Twee plaasdramas oor grense, tradisies, grond en bloed.

Melk & Vleis

Dis 1996. Suid-Afrika het verander, maar sekere huishoudings nog nie. ’n Suksesvolle aktuaris los haar werk in die stad nadat sy verlief raak op ’n sjarmante jong boer. Sy probeer haar bes om in te pas by die kleindorpse gemeenskap, haarself in haar huwelik te laat geld, en die familieplaas van ondergang te red. Nadat ’n erfgenaam gebore word, begin dinge egter op die plaas uitrafel ...

Bloed & Bodem

Jana besoek haar pa en oom op die familieplaas. Die plaas gaan agteruit en haar pa sit meer op die kroegstoel as die kerkbank. Een nag los hy in sy dronkenskap die hek oop en dit word ‘n aand wat niemand sal vergeet nie... ’n Verhaal oor plaasaanvalle en die desperate nalatenskap van Afrikanermans wat nooit kon heel nadat hulle aan die “verkeerde” kant van die apartheidstryd geveg het nie.

Staal Burger – baasspeurder en minnaar van formaat – is altyd onberispelik geklee in 'n aandpak, met 'n swart strikdassie lyk asof dit op sy haelwit hemp geverf is. Nie ’n haartjie is uit sy plek uit nie, en sy bruingebrande gesig verraai ’n gesonde buitelewe. Suid-Afrika se 007? Watwou! Hy's dapperder as 007! In hierdie tweede bundel met Staal Burger-stories hanteer die superheld verskeie netelige sake: bedreiging van die nasionale sport, ’n prima donna wat vals sing, verlee doedies en diamante wat dodelik is. ’n Bonus in hierdie bundel is ander stories uit Fanus se pen, oor babas en bikini’s, die man met die motors en Vader Jors.

From the Queen of Crime, the first time all of her spookiest and most macabre stories have been collected in one volume. 'From behind the curtains there still sounded the terrible high long-drawn scream - such a scream as Raoul had never heard. It died away with a horrible kind of gurgle. Then there came the thud of a body falling...' For lovers of the supernatural and the macabre comes this collection of ghostly and chilling tales from Agatha Christie. Acknowledged the world over as the undisputed Queen of Crime, in fact she dabbled in her early writing career with mysteries of a more unearthly kind - stories featuring fantastic psychic visions, spectres looming in the shadows, encounters with deities, eerie messages from the Other Side, even a man who switches bodies with a cat... This haunting compendium gathers together all of Christie's spookiest and most macabre short stories, some featuring her timeless detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Finally together in one volume, it shines a light on the darker side of Agatha Christie, one that she herself relished, identifying ten of them as 'my own favourite stories written soon after The Mysterious Affair at Styles, some before that'. * Contains 20 stories: The Last Seance * In a Glass Darkly * The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb * SOS * The Fourth Man * The Idol House of Astarte * The Gipsy * Philomel Cottage * The Dream * The Lamp * Wireless * The Mystery of the Blue Jar * The Blue Geranium * The Wife of the Kenite * The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael * The Call of Wings * The Red Signal * The Flock of Geryon * The Dressmaker's Doll * The Hound of Death 'Reading a perfectly plotted Agatha Christie is like crunching into a perfect apple: pure, crisp, absolute satisfaction.' TANA FRENCH

In Makuck's fourth collection of short stories he once again explores the fertile territory of small, rural American towns. With tenderness and clarity, he excavates the mundane surface of everyday lives to reveal compassionate characters who are unexpectedly vulnerable. The stories in Wins and Losses are set in a car, a courtroom, a university English department, a sports bar, a jetliner, a laundromat. Characters struggle with regret, desire, expectations, and a need to win when loss is inevitable. A high school student whose father was killed in a car crash and who can speak openly only to his girlfriend delivers prescriptions for a pharmacy and learns much about people and values in the course of his deliveries. A lawyer recalls a dubious family friend, an undercover cop, who pressured him as a young boy toward guns and football. A recent widow finds a cardboard box on her front porch only to discover it contains the body of her dog. A young woman takes her mother to a cardiologist and, while in the waiting room, gets into an argument with a wealthy political conservative at great cost to both of them. In the tradition of Cheever and Updike, Makuck's stories give us characters struggling with questions of what really matters.

A couple exchange unprecedented confessions during nightly blackouts in their Boston apartment as they struggle to cope with a heartbreaking loss; a student arrives in new lodgings in a mystifying new land and, while he awaits the arrival of his arranged-marriage wife from Bengal, he finds his first bearings with the aid of the curious evening rituals that his centenarian landlady orchestrates; a schoolboy looks on while his childminder finds that the smallest dislocation can unbalance her new American life all too easily and send her spiralling into nostalgia for her homeland…

Jhumpa Lahiri's prose is beautifully measured, subtle and sober, and she is a writer who leaves a lot unsaid, but this work is rich in observational detail, evocative of the yearnings of the exile (mostly Indians in Boston here), and full of emotional pull and reverberation.

