From the shadows. A new evil will rise. Faceless. Nameless.

Since his appointment as Nomarch of Memphis, by the God-Pharaoh Rameses, Piay has thrown himself into pulling the city back from the brink. The famous white city walls have been rebuilt, the once starving inhabitants fed and every day caravans have arrived from the desert wastes, filled with the many riches looted and hidden by the Hyksos. But when the body of a murdered scribe is found sealed inside the newly constructed city vault - the mark of Anubis, god of death, scrawled next to him in his own blood - panic sweeps the city. Only the wisest man in all Egypt can solve this mystery - Piay's mentor, the great sage Taita.

Called from his place at the God-Pharaoh Rameses' side, Taita's arrival in Memphis calms the populace, but it isn't long before the mark of Anubis appears again, and again. Taita and Piay are drawn into a battle of wits against a criminal mastermind turned warlord, his aim - with the demise of the Hyksos - to see the kingdom of the Red Pretender restored and the forces of Rameses crushed.

Will everything that Taita has fought for be torn asunder? Or will he and Piay finally reunite the two kingdoms? Only time will tell. And time is running out.

Book 4 in The New Kingdom Sequence and book 10 in the Ancient Egyptian series from the master historical adventure writer, Wilbur Smith.

It is the First World War and Susan Nell stands before the door of a private ward in a British military hospital. On the door she reads a single name. She knows that name. Sixteen years ago, during the Anglo-Boer War, she encountered that name in a concentration camp in Winburg. She lifts her hand to open the door. Her hand shakes uncontrollably. But she is a psychiatric nurse and this is what she has to do, bring traumatised soldiers back to the light. However, if this soldier is the one who sixteen years ago thrust all light out of you with his hips, it is not that obvious. Susan Nell hesitates before she opens the door, desperately uncertain – teetering on the threshold between life and death.

In The Camp Whore the resilience of the human spirit is weighed up against the equally persistent influence of trauma. It is a psychological thriller that will hold you in its icy grip till the very last page.

A powerful historical drama about a young woman’s fight to chart her own destiny, challenging norms for women of the time, from billion-copy bestselling author Danielle Steel.

Born in Paris in 1900, at the dawn of a new century, Alexandra Bouvier was raised believing that, with hard work and dedication, she can achieve anything. But when World War One erupts across Europe, coupled with the fast-spreading Spanish flu, Alex’s world is upended, and by age eighteen, she has already suffered unimaginable losses.

Bravely setting sail for a new life in America, Alex is taken in by her last living relative, her American grandfather. He owns a small but respected Illinois newspaper, and agrees with her modern ideas, despite the restrictions imposed on women of the time.

With his support, Alex attends university and her journalistic talent secures her an internship with a New York newspaper, where she meets crime reporter Oliver Foster. The two are drawn to each other, though both fear any attachment, and Alex is determined to remain true to her ambitions.

By doing so, Alex is not only following her own dreams, but changing history for other women of her day, and all those who will come after her.

Leilah meets Frankie, and the two misfits become the closest of friends at their new school – until secrets, betrayal, and sexuality drive them apart…

It’s 1997, three years after the official end of Apartheid in South Africa. Two girls from very different backgrounds, Leilah, who is mixed race, and Frankie, who is white, are drawn together when they start at a new school, one that remains racially divided despite the country’s new laws. Their friendship deepens and intensifies before suddenly falling apart when each tells the other a secret. The girls must grapple with young womanhood alone, leaving Leila with only her troubled family to fall back on.

Glass Tower is a powerful, beautiful story of two young people on a journey of sexual hurt and personal discovery which asks questions of who we are and why we love, set against a new and confusing social order.

Inspired by true events, a thrilling Depression-era novel from the author of The Librarian of Burned Books about a woman’s quest to uncover a mystery surrounding a local librarian and the Boxcar Library—a converted mining train that brought books to isolated rural towns in Montana.

When Works Progress Administration (WPA) editor Millie Lang finds herself on the wrong end of a potential political scandal, she’s shipped off to Montana to work on the state’s American Guide Series—travel books intended to put the nation’s destitute writers to work.

