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.

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.

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.

’n Nuwe uitgawe van die geliefde roman, wenner van die ATKV-prys vir Liefdesromans.

Die Tweede Wêreldoorlog verdeel die wêreld, dit skeur gesinne uitmekaar. Binne hierdie milieu maak ons kennis met De Wet en Klara, Gerbrand en Christine – jongmense met drome en aspirasies wat elkeen op ’n unieke manier deur die oorlog beïnvloed word.

Wanneer ’n Italiaanse krygsgevangene op die Fouries se Bosveldplaas ’n klipbrug oor die Nyl moet kom bou, ontmoet hy vir Klara en vind in haar ’n geesgenoot . . .

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.

Dirk Aruseb was sewentien toe Abraham Morris hom uit die Pella-weeshuis kom haal het om by die Bondelswarts aan te sluit. By Schansvlakte begin die eerste van Dirk se lewenslesse: wees nederig, geduldig, en genadig. Vind jou eland, tem jou janfiskaal.

Rooisand speel af in Namaland – van Duits-Suidwes-Afrika tot die Kaapkolonie – vanaf 1904 tot 1922. Dit is ’n epiese oorlogsroman wat strek van Tsumeb tot Upington, van Windhuk se interneringskampe tot die droë rivierlope van die Visrivier.

’n Deernisvolle roman oor die kronkelpaaie van die lewe en die liefde. Marco Romanelli, ’n Italianer wat in ’n konsentrasiekamp was, gaan woon in 1948 om gesondheidsredes in die Bosveld. Daar ontmoet hy vir dr. Lettie Viljoen. Die liefde blom tussen hulle . . . maar dan breek die polio-epidemie van die jare vyftig uit.

South Africa, 1899 - the smouldering hostility between the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State and the British colonies of the Cape and Natal is about to burst into flame. War is coming and no one can prevent it.

Colonel Penrod Ballantyne, hero of Abu Klea and Omdurman, is sent to Mafeking, 'the place of stones', to recruit and train men for the fighting ahead. Amber, his wife, the successful novelist, accompanies him - eager to see more of the country her husband is about to risk his life for. But when war is declared, Amber must flee with their baby son and pray for her husband's survival against impossible odds.

Eight hundred miles to the south, in Cape Town, Ryder Courtney - adventurer, maverick, industrialist - is using his wealth and connections to bankroll the British war effort. His artist wife Saffron, frustrated by stuffy Cairo society, has joined him with their three children. There is peace in the Courtney household, or so Saffron believes, until their eldest son, Leon, stows away on a train to the front line, determined to join his distinguished uncle, Penrod Ballantyne, in changing the course of history. Saffron and Ryder have no choice but to leave the safety of the Cape Colony and follow. Leon is convinced that his parents are without honour and courage. Little does he realise that he has no chance of escaping the people they used to be.

Two families torn apart, caught up in a battle for the heart of a country at war with itself.

Fourie, or Fury as he is known by the British, is among the most wanted of men. Rose, an English beauty pursued by an officer intent on capturing Fury, finds herself in a precarious position. Bound by a love that cannot be denied and separated by a war intent on destroying them, Rose and Fury find ways to meet and the line between patriotism and treachery becomes blurred.

From the greed and horror of the Anglo-Boer War, to the misery and death of the concentration camps and the bravery on the battlefield, comes a story of indominable courage that will hold you captive to the very end.

This is a story that weaves fictional characters into actual events that occurred during the second Anglo Boer War, without in any way modifying the role of real people involved or altering the actual outcome of historical events. Only the first battle scene is entirely fictional; all others are as recorded in history.

Twyfelbos is ’n meesleurende historiese roman wat afspeel in die Overberge in die vroeë agtienhonderds.

Sophia Truter is getroud met sir John Truter. Sy het ’n afkeer van die Kaap se vertoonsug, en ná die dood van haar jongste seun besluit sy om weer te gaan boer. Dié keer begin sy klein, op ’n lap grond anderkant die Kleinrivier – sonder slawe en voormans.

Algaande vind Sophia haar voete. Maar dan word iemand op die bokpad anderkant die Akkedisberg vermoor.

Ruru’s father, Phaks, joined the anti-apartheid struggle in exile before she was born but never returned, preferring to stay in Tanzania. Years later, though he has passed away, Ruru goes in search of signs of his life in his adopted country.

She finds it in his widow and his ‘pillow books’ – journals he kept, coming to terms with his mortality.

Struck by the parallels with her teenage letters to her late mother, she reads to find answers to her questions: Who was he? Why did he not return?

BLOED/BLUT is ’n historiese roman wat in Berlyn, hoofstad van Duitsland, afspeel gedurende 1933, toe Hitler kanselier geword het, tot 1938, amper net voor die uitbreek van die Tweede Wêreldoorlog.

Die liefde oorbrug alles. Helmut, ’n jong Duitser en seun van ’n Duitse generaal, raak verlief op die beeldskone donkerkop Rut, Jodin en dogter van ’n bekende rabbi. Helmut is ’n informant van die gevreesde Gestapo. Hy doen dit noodgedwonge om sy gay broer teen vervolging te probeer beskerm. Die Gestapo is die oë en die ore van die Duitsers wat die Jode haat en bloedvermenging tussen eg Ariese Duitsers en untermensch, die Jood, wat nie as menswaardig beskou is nie, verbied. Oortreding van hierdie wet is ten sterkste veroordeel en kon selfs later met die dood gestraf word. Ironies dat Rut se suster met opregte katte teel en probeer om die bloedlyn suiwer te hou. Sal die talle kerke in Duitsland en die groot wêreldmoondhede daarbuite die vasgekeerde Jode, wat nou afgesonder, bespot, verneder, wreed vervolg, verarm en selfs vermoor word, kan help?

En wat van die verliefde Rut en Helmut... die Jode is tog mos die uitverkore volk van God? Het die donker voorspellings van die eeue oue profete oor die Jode, dan nou uiteindelik waar geword?

Marinda van Zyl is daarvoor bekend dat sy onverkende gebeure in die geskiedenis ontgin en dit verweef in verhale waarvan die karakters en hulle lotgevalle ’n mens bybly. Rooiborslaksman is ’n welkome opvolg op Van Zyl se die epiese historiese roman Amraal.

In Rooiborslaksman word die negentiende­eeuse konflik met die Herero’s en Duitsers in die destydse Suidwes­Afrika vervleg met die lewensverhale van Liesbet Lambert (Amraal Lambert se laatlam) wat wees gelaat word tydens die pokke­epidemie en Frederik Vlermuis vir wie Gobabis se kerktoring soos die spierwit pendoring van die kameeldoringboom lyk waaraan die rooiborslaksman genadeloos sy prooi ryg.

Verliesfontein was beoog as die eerste roman in die drieluik Stemme, maar is laaste voltooi. Net soos die ander twee titels, Hierdie lewe en Die uur van die engel, handel dié roman van Schoeman oor die Suid-Afrikaanse verlede. Hier is die sentrale gegewe die inval van die Vrystaatse kommando’s in die Kaapkolonie in die somer van 1900–1901, tydens die Anglo-Boereoorlog.

A retelling of one of literature's great novels, Oliver Twist, from the point of view of Nancy, one of the most sympathetic, most maligned and most tragic of Dickens's characters. For readers of The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks.

Nancy has spent her whole life on the vibrant and gritty streets of Victorian London, first as one of Fagin's child pickpockets and now on the arm of violent and mercurial Bill Sikes. Nancy does what she must to get by. She's attuned to the harsh realities of life, but also knows how to find moments of beauty amid the grime, even if it is only the scent and taste of an orange - its miraculous colour and form.

When she embarks on a relationship with enigmatic gentleman Mr Rufus, it awakens emotions she's never felt before, and makes a better life feel possible for the first time. But when she takes cherubic orphan Oliver Twist under her wing, something even more elusive and appealing seems to be within reach: redemption.

This captivating tale of love, sacrifice, and the battle between good and evil showcases the power of compassion in a world tainted by darkness.

’n Verbeeldingryke roman waarin die Suid-Afrikaanse verlede as tema gebruik word.

Ná ’n beroerte aan die einde van haar lewe mymer ’n bejaarde vrou oor die verlede – om hierdie lewe te volbring moet sy as die swygsame buitestaander in haar familiekring die raaisels rondom die gebeure en verhoudings van die verlede ontsluit.

In 1837 het ’n engel aan ’n jong skaapwagter verskyn, en die weerklank van hierdie gebeurtenis in sy eie lewe en dié van ander mense oor ’n tydperk van anderhalwe eeu is die onderwerp van dié uitsonderlike roman. Die verlede is “’n ander land . . . ’n netwerk wat saamgeweef is uit werklikheid en herinnering”.

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.

Dit is die vroeë 1990’s. Ben Brandt duik al jare lank ondergronds onder die Poolse naam Jozeph Brzinski. Maar die tyd het aangebreek dat hy sy ou werk hervat: dié van huurmoordenaar.

In sy lewe voor hy moes onderduik as mynwerker, het hy moorde gepleeg vir wie ook al hom kon betaal. Hierdie keer het die Beweging hom nodig. Hy moet twee teikens by die Wêrelhandelsentrum in Kemptonpark elimineer.

Gerhard Coetzee, topadvokaat met ’n tragiese verlede, is die enigste een wat in sy pad staan.

Meet Asma, the only child of the Patels. Growing up in the cloistered confines of an Indian Township in the 60s, hers is a nearly idyllic childhood. When 1976 arrives and the country goes up in flames, Asma finds herself caught between the Fires of Resistance and the duties she is bound to as the daughter of an Indian household.

Sy’s ʼn boeremeisie, hy ʼn Jood. ʼn Boerejood, ja, maar nogtans ʼn Jood. Vir hulle liefde is daar geen toekoms as hulle dit nie self skep nie.

Terwyl hulle jonk is, dink hulle nie aan die toekoms nie, leef hulle vir die nou, glo hulle die verskille kan oorkom word. En Izak Katz, weet Elizabeth, maak altyd ʼn plan. Altyd.

Hy, met sy lag, sy terg, die sagtheid in sy oë. Die paadjie wat aan hulle toebedeel is, is ongelyk. Soos die middelmannetjie in die drif. Hulle weet van mekaar vermy, van voorgee sodat niemand iets vermoed nie. Van wag. En van liefhê … Totdat Elizabeth gedwing word om ʼn doodsbelofte te maak. En sy weet, sy wéét, hierdie keer is dit verby, nie eers Izak sal nou meer raad hê nie.

Dan Sleigh’s latest work is once more an historical novel. While Eilande was published in English set at the beginning of the Western presence in the Cape, Afstande is much closer to the foundations of Western civilisation itself. It is based on the Anabasis of the Greek soldier and writer Xenophon, in which he reported on what has been described as one of the great adventures in human history. This “adventure”, which began in 401 BC, was nothing less than one of the clearest examples of human hardship and endurance. The adventurers were an army of ten thousand Greek mercenaries who were hired by a Persian prince to overthrow his brother, the king of the mighty Persian Empire.

He ingeniously introduced another main character besides Xenophon, namely the Jewish eunuch Nagri, who was hailed as a prophet in Babylon, where the Israelites were in exile at the time. In Sleigh’s version the prisoner, Nagri, is used by Xenophon to compile the Anabasis from his cryptic notes. Afstande is therefore an intertwinement of the stories of two writers, namely the soldier-writer and the writer-prophet.

Apart from being a grueling, authentic portrayal of one of the most remarkable military adventures in history, Sleigh’s novel is a representation of man’s search for identity and stability in a fast-changing, turbulent and unforgiving time. He shows how religion and ideology paradoxically guide and complicate this search. Through his two writer characters, their alliance and the friction between them, he also investigates the passion, desires, conflicts, but above all the emotion that underlies being a writer. In this way Sleigh transforms antique material into something absolutely contemporary and he achieves what all great writers achieve, and that is to confirm the permanence of that which is universally human.

Duits Suidwes-Afrika, 1905. ‘n Tyd van oorlog en beroering.

Die tengerige Siegfried Bock kom as soldaat na die protektoraat om sy staal te wys. Maar hy word gou ontnugter toe hy vergrype aanskou wat hy nie kan vergeet nie. Lisbeth Löwenstein is hier om met ’n man te trou wat sy skaars onthou, ’n setlaar wat vir haar armlastige ouers geld gestuur het om haar tot vrou te neem. Mordegai Guruseb ontsnap uit ’n konsentrasiekamp waar gevangenes van ontbering omkom. Maar kort voor lank word sy vryheid weer bedreig. En dan is daar die mislukte dokter Albert Pitzer wat homself ’n wetenskaplike ag en hoop om data te versamel wat sy teorieë staaf. Alvaus Luipert, ’n plaaslike skoolmeester, duld egter nie sy arrogante aannames en vernederende metodes nie.

In die uitgestrekte, majestueuse landskap van Duits Suidwes-Afrika word dié vyf mense se lot vervleg en elkeen se menslikheid word tot die uiterste beproef.

‘n Boeiende historiese fiksie met hart. Dit dek ‘n fassinerende tyd in ons land se geskiedenis: die eeuwending van 1900. Die Tweede Vryheidsoorlog woed en in Parys is die sentimente oorheersend pro-Boer en anti-Brit.

Paul Roux is ‘n jong Afrikaanse argitek wat help ontwerp en oprig aan die ZAR se pawiljoen by die Paryse wêreldskou. Die leser beleef saam met hom die oorweldigende kleure, geure en teksture van die stad van liefde. Hy raak verstrik in absint en in die nagklubs van guitige Parys raak hy die spoor byster, maar hy het ‘n geliefde tuis, ‘n Joodse meisie.

Dis tegelyk liefdesverhaal en historiese roman, met volronde karakters en ‘n trefseker gevoel vir lokaliteit.

Dit is die jaar 1901. Die son het gesak oor 'n verskroeide landskap, en die landskap verwelkom die duister. Die doringdraad en tentrye van die konsentrasiekamp is nog net 'n swart vlek op die vlakte. En aan die rand hiervan gloei 'n tent soos 'n lantern. Diegene wat vanuit die duister na hierdie tent sou staar, sou teen die helder tentdoek die silhoeet sien van 'n man wat oor die klawerbord van 'n klavier buig. Die een wat vanuit die nag sou kyk, sou ook op die kampbed die regop gestalte van 'n sittende vrou kon uitmaak. Diegene wat vanuit die kamp sou luister, hulle wat nie reeds volledig deur die stryd tussen lewe en dood ingeneem is nie, sou dalk agter die onbeholpe klavierspel van die man die vergeefse smagting hoor, agter die wankelende note die stilte wat groter is as enige geluid. Jare later buig majoor Philip Brooks in 'n biblioteek oor 'n vergelende foto. En hy probeer vasstel wat dit is wat hy op daardie foto sien. Hy probeer onthou wat gebeur het. Dit was hy in daardie tent. Die vrou op die bed was die mooiste vrou wat hy nog gesien het. Die klavier het gekom uit haar huis, een van die plaashuise wat sy soldate afgebrand het. Nou probeer hy kyk met die oog van Joey Drew, die skeeloog sukkelaar van Somerset, Engeland, wat die foto’s geneem het. Hy kyk na ’n foto van ’n vrou met ’n baba in haar arms. Hy weet wat die pa van die kind nie geweet het toe hý die foto gesien het nie, dat die kind dood was. Dat hy een van die duisende slagoffers van die konsentrasiekampe was. Hy kyk na ’n familiefoto van die Van Wyks, en nog een keer, voordat die vergetelheid so koud soos die graf self oor alle geheue sak, probeer hy deur Joey se foto’s die verhaal van die Van Wyks agterhaal.