technologies that enrich or impoverish our connection to one another, that store or obliterate memory.

Full of startling insight, but written with the intensity of a séance, Lerner shows us how the air is full of messages, full of ghosts. Ultimately Transcription demonstrates what only a work of fiction can record.

When your life flashes before your eyes, what will matter most?

For Wilbur it was his time with Maggie, the love of his life. Their honeymoon in Venice. Before he threw it all away.

Years later, on the brink of his own death, a train arrives. It can take Wilbur back in time. To relive his most important moments. Soon he realises just how much he would have changed.

An adventure through time, The Midnight Train is a story of love and second chances, from the world of The Midnight Library.

So, I Met This Guy . . .

Well, isn’t that how every love story starts? But how does it end – a happily ever after? Or with the discovery that the supposed love-of-your-life has stolen your life savings and your home, trashed your heart and demolished your self-esteem?

Maggie is barely fifty years-old, and she's not one to give up on herself. So when she meets Flick, a young reporter who realises this story could be the big break she’s been looking for, they set off to catch him as he goes on the run across Europe. After all, she’s got nothing left to lose, right?

But as the pair embark on the road trip of their lives, unexpected twists, hidden secrets and hard truths are revealed. And as an unlikely friendship begins to blossom, they realise it’s not just about finding the guy, it’s about finding themselves . . .

Elara Steyn, ’n navorser aan Stellenbosch Universiteit, besoek Kaap Nyala waar die marine-argeoloog Rowan Carter se duikspan die skeepswrak Eclipse verken. Die span hoop om die kroon van Almani in die wrak te vind.

Elara en Rowan voel aangetrokke tot mekaar, maar albei het bagasie. Die soektog verloop ook nie sonder probleme nie. Smokkelaars soek die kroon vir ’n ryk versamelaar en daar is ’n verraaier in Rowan se span. Al die drama vertroebel die water vir Rowan en Elara.

Sal die liefde oorwin?

Daar is niks wat Leola so ontstel soos bedrog nie, en as dit nie was dat Wian haar vooraf van haar voete af geswiep het nie, sou sy hom baie moeiliker vergewe het toe hy haar werk as veearts in Bloubosch kom oorneem.

Toe Wian se erfhuis in ’n bosbrand vernietig word, nooi Leola hom om tydelik by haar in te trek.

Gou besef sy die “saamblyery” is glad nie goed vir haar siel, verstand of hart nie.

Jong dokters Mia en Dolf word vir drie dae in ’n hysbak vasgevang ná ’n ontploffing. Hulle leer mekaar in daar die put van vrees en pyn ken.

Ná hul redding, neem Dolf se ouers hom Kanada t oe. Mia her stel nog, toe sy uitvind sy is swanger.

Toe hul paaie nege jaar later weer kruis, keer die herinneringe stadig na Mia terug. Maar hoe vertel sy vir haar seuntjie dat sy pa leef? En wat van Dolf wat nie eens weet hy is pa nie?

Samantha, ’n kunstenaar, woon met haar hond op Kruisklipbaai ná haar verloofde se dood. Sy stel glad nie in ’n verhouding belang nie. Staan sy egter ’n kans teen die ernstige man wat haar en Wolf een oggend uit die seestroom red?

Zak het jare gelede besluit om nooit te trou nie, maar dan ontmoet hy vir Samantha en haar hond op die strand. Teen sy sin moet hy herbesin. Kan hy waag om iemand in sy lewe in te laat?

Niekie Rabie is haar moeilike aktrise-suster, Irene, se oorwerkte assistent en val al jare lank vir Irene se miserabele akteur-ekse. Ná haar laaste traumatiese verhouding sweer sy alle mans af.

Toe die aksieheld Ruhan Arendse op die filmstel verskyn, bly Niekie ver uit sy pad, want Irene het die man vir haarself opgeëis. Ruhan laat hom egter nie voorskryf nie en sien Niekie raak in die skadu van haar suster, en ontdek haar talent.

Maar wat is sy motiewe?

Catryn wil nie met ’n ryk wynboer trou nie. Sy wil eerder haar eie kleremaakbesigheid aan die Kaap de Goede Hoop begin.

Claude kom Kaap toe om die hart van sy eertydse minnares, die goewerneur se vrou, terug te wen. Toe hy en Catryn saam die goewerneur se vrou se gesteelde pêrelhalssnoer moet opspoor, spat die vonke. Die verhouding tussen hulle raak al warmer, en skandale dreig.

Sal hulle die vuurproef deurstaan?

Charl bestuur ’n groot vervoerbesigheid en sorg al jare vir sy drie jonger sibbe. Hy het nie tyd vir verhoudings nie, selfs nie vir Renise, sy jeugliefde nie. Tot hy haar een aand gestrand langs ’n gevaarlike pad met ’n stukkende motor vind. Hy moet dringend ’n vrag gaan aflaai en neem haar, ter wille van haar veiligheid, saam met hom.

Renise het ’n donker geheim wat niemand durf uitvind nie, veral nie Charl nie. Sal hul liefde hier die nuwe toets deurstaan?

I'm a 32-year-old sex worker who just killed a politician. Please, please, please turn me into a feminist anti-hero . . .

A 32-year-old sex worker has just killed extremist political hopeful Meat Neck. Holed up in an off-the-grid cabin in the woods, she now has only two days, her wits and a high-speed internet connection to save her own life.

Her best bet is to reach out to the wildly popular feminist investigative podcast Justice for Bimbos. In a hastily-typed series of emails, the newly-minted "Murder Bimbo" explains how she was recruited and then trained by a cabal of code-named US agents to take out Meat Neck.

But, when she starts a new set of emails, this time addressed to her ex-girlfriend, we begin to realize that Murder Bimbo might not be the unsuspecting cog she claims to be.

In a time where 'truth' is more flexible than ever before - who really is Murder Bimbo? And what will she do next?