The perfect novel for anyone who's ever waited for a phone call that didn't come.

Imagine you meet a man, spend seven glorious days together and fall in love. It’s mutual, too: you’ve never been so certain of anything. So, when he leaves for a long-booked holiday and promises to call from the airport, you have no cause to doubt him.

But he doesn’t call.

Your friends tell you to forget him, but you know they're wrong: something must have happened; there must be a reason for his silence.

What do you do when you finally discover you're right? That there is a reason – and that reason is the one thing you didn't share with each other . . . The truth.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties - successful, competent and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father's death, he's medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women - his enduring first love Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude - a period of desire, despair and possibility - a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.

Sheldon Soleskin should be having a horrible day. Even though he’s been unexpectedly transferred to a new school right before the holidays, has only one day to set up his new classroom, and just discovered his twin sister's been hiding an invitation to his ex-boyfriend’s Christmas Eve wedding, he’s still ready to take on the world with a smile on his face and a skip in his step.

Theo Berenson just wants to be left alone to his custodial duties. But when the chipper new first-grade teacher needs help moving furniture the Sunday after Thanksgiving, he's forced to do something he detests ... help. To make matters worse, Theo's overbearing parents are coming for Hanukah in a few weeks, and he's told them he has a boyfriend. Except he doesn't. Because who would want to date an oaf like Theo?

Working together, these opposites discover they might be able to help each other out. Agreeing to be each other’s dates, they become friends as they practice for their upcoming events. But when all the rehearsing starts feeling a little too real, and both men's pasts come roaring back to haunt them, will they be able to pull off the ultimate holiday masquerade?

From Number One bestselling author Sophie Kinsella, an unforgettable story – by turns heartbreaking and life-affirming – of a renowned novelist facing a devastating diagnosis and learning to live and love anew.

Eve is a successful novelist who wakes up one day in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. Her husband, never far from her side, explains that she has had an operation to remove the large, malignant tumour growing in her brain.

As Eve learns to walk, talk, and write again ― and as she wrestles with her diagnosis, and how and when to explain it to her beloved children ― she begins to recall what’s most important to her: long walks with her husband’s hand clasped firmly around her own, family game nights and always buying that dress when she sees it.

Recounted in brief anecdotes, each one is an attempt to answer the type of impossible questions recognizable to anyone navigating the labyrinth of grief. This extraordinary novella is a celebration of life, shot through with warmth and humour – it will both break your heart and put it back together again.

Dis die Desembervakansie van 1983/84. Daar’s troepe in Angola, Lady Di is die mode-ikoon van die dag, Geloftedag word nog met groot toewyding gevier – en vakansie is nie vakansie as daar nie iemand is om die beddens op te maak en die skottelgoed te help was nie. Tebatso, self ’n enkelma van drie kinders (haar man is dood in ’n mynongeluk), is so te sê ’n ekstra lid van die Vrystaatse gesin vir wie sy werk: Sy versorg die vier kinders al van babadae af en ken Mies Engela se susters en hul mans se nukke en grille danksy jare se vakansies op die plaas.

Wanneer die uitgebreide familie besluit om ’n strandhuis te huur vir drie weke oor Desember, kry Tebatso vir die eerste keer in haar lewe die geleentheid om haar geografiese horisonne te verbreed (hoewel die “wit” strand danksy apartheidswetgewing vir haar taboe is en sy eintlik maar min van die see te siene kry). Hierdie algehele wegbreek van haar normale milieu is egter ook ’n soort wegbreek uit haar aanvaarde perspektief: Sy sien vir die eerste keer dat daar ánder maniere is om na die wêreld te kyk as dít wat sy as die norm aanvaar het en leer dat daar oor die kleurgrens heen mense is wat ander gebruik en misbruik – en ook dié wat toelaat dat hulle misbruik wórd.

Sy ontmoet ’n Xhosa-man wat al haar vertroude denkpatrone uitdaag en haar meteens laat wonder oor die geordende wêreldjie waarin sy nog altyd geborge voel … en sy begin deur die linksgesinde Adriaan (wat protesteer as sy hom “baas” noem) besef dat daar ook andersdenkendes onder die wit Afrikaners te vinde is.

Het Heiberg. Die weggooikind wat Verlangekraal se naam sou verewig. Sy het dit gewaag om in opstand te kom teen ’n rigiede skoolsisteem wat geen rebelsheid of individualiteit sou duld nie. Net meneer Doep het tussen haar en die verderflike skoolhoof meneer Erlank gestaan.

Hierdie geliefde en diep menslike verhaal wys vir die eerste keer Het Heiberg se kant van die saak. Wie in haar lewe saak gemaak het en wat in haar gedagtes omgegaan het. Dit vertel bowenal hoe sy oorleef het.

Akbar Manzil was once the grandest residence on South Africa’s east coast near Durban. Nearly a century later, when Sana and her father move to the house, the latest of Akbar Manzil’s long list of tenants, it is in near-ruins, crumbling, shabby and dark. This is a place where people come to forget. Or to be forgotten.

Full of questions about her new home, Sana is drawn to the deserted and eerie east wing, home to a clutter of broken and abandoned objects – and to the locked door at its end, unopened for decades. Soon, Sana begins to discover the tangled, troubling history of the house, awakening the memories of the house itself and dredging up old and terrible secrets that will change the lives of everyone – living and dead – at Akbar Manzil.

Sublime, heart-wrenching and lyrically stunning, The Lost Love of Akbar Manzil is a haunting love story and a mystery, all intertwined beautifully into one young girl’s search for belonging.

Die wonderwêreld van Willem Landman gaan onder andere oor Mintaka, een van drie sterre in Orion se gordel. Dis eintlik tweelingsterre, die een ʼn bloureus, die soldaat, en die ander sagter, vriendeliker. Dit speel op die twee broers in die boek: Alex, meestermanipuleerder en sy afwesige broer, Zander.

Alex het vir hom ʼn aansienlike sakeryk uit gekonkel opgebou. Hy het vir hom ʼn vesting op ʼn koppie gebou nadat hy Bella, die Griekwa-vrou aan wie se familie die grond reeds geslagte behoort, bedrieg en die munispaliteit omgekoop het. Van daar bedryf hy sy sake en daarheen laat kom hy sy “agente”. Hy is magsbehep en ʼn sekspes. Hy is ook psigoties, bossies en vermoedelik skisofrenies.

Die karakter wat die kollig steel, is die titelkarakter, Willem Landman – een van Alex se agente. Lesers het hom leer ken as die sukkelende kulkunstenaar in Die formidabele Ling Ho. Willem is ʼn formidabele bullshitter, ’n stiksienige siener wat moontlik, per ongeluk, wel oor sekere gawes beskik, effens kommin, ongeleerd maar vol planne en ʼn oog vir ʼn gaping. Onrus broei in die gemeenskap en dinge word op die spits gedryf wanneer ’n hele paar agente tegelyk by Alex se vesting byeenkom.

Family is everything, even when it falls apart.

There is a heatwave across Europe. Goose and his three sisters gather at the family's house by Lake Orta in Piedmont, Italy. Their father, a famous artist, has recently remarried a much younger woman and decamped to Italy to finish his masterpiece. Now he is dead and there is no sign of a painting.

Although the siblings have always been close, as they search for answers over that summer, the things they learn - about themselves, their father and their new stepmother - will drive them apart before they can come to any kind of understanding of what their father's legacy truly is.

Extraordinarily compelling, at heart this is a novel about sibling relationships and those hairline cracks that can appear within a family: what what happens when they splinter, and what it would take to mend them.

One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…

His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance – or has he? He visits the local coffeehouse, where ninety-two pencil portraits hang on the walls, portraits by a local artist of the people of Golden. He begins purchasing them, one at a time, and putting them back in the hands of their 'rightful owners'. With each exchange, a story is told, a friendship born, and a life altered.

A story of seeing and being seen, Theo of Golden is a beautifully crafted novel about the power of creative generosity, the importance of wonder to a purposeful life, and the invisible threads of kindness that bind us to one another.

Originally published in 2023.

Gentle giant Florian Herscht is an orphan, adopted by a neo-Nazi who has apprenticed him as a graffiti cleaner. The Boss, a Bach fanatic, is enraged that someone is spraying wolf emblems across the monuments to the famed composer in their east German town. He is determined to punish the culprit and Florian has no choice but to join his gang as they devise a plan to catch him. But Florian has bigger things to worry about: having attended Herr Köhler's adult education classes in physics, he can see that the world might end at any moment.

Written in one cascading sentence with the power of atomic particles colliding, Krasznahorkai's novel is a tour de force, a moving character study, a blistering satire and devastating encapsulation of our helplessness at the moral and environmental dilemmas we face today.

"Feel-good, laugh out loud funny, yet also deeply moving..." "The way Grace has written about her mental health issues and woven it around the story is inspirational and will strike a chord with many readers" The comical tales of a new mum on her journey from post-natal depression to the dawning of her self-worth as she discovers adventure, friendship and the healing power of horses. Join Grace as she battles her negative thought patterns and fears amongst a backdrop of eccentric characters, pampered farm animals and the glorious Yorkshire countryside. Wisdom comes from unexpected sources leading Grace to a psychological and spiritual awakening of the true meaning of motherhood. While an elderly, opinionated pony teaches her how to love her daughter, a scary young sports horse teaches her how to relax and enjoy life again. Just watch out for the goats... For fans of James Herriot and Ruby Ferguson's Jill books, The Yard is a hilarious and heart-warming, joy to read.