G.R. von Wielligh (1859–1932) het Boesmanstories versamel om kampvure in die Karoo, dit opgeteken en in vier dele gepubliseer. In hierdie publikasie word Boesmanstories Deel I: mitologie en legendes, en Boesmanstories Deel II: Dierestories en ander verhale, 90 jaar na die oorspronklike verskyning in een deel in eietydse Afrikaans heruitgegee. Daar word vertel hoe reen deur die reenbees gemaak word, hoe fonteinwater ontstaan het deur die groot waterslang met die blink steen op sy kop en hoe die dood deur ’n haas in die wereld gekom het. Stories oor Leeu, Wolf en Jakkals is ook volop en daar word vertel waarom Skilpad en Slang broers is.

Stories word daagliks van een person na ‘n ander oorgedra. Dit is ‘n natuurlike deel van mense se sosiale omgang met mekaar.

“Stories word aan kinders vertel om lewenslesse oor te dra, en vriende vertel vir mekaar stories om mekaar te vermaak, of om inligting oor te dra. Die vertelling van verhale is dus ‘n belangrike deel van menslike interaksie. “Vertel stories waar dit nodig is. Dit voed die mens se siel. Ons het partykeer elkeen net ‘n goeie storie nodig.

'n Verrassende kortverhaaldebuut deur 'n jong skrywer van Bloemfontein. Marais is goed geskool in die klassieke Afrikaanse kortverhaal, maar bied vernuwing op vele vlakke. Elke verhaal bevat iets ongewoons, nie net wat betref taal en register nie, maar veral t.o.v. karakter en perspektief. Hoogtepunte sluit in "Brandoffer" (briewe aan 'n ma), "Sinker" (oor 'n seun wat op die rand van 'n damwal huiwer) en "Driehonderd-vyf-en-sestig en 'n kwart".

Daar is min mense wat ’n storie soos Jan Spies kan vertel. Die antie met die pienk rok en ander stories is ’n keur uit sy humoristiese vertellings in Pilatus tot molshoop, Poort deur die koue, Profeet met kondensmelk en Pille vir servette.

En hierdie nuwe keur word van Woensdag 17 Junie 2020 op weeksoggende om 10:45 op RSG voorgelees. Die akteur-skrywer Lochner de Kock skuif agter die mikrofoon in om hierdie “Spieserye” nuwe lewe te gee. RSG se dramahoof, Kobus Burger, is die regisseur.

Stories word daagliks van een person na ‘n ander oorgedra. Dit is ‘n natuurlike deel van mense se sosiale omgang met mekaar.

“Stories word aan kinders vertel om lewenslesse oor te dra, en vriende vertel vir mekaar stories om mekaar te vermaak, of om inligting oor te dra. Die vertelling van verhale is dus ‘n belangrike deel van menslike interaksie. “Vertel stories waar dit nodig is. Dit voed die mens se siel. Ons het partykeer elkeen net ‘n goeie storie nodig.

In astronomy, the termination shock is the boundary that marks the outer limits of the sun's influence - the ripple outward of our solar wind and its collision with the interstellar medium. This debut collection of stories evokes those moments when lives are unpredictably shaken and reset by forces beyond their grasp. Making use of a diverse array of narrative modes, settings, and voices, these stories traverse space and time, moving from Egypt during the Second World War to modern-day Liberia and an unfamiliar Los Angeles. The title story, ""Termination Shock,"" offers a lyrical exploration of two traumatic moments in a woman's life that occur decades apart and continue to reverberate in humorous and poignant ways. Janice Margolis shows us characters on the precipice of change - including a narrator in fevered quarantine following the death of her mother from Ebola, a cross-cultural love in a swiftly transforming Syria, and the desolation of the Berlin Wall, which from its various sectors and coordinates, confesses its crimes and mourns its destruction.

"He struck a match to look at his watch. In the flare of the light they saw a young woman just at Pitot's elbow -- a young woman dressed all in black, with pale gold hair, and a baby sleeping on her shoulder. She glided to the edge of the bridge and stepped noiselessly off into the black waters." -- from Ghost Stories of Old New Orleans

Ghosts are said to wander along the rooftops above New Orleans' Royal Street, the dead allegedly sing sacred songs in St. Louis Cathedral, and the graveyard tomb of a wealthy madam reportedly glows bright red at night. Local lore about such supernatural sightings, as curated by Jeanne deLavigne in her classic Ghost Stories of Old New Orleans, finds the phantoms of bitter lovers, vengeful slaves, and menacing gypsies haunting nearly every corner of the city, from the streets of the French Quarter to Garden District mansions. Originally printed in 1944, all forty ghost stories and the macabre etchings of New Orleans artist Charles Richards appear in this new edition.

Drawing largely on popular legend dating back to the 1800s, deLavigne provides vivid details of old New Orleans with a cast of spirits that represent the ethnic m?lange of the city set amid period homes, historic neighborhoods, and forgotten taverns. Combining folklore, newspaper accounts, and deLavigne's own voice, these phantasmal tales range from the tragic -- brothers, lost at sea as children, haunt a chapel on Thomas Street in search of their mother -- to graphic depictions of torture, mutilation, and death.

Folklorist and foreword contributor Frank de Caro places the writer and her work in context for modern readers. He uncovers new information about deLavigne's life and describes her book's pervasive lingering influence on the Crescent City's culture today.

Stories word daagliks van een person na ‘n ander oorgedra. Dit is ‘n natuurlike deel van mense se sosiale omgang met mekaar.

“Stories word aan kