Sarah Uheida's poetry collection Not This Tender is a profound exploration of memory, navigating the landscape of the war-torn North Africa she was forced to flee as a child.

It is a mythical yet deeply personal examination of longing and belonging, estrangement, loss and the influence of family and language, presented through immersive portraits and the lens of a fractured landscape. Here, poetry is wielded as both refuge and rupture in an excavation of the past – not to preserve it, but to make sense of the future.

Through its vivid, evocative imagery, the collection offers a powerful journey through the restless search for home, and the fragile yet unrelenting hope of return.

My heart has made its mind up
And I'm afraid it's you.

The Orange provides the perfect introduction to Wendy Cope, one of Britain's wittiest, best-selling and best-loved poets.

In poems that can turn from laugh-out-loud funny to deeply moving, Wendy Cope offers reflections on love and life. From the joy of falling - and being - in love to ways to help you deal with a painful break-up or the memories of people loved and lost, this is a book you will want to savour and share with all your friends.

By geleentheid van die gevierde skrywer Karel Schoeman se 75ste verjaardag in Oktober 2014 publiseer Protea Boekhuis twee televisiedraaiboeke, wat, hoewel hulle geruime tyd gelede reeds geskryf is, nie voorheen gepubliseer is nie. In die voorwoord tot die twee draaiboeke meld Karel Schoeman dat die twee draaiboeke in 1985 ontstaan het, toe daar bewerkings van sy romans verfilm is. Die twee dramatekste sou miskien eerder as leestekste en nie as speeltekste nie beskou kon word, maar Schoeman sluit nie die moontlikheid van verfilming uit nie. Hy skryf verder: “Die betrokke manuskripte het onlangs aan die lig gekom nadat ek gemeen het dat dit lankal nie meer bestaan nie, en word nou gepubliseer soos hulle geskryf is, aangesien dit nie sinvol gelyk het om na verloop van meer as 'n kwarteeu nog daaraan te probeer verander of verbeter nie.” Die eerste van die twee tekste, “'n Vrou wat alleen bly”, speel op 'n klein plattelandse dorpie af. Dit handel oor die raaiselagtige skietdood van 'n geliefde dominee en oor die versteuring van verhoudings tussen mense wat mekaar reeds lank ken wanneer 'n nuweling die gemeenskap binnekom. Die tweede teks, “Hier was huise, hier 'n pad” speel in 1908 af in en om 'n hotelletjie aan die Suid-Kaapse kus. In hierdie draaiboek bevind 'n aantal uiteenlopende karakters hulle toevallig en kortstondig in mekaar se geselskap. Sommige van die karakters reik huiwerig na mekaar uit, maar die verhoudings wat ontstaan, bly vervlietend. Soos in 'n Tsjechow-drama toon Karel Schoeman in hierdie twee tekste watter intensiteit daar in klein menslike gebare, huiwerende gesprek en versigtige uitreik na ander kan le.

Abridged specifically for all those interested in Shakespeare's plays, especially teachers and students of English and drama, these one-hour performance scripts maintain the arcs of Shakespeare's plots without compromising the integrity of his original language. What remains are manageable performance texts and the essential elements needed for an introduction to three of Shakespeare's most popular plays.

Lucid and lyrical, Lucienne Bestall’s debut collection extends reflections on the seductions and limitations of language. With words and pictures borrowed from literature, contemporary art, art history, and mass media, Except for Breath asks after those experiences that elude simple description and turn instead to image and metaphor.

The collected essays appear an unlikely gathering – taking as their respective subjects death, disappointment, divine love, an unfamiliar city, the news, and headaches. Yet while each is discrete, together they share subtle aff inities, their narratives shaped by memory’s imprecisions and dreams retold, by magical thinking and wishful thinking, and coincidence mistaken as sign.

Pairing art writing and life writing, Bestall’s limpid prose is delicately revealing of her subjective encounter with a shared repertoire of familiar texts and images.