There’s a hierarchy to fame – from the Real Celebs who sell their skills as actors and singers, to the Professionally Pretty (the garnish to any occasion), the Hashtag Hustlers, who range from influencers to the social media savvy, to the Hopeless Hangers-On. Everyone has their place in the ecosystem, and knowing your place in that hierarchy is half the fame game won.

For three young women in Joburg, the new age of internet celebrity presents them with obstacles, opportunities, opulence and a chance at fame, fortune and fierce fashion.

LIN
Through sheer ambition and force of will, Lin has rebranded her entire existence. She’s shrugged off her past to fully embrace a new identity: Linfluencer, the high-end influencer whose Outfits Of The Day are obsessively followed by every budding fashionista with a blossoming social media addiction.

LEBO
Then there’s Lebo, who has only ever known a life of fame – real fame – as the former child prodigy behind TV phenomenon Sedi Star. Everyone grew up watching her every move, but now, as she’s grown up, the work, roles and offers have evaporated. But her penchant for scandal, controversy and social media squabbles have kept her in the headlines.

MBALI
And finally there’s South Africa’s reigning Queen of Gossip: Mbali. The entertainment site she runs with an iron fist is known for breaking the hottest news – and the odd celebrity career. With the Hashtag Hustle threatening her media empire, how will she continue to keep her readers enthralled?

As Lin, Lebo and Mbali jostle to take their places in the fame hierarchy, their ambitions, aspirations and agendas collide. Their wins and woes not only affect one another, but can mean that they either individually rise or collectively crumble. Will Lin’s past threaten her future? Will Lebo’s (self-)sabotage prevent her return to the top? Will Mbali’s reign as the Queen of Gossip continue – or reach a dead end? The choices they make can balance or break their entire ecosystem.

Die winde van politieke verandering waai oor Hamerplein – daar waar die forse beeld van Raadslid Hamersma nou al so lank die rigting aanwys. Dit dwarrel oor die rivier, oor die skeidslyne van die verlede; pluk aan al wat ’n hoë boom is en laat ewe veel stof opstyg uit prominente posisies en obskure hoekies: Die burgemeester. Marumo. Snor de Beer. Rian Roux. Kryg Roelofse. John Oudemann. Bos Fourie. Mal Mary. Maryville. Die Wishbone. Die kloktoring …

Tien jaar later moet die joernalis Wessel Wessels ’n storie aanmekaarsit uit die legkaartstukkies van dié revolusie in die kleine, en leer hy vinnig dat dit nie noodwendig demokrasie is wat die dorpsinwoners tot vrees of stilswye gedwing het nie; dis eerder die pad soontoe en terug wat die probleem is.

’n Slim, boeiende satire oor ’n land wat Suid-Afrika kon wees (maar nie noodwendig is nie) – en karakters wat jou bure kon wees (as hulle nie so pynlik op jouself getrek het nie).

You knew I’d write a book about you someday.

Our narrator understands good love stories—their secrets and subtext, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the simple rules.

In the fall of her senior year of college, she meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off campus in the elegant house of a professor on sabbatical, the boys invite her into their intoxicating world of academic fervor, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and she quickly discovers the pleasures of friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition. But youthful passion is unpredictable, and soon she finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. As graduation comes and goes, choices made will alter these three lives forever.

Decades later, the vulnerable days of Jordan's youth seem comfortably behind her. But when a surprise visit and unexpected news bring the past crashing into the present, she returns to a world she left behind and must confront the decisions and deceptions of her younger self.

Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans and critics of Lily King have come to adore, Heart the Lover is a deeply moving love story that celebrates literature, forgiveness, and the transformative bonds that shape our lives. Wise, unforgettable, and with a delightful connective thread to Writers & Lovers, this is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.

This contemporary twist on Brief Encounter is a tender meditation on what might have been.

A summer's evening in Manhattan. Nothing - not cold drinks, not showers not a stroll through the chilly aisles of an all-night drugstore - can undo the heat's hold on the city. Julian is half watching the evening news, his husband filling the dishwasher. That's when it arrives. An email with the subject line: 'From Paul Axel'. An email about a dead man from Carol - a woman Julian has never met. Paul has left a message he'd like her to relay.

Emails are exchanged. Morning coffee at the Bryant Park Grill is agreed. Carol, fulfilling Paul's final request, wonders how she will tell Julian of a life - and a love - he has no idea existed. A life, encased in a flash drive, containing multitudes.