Millie arrives to an eclectic staff claiming their missed deadlines are due to sabotage, possibly from the state’s powerful Copper Kings who don’t want their long and bloody history with union organizers aired for the rest of the country to read. But Millie begins to suspect that the answer might instead lie with the town’s mysterious librarian, Alice Monroe.

More than a decade earlier, Alice Monroe created the Boxcar Library in order to deliver books to isolated mining towns where men longed for entertainment and connection. Alice thought she found the perfect librarian to staff the train car in Colette Durand, a miner’s daughter with a shotgun and too many secrets behind her eyes.

Now, no one in Missoula will tell Millie why both Alice and Colette went out on the inaugural journey of the Boxcar Library, but only Alice returned.

The three women’s stories dramatically converge in the search to uncover what someone is so desperately trying to hide: what happened to Colette Durand.

Inspired by the fascinating, true history of Missoula’s Boxcar Library, the novel blends the story of the strong, courageous women who survived and thrived in the rough and rowdy West with that of the power of standing together to fight for workers’ lives. And through it all shines the capacity of books to provide connection and light to those who need it most.

’n Nuwe lewe wag op hom

In 1939 bars die oorlogbom in Europa. Drie miljoen kinders word uit London ontruim na veiliger gebiede. Een van hulle is die sesjarige Charles Smith, op pad na ’n onbekende tante van sy pa in ’n klein dorpie in Skotland. By aunty Grace wag ’n nuwe lewe op hom.

Aan die anderkant van Europa ruk die Duitse Sesde Leër op teen Rusland. Tussen die manskappe is die vurige majoor Oswald von Stein, Hildegard se stiefseun. Voor hulle wag die Russiese winter, Stalingrad en die krygsgevangenekampe van Siberië. 90 000 word gevange geneem, net sesduisend oorleef.

Charles en Oswald beleef teenoorgestelde kante van die oorlog. Beide bevind hulself egter op pad na ’n plaas in Afrika waar hul paaie sal kruis met dié van Seretse Khama en Mentje de Vries.

Florence, the 1560s. Lucrezia, third daughter of Cosimo de' Medici, is free to wander the palazzo at will, wondering at its treasures and observing its clandestine workings. But when her older sister dies on the eve of marriage to Alfonso d'Este, ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father to accept on her behalf.

Having barely left girlhood, Lucrezia must now make her way in a troubled court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate her appears before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?

As Lucrezia sits in uncomfortable finery for the painting which is to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court's eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferrarese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, her future hangs entirely in the balance.

Tijs Velaat is gebore op die plaas Grootgeluk in die distrik Oudtshoorn. As dit nie was vir die ongeluk met die treppie toe hy sestien word nie, het sy lewenslot dalk gelyk soos dié van die ander werksmense op die plaas. Maar ’n mens wat weet hoe om stom te wees, kry soms die hef in die hand. Tot baas Anneries weet nie aldag hoe hy dit het met Hessie se klong nie.

Tijs en sy mame woon naby die Schoemans se opstal, so naby dat hy snags die honde kan hoor snork. Hy is getuie van als wat reg én verkeerd loop op die werf: Nooi Hendrien se jaloesie wanneer Maria haar pa se guns wen, die dag toe Maria die Skotse beeldhouer ontmoet, en al die verkeerde paaie daarna. Miskien as Tijs nooit die skilpad op sy dop gekeer het nie, kon daar minder kronkels op die pad gewees het: op syne, én Maria en die Skot, én nooi Hendrien s’n.

Hierdie historiese roman speel af in ’n onstuimige era: die 1850’s tot 1914. Twee vertellers is aan die woord: Tijs Velaat en Hendrien, Andries Schoeman se vrou.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author writes a sweeping World War II love story about a young woman torn between two brothers.

In 1941, beautiful Irvel Holland is too focused on her secret to take much notice of the war raging overseas. She’s dating Sam but in love with his younger brother, Hank—her longtime best friend—and Irvel has no idea how to break the news. Then the unthinkable happens—Pearl Harbor is attacked. With their lives turned upside down overnight, Sam is drafted and convinces Hank to remain in Indiana, where he and Irvel take up the battle on the home front.

While Sam fights in Europe, an undeniable chemistry builds between Irvel and Hank but neither would dare cross that line. Then, two military leaders pay Irvel a visit at the classroom where she teaches. The men have plans for her, a proposition to join a new spy network. One catch: She can tell no one.

With Irvel caught between two brothers thousands of miles apart, can love find a way, even from the ashes of the greatest heartbreak?

The captivating new novel from the internationally-bestselling author of The Dictionary of Lost Words.

'Your job is to bind the books, not read them.'

When the men of Oxford University Press leave for the Western Front, Peggy, her twin sister Maude and their friends in the bookbindery must shoulder the burden at home. As Peggy moves between her narrowboat full of memories and the demands of the Press, her dreams of studying feel ever more remote. She must know her place, fold her pages and never stop to savour the precious words in front of her.

From volunteer nurses to refugees fleeing the horrors of occupation, the war brings women together from all walks of life, and with them some difficult choices for Peggy. New friends and lovers offer new opportunities, but they also make new demands - and Peggy must write her own story.

In 1900 reis die Britse dokter Oliver Glenville na Deelfontein in die Karoo om by ’n Britse veldhospitaal vir offisiere aan te sluit. Daar beland beseerde Britse soldate én Boerekrygers op sy operasietafel.

Klara Grootboom, ’n skoonmaker, rig ’n versoek aan hom wat teen sy beginsels indruis, maar dis asof sy hom in ’n vangnet van haar eie het.

Meer as ’n honderd jaar later skep ’n opkomende Kaapse kunstenaar ’n uitstalling uit Deelfontein se gegewens en ontdek ’n onverwagse familieband . . .

Based on the true story of two girls who fall secretly, deeply, and dangerously in love at boarding school in 19th century York, Learned by Heart is a heartbreakingly gorgeous novel from the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder.

Drawing on years of investigation and Anne Lister’s five-million-word secret journal, Learned by Heart is the long-buried love story of Eliza Raine, an orphan heiress banished from India to England at age six, and Anne Lister, a brilliant, troublesome tomboy, who meet at the Manor School for young ladies in York in 1805 when they are both fourteen.

Emotionally intense, psychologically compelling, and deeply researched, Learned by Heart is an extraordinary work of fiction by one of the world’s greatest storytellers. Full of passion and heartbreak, the tangled lives of Anne Lister and Eliza Raine form a love story for the ages.

Dirk Aruseb was seventeen years old when Abraham Morris fetched him from the Pella orphanage to join the Bondelswarts. Dirk couldn’t wait to conquer the accursed Schutztruppe alongside legendary Kaptein Jakob Marengo, successor to Hendrik Witbooi and Jonker Afrikaner. But when he arrived at Schansvlakte deep in Namaland, Dirk was warned that he first had to master many life skills before he could join the war: be humble, be patient, be merciful. Find your eland, tame your butcherbird.

But for Dirk war was an adventure – as long as he could kill the German enemy, he was content. It didn’t matter what commander Nana Kruiper, or Klara Morris, her second in command, tried to teach him: that the liberation struggle of the Bondelswarts meant more than protecting Namaland – their promised land – at all costs.

Crimson Sands is set in Namaland – from German-South-West Africa to the Cape Colony – from 1904 to 1922, when thousands of Bondelswarts were shot down by Jan Smuts’s fighter planes. It is an epic, panoramic war novel, traversing southern Africa from Tsumeb to Upington, from internment camps in Windhuk to the dry riverbeds of the Fish River Canyon. Jeremy Vearey conjures a mesmerising tale across an arid landscape of sand, shrub and dune, evoking voices and stories long gone.

An unforgettable historical debut set in Second World War Brussels: exploring love, resistance and courage in all their forms.

Charlotte Sauvin has always seen the world differently. At home on 33 Place Brugmann, in the heart of Brussels, her father and her closest friends and neighbours – the Raphaëls from the fourth floor, and Masha from the fifth – have ensured her secret is safe. But when the Nazis invade Belgium, and Masha and the Raphaëls disappear, Charlotte must navigate her new world alone.

Over the border and across the sea, in occupied Paris and battered Blitz London, Masha and the Raphaels are reinventing themselves – as refugees, nurses, soldiers, heroes. Though scattered far and wide, they dream of only one place, one home: 33 Place Brugmann.

But back at Place Brugmann, Charlotte feels impending danger closing in. Who can she trust in this world - where everyone is watching, and everyone is harbouring their own secrets? As the months pass, and the shadow of war darkens, Charlotte and her neighbours must face what – and who – truly matters to them most – and summon the courage to fight for more than just survival.

With soaring imagination and profound intimacy, 33 Place Brugmann is a captivating and devastating celebration of the power of love, courage and art in times of great threat.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Henna Artist, this sweeping novel of identity and self-discovery takes readers from Bombay to Prague, Florence, Paris and London, to uncover the mystery behind a famous painter's death.

When renowned painter Mira Novak arrives at Wadia hospital in Bombay after a miscarriage, she's expected to make a quick recovery, and her nurse, Sona, is excited to learn more about the vivacious artist who shares her half-Indian identity. Sona, yearning for a larger life, finds herself carried away by Mira's stories of her travels and exploits and is shocked by accounts of the many lovers the painter has left scattered throughout Europe. When Mira dies quite suddenly and mysteriously, Sona falls under suspicion, and her quiet life is upended.

The key to proving Sona's innocence may lie in a cryptic note and four paintings Mira left in her care, sending the young woman on a mission to visit the painter's former friends and lovers across a tumultuous Europe teetering toward war. On the precipice of discovering her own identity, Sona learns that the painter's charming facade hid a far more complicated, troubled soul.

In her first stand-alone novel since her bestselling debut, The Henna Artist, Alka Joshi uses the life of painter Amrita Sher-Gil, the "Frida Kahlo of India," as inspiration for the story's beginning to explore how far we'll travel to determine where we truly belong.

Shortlisted for The Booker Prize 2024

Enthralling and ferociously funny, James by Percival Everett is a profound meditation on identity, belonging and the sacrifices we make to protect the ones we love. It is also a bold reimagining of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as the enslaved Jim emerges to reclaim his voice and defy the conventions that have consigned him to the margins.

The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a plan.

Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town. Thus begins a dangerous and transcendent journey by raft along the Mississippi River, towards the elusive promise of the free states and beyond. As James and Huck navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise.

With rumours of a brewing war, James must face the burden he carries: the family he is desperate to protect and the constant lie he must live. And together, the unlikely pair embark on the most dangerous, and life-changing, odyssey of them all . . .

Oorlog verswelg die Boererepubliek. Huise word verwoes, landery word verbrand, en vroue en kinders in konsentrasiekampe aangehou.

Pieter Nel lei ’n kommando bittereinders in ’n desperate opstand teen die Britse ryk. Hulle offer alles op vir ’n vrede wat dalk nooit gaan kom nie, vir ’n huis wat hulle dalk nooit weer gaan sien nie.

Intussen moet Katrina Nel baklei om haarself en hul kinders aan die lewe te hou namate die toestande in die konsentrasiekampe al hoe hagliker word. Hier word haar lewe onlosmaaklik vervleg met dié van die ander vroue, die hanskakies wat die vyand help om die kampe te bestuur, en die Engelse offisier wat haar hart wil wen.

Wag daar lewe of liefde anderkant die oorlog?

From a brilliant Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author: a rollicking murder mystery set in Gold Rush California, as two young prostitutes follow a trail of missing girls.

Monterey, 1851. Ever since her husband was killed in a bar fight, Eliza Ripple has been working in a brothel. It seems like a better life, at least at first. The madam, Mrs. Parks, is kind, the men are (relatively) well behaved, and Eliza has attained what few women have: financial security. But when the dead bodies of young women start appearing outside of town, a darkness descends that she can't resist confronting. Side by side with her friend Jean, and inspired by her reading, especially by Edgar Allan Poe's detective Dupin, Eliza pieces together an array of clues to try to catch the killer, all the while juggling clients who begin to seem more and more suspicious.

Eliza and Jean are determined not just to survive, but to find their way in a lawless town on the fringes of the Wild West - a bewitching combination of beauty and danger - as what will become the Civil War looms on the horizon.

As Mrs. Parks says, 'Everyone knows that this is a dangerous business, but between you and me, being a woman is a dangerous business, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise . . .'

Op Broedersdraai tree vier susters aan vir ’n stille skermutseling. Dit is 1945. In Europa woed die Tweede Wêreldoorlog; in Suid-Afrika die stryd tussen Sap en Nat, tussen die Rooilissies en die Ossewabrandwag.

Ivy, die jongste, smag na ʼn onbevange lewe, ʼn ander werklikheid waarin haar liefde vir ʼn vrou aanvaarbaar sal wees. Sy skaar haar by die Stormjaers wat Smuts en sy oorlog in die wiele probeer ry.

Sophié staan by die regering; haar eggenoot se ambisie en loopbaan hang daarvan af.

Beatrice hunker na haar man, al het sy hom doodgewens.

Terwyl elkeen die struwinge van die tyd aan eie lyf ervaar, is dit Kietie wat verder as haar drie susters sien.

Maar dit is die koms van Domenico Valente, ’n Italiaanse krygsgevangene, wat die spanning op die spits dryf.

Gerda Taljaard se Vier susters is ’n priemende roman wat die tradisies van beide die historiese en die plaasroman omkeer.

From bestselling South African author Penny Haw comes a new historical fiction tale inspired by the story of groundbreaking paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey, in a sweeping, dual-timeline story of intergenerational friendship, a meditation on the beauty of the natural world, and a celebration of the women who pave the way for those to come.

It's 1983 and seventeen-year-old Grace Clark has just lost her mother when she begrudgingly accompanies her estranged father to an archeological dig at Olduvai Gorge on the Serengeti plains of Tanzania. Here, seventy-year-old Mary Leakey enlists Grace to sort and pack her fifty years of work and memories.

Their interaction reminds Mary how she pursued her ambitions of becoming an archeologist in the 1930s by sneaking into lectures and working on excavations. When well-known paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey commissions her to illustrate a book, she's not at all expecting to fall in love with the older married man. Mary then follows Louis to East Africa, where she falls in love for a second time, this time with the Olduvai Gorge, where her work defines her as a great scientist and allows her to step out of Louis's shadow.

In time, Mary and Grace learn they are more alike than they thought, which eventually leads them to the secret that connects them. They also discover a mutual deep love for animals, and when Lisa, an injured cheetah, appears at camp, Mary and Grace work together to save her. On the morning Grace is due to leave, the girl―and the cheetah―are nowhere to be found, and it becomes a race against time to rescue Grace before the African bush claims her.

From the acclaimed author of The Invincible Miss Cust and The Woman at Wheel comes an adventurous, dual timeline tale that explores the consequences of our choices, wisdom that comes with retrospection, and relationships that make us who we are, based on the extraordinary real life of Mary Leakey.

When renowned painter Mira Novak arrives at Wadia hospital in Bombay after a miscarriage, she's expected to make a quick recovery, and her nurse, Sona, is excited to learn more about the vivacious artist who shares her half-Indian identity. Sona, yearning for a larger life, finds herself carried away by Mira's stories of her travels and exploits and is shocked by accounts of the many lovers the painter has left scattered throughout Europe. When Mira dies quite suddenly and mysteriously, Sona falls under suspicion, and her quiet life is upended.
 
The key to proving Sona's innocence may lie in a cryptic note and four paintings Mira left in her care, sending the young woman on a mission to visit the painter's former friends and lovers across a tumultuous Europe teetering toward war. On the precipice of discovering her own identity, Sona learns that the painter's charming facade hid a far more complicated, troubled soul.
 
In her first stand-alone novel since her bestselling debut, The Henna Artist, Alka Joshi uses the life of painter Amrita Sher-Gil, the "Frida Kahlo of India," as inspiration for the story's beginning to explore how far we'll travel to determine where we truly belong.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel delivers an exciting and moving historical novel about a courageous wife and mother hiding in occupied France.

In July 1944, Arielle von Auspeck arrives at the glamorous Hotel Ritz in occupied Paris. Half French, half German, she is happy to be back in France, where her husband, Gregor, a retired colonel, will join her soon from Germany. Arielle and Gregor have thus far been able to hide their private opposition to Hitler.

Then her world falls apart. She receives word that Gregor was part of Operation Valkyrie, a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in Poland, and has been shot as a traitor. Now, holding a French passport handed to her by another high-level collaborator, she is whisked away from Paris under cover of darkness for her own safety.

As the Allies storm the beaches, she goes into hiding in a small village in Normandy under an assumed name, unable to contact her adult children. There, she forms a friendship with Sebastien Renaud, whose wife and daughter were deported in 1941, and who eventually reveals himself as a forger in the Resistance. As war rages on, Arielle and Sebastien work for the Resistance and hold out for the time when they can search for their loved ones.

In Far From Home, Danielle Steel captures the devastation of World War II with a sweeping story of family love that transcends impossible odds.

"In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days. Only I know the truth of her disappearance. I'm no Hercule Poirot. I'm her husband's mistress."

Agatha Christie's world is one of glamorous society parties, country house weekends, and growing literary fame. Nan O'Dea's world is something very different. Her attempts to escape a tough London upbringing during the Great War led to a life in Ireland marred by a hidden tragedy. After fighting her way back to England, she's set her sights on Agatha. Because Agatha Christie has something Nan wants. And it's not just her husband.

Despite their differences, the two women will become the most unlikely of allies. And during the mysterious eleven days that Agatha goes missing, they will unravel a dark secret that only Nan holds the key to...

The Christie Affair is a stunning novel which reimagines the unexplained eleven-day disappearance of Agatha Christie in 1926 that captivated the world.

October 1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in Shropshire as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her shoulders. Meanwhile, when rumours of a 'fallen angel' cause a frenzy across London, a surgeon desperate for fame and fortune finds himself in the grips of a dangerous obsession, one that will place the women he seeks in the most terrible danger.

The Gifts is the astonishing debut adult novel from the lauded author of Bearmouth.

A gripping and ambitious book told through five different perspectives and set against the luminous backdrop of nineteenth century London, it explores science, nature and religion, enlightenment, the role of women in society and the dark danger of ambition.

In die somer van 1838 vertrek die Voortrekkerleier Piet Retief en sowat 100 man na die Zoeloekoning Dingaan om oor grond vir die trekkers te onderhandel. In die laer by Doornkop wag sy vrou Magdalena op hulle terugkeer. Die afloop van hierdie sending na Dingaan is wyd opgeteken as die Slag van Bloedrivier.

Byna 180 jaar later is Hanna op soek na wat ook al Magdalena nagelaat het. Vroeg in hierdie soektog loop Hanna haar vas in ’n plaasmoord waarvoor sy nie antwoorde het nie. Bitter min is bekend oor Magdalena en haar lewe ná 1838, buiten haar brief in 1841 aan haar skoonfamilie. In Pietermaritzburg staan haar huisie vandag nog, nou ’n klerewinkel.

Kort voor haar dood in 1854 besoek ’n handelaar haar in Potchefstroom en staan in sy boek ’n paragraaf aan haar af.

Al wat ons het, is vandag en elke mens vertel ’n storie anders. Van ver af is niks soos dit vir ons lyk nie.

“Bloedlelie is ’n merkwaardige en belangrike roman uit die pen van ’n vaardige, gesoute skrywer. Verskriklike en weersinwekkende gebeure sowel as hedendaagse politieke kompleksiteite en strydpunte word met ’n seker hand uitgebeeld. Tegelykertyd is hierdie roman die verhaal van Magdalena Retief, die grootliks onbesonge vrou van Pieter Mauritz Retief.” - Helene de Kock