André le Roux se tweede digbundel verskyn 47 jaar ná sy debuut, Struisbaai-blues, wat kort ná publikasie in 1977 verbied is. Nou skryf hy met selfs skerper eerlikheid oor die liefde, begeerte, verlange en vreugde. Meer nog: oor die afslyt van die liggaam en die insig wat leefervaring bring. Hy tree in gesprek met mededigters soos Krog, Breytenbach, Bukowski, Van Wyk Louw, Cohen, cummings en Neruda, en steek kers op by die Oosterse meesters.

Le Roux se verse spreek van universele menslikheid en deernis, met bytende humor en selfspot. Hy verken ’n landskap van verval en vervreemding – nie sonder verset nie.

In Prins word die kompleksiteit van manlikheid ontleed; die oomblikke van teerheid word gevier en die vernietigende word gekritiseer. Alhoewel die bundel handel oor stories en karakters uit ’n bepaalde gemeenskap en agtergrond, skryf Pedro doelbewus weg van vooropgestelde idees oor coloured-laities. Hier, weerspieël dit die liminale, plofbare ruimte waarin die verteller homself bevind as digter en as coloured man.

Jaco Barnard-Naudé se digdebuut betrek ’n wye verskeidenheid temas: queer identiteit, die trauma van kinderjare, en die verhouding tussen ouers en seun. Deurgaans vloei die digterlike geheue soos ’n leitmotiv deur die verse. Die bundel getuig van ’n soepel en gespierde taalaanvoeling, en tree dikwels in gesprek met ander digters, filosowe en musici. ’n Diep-gelade emosionele bewussyn vibreer regdeur die bundel – getuienis van ’n uitsonderlike nuwe digter-denker ter plaatse.

Over the course of two decades and six books, Peter Markus has been making fiction out of a lexicon shaped by the words brother and fish and mud. In an essay on Markus's work, Brian Evenson writes, ""If it's not clear by now, Markus's use of English is quite unique. It is instead a sort of ritual speech, an almost religious invocation in which words themselves, through repetition, acquire a magic or power that revives the simpler, blunter world of childhood."" Now, in his debut book of poems, When Our Fathers Return to Us as Birds, Markus tunes his eye and ear toward a new world, a world where father is the new brother, a world where the father's slow dying and eventual death leads Markus, the son, to take a walk outside to ""meet my shadow in the deepening shade."" In this collection, a son is simultaneously caring for his father, losing his father, and finding his dead father in the trees and the water and the sky. He finds solace in the birds and in the river that runs between his house and his parents' house, with its view of the shut-down steel mill on the river's other side, now in the process of being torn down. The book is steadily punctuated by this recurring sentence that the son wakes up to each day: My father is dying in a house across the river. The rhythmic and recursive nature to these poems places the reader right alongside the son as he navigates his journey of mourning. These are poems written in conversation with the poems of Jack Gilbert, Linda Gregg, Jim Harrison, Jane Kenyon, Raymond Carver, Theodore Roethke too-poets whose poems at times taught Markus how to speak. ""In a dark time . . .,"" we often hear it said, ""there are no words."" But the truth is, there are always words. Sometimes our words are all we have to hold onto, to help us see through the darkened woods and muddy waters, times when the ear begins to listen, the eye begins to see, and the mouth, the body, and the heart, in chorus, begin to speak. Fans of Markus's work and all of those who are caring for dying parents or grieving their loss will find comfort, kinship, and appreciation in this honest and beautiful collection.

The diary of Antera Duke is one of the earliest and most extensive surviving documents written by an African residing in coastal West Africa predating the arrival of British missionaries and officials in the mid-19th century. Antera Duke (ca.1735-ca.1809) was a leader and merchant in late eighteenth-century Old Calabar, a cluster of Efik-speaking communities in the Cross River region. He resided in Duke Town, forty miles from the Atlantic Ocean in modern-day southeast Nigeria. His diary, written in trade English from 18 January 1785 to 31 January 1788, is a candid account of daily life in an African community during a period of great historical interest. Written by a major African merchant at the height of Calabar's overseas commerce, it provides valuable information on Old Calabar's economic activity both with other African businessmen and with European ship captains who arrived to trade for slaves, produce and provisions. It is also unique in chronicling the day-to-day social and cultural life of a vibrant African community. Antera Duke's diary is much more than a historical curiosity; it is the voice of a leading African-Atlantic merchant who lived during an age of expanding cross-cultural trade. The book reproduces the original diary of Antera Duke, as transcribed by a Scottish missionary, Arthur W. Wilkie, ca. 1907 and published by OUP in 1956. A new rendering of the diary into standard English appears on facing pages, and the editors have advanced the annotation completed by anthropologist Donald Simmons in 1954 by editing 71 and adding 158 footnotes. The updated reference information incorporates new primary and secondary source material on Old Calabar, and notes where their editorial decisions differ from those made by Wilkie and Simmons. Chapters 1 and 2 detail the eighteenth-century Calabar slave and produce trades, emphasizing how personal relationships between British and Efik merchants formed the nexus of trade at Old Calabar. To build a picture of Old Calabar's regional trading networks, Chapter 3 draws upon information contained in Antera Duke's diary, other contemporary sources, and shipping records from the 1820s. Chapter 4 places information in Antera Duke's diary in the context of eighteenth-century Old Calabar political, social and religious history, charting how Duke Town eclipsed Old Town and Creek Town through military power, lineage strength and commercial acumen.

The most-trusted anthology for complete works, balanced selections and helpful editorial apparatus, The Norton Anthology of American Literature features a cover-to-cover revision. The ninth edition introduces new General Editor Robert Levine and three new-generation editors who have reenergised the volume across the centuries. Fresh scholarship, new authors-with an emphasis on contemporary writers-new topical clusters, and a new ebook make the Norton Anthology an even better teaching tool and an unmatched value for students.

The Msibis, the Manamelas and the Jiyas are high-flying married couples who belong to the Khula Society, a social club with investment and glitzy benefits.

The wives are smart, successful in their chosen careers and they lead lifestyles to match – jostling for pole position in the ‘Keeping up with the Khumalos’ stakes. The husbands have had their successes and failures, sometimes keeping dubious company and getting to the top of their fields by whatever means necessary.

Beneath the veneer of marital bliss, however, lie many secrets. What will happen to their relationships when a devastating event affects all their lives?

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'Alas that mortals Should blame the gods! From us, they say, All evils come. Yet they themselves It is who through defiant deeds Bring sorrow on them-far more sorrow Than fate would have them bear.' Attributed to the blind Greek poet, Homer, The Odyssey is an epic tale about cunning and strength of mind. It takes its starting point ten years after the fall of the city of Troy and follows its Greek warrior hero Odysseus as he tries to journey to his home of Ithaca in northwest Greece after the Greek victory over the Trojans. On his travels, Odysseus comes across surreal islands and foreign lands where he is in turn challenged and supported by those that he meets on his travels as he attempts to find his way back home in order to vanquish those who threaten his estate. In turn, his son Telemachus has to grow up quickly as he attempts to find his father and protect his mother from her suitors. Dealing with the universal themes of temptation and courage, the epic journey that Odysseus undertakes is as meaningful today as it was almost 3,000 years ago when the story was composed.

Joan Didion’s savage masterpiece, which, since first publication in 1968, has been acknowledged as an unparalleled report on the state of America during the upheaval of the Sixties Revolution.

In her non-fiction work, Joan Didion not only describes the subject at hand – her younger self loving and leaving New York, the murderous housewife, the little girl trailing the rock group, the millionaire bunkered in his mansion – but also offers a broader vision of the world, one that is both terrifying and tender, ominous and uniquely her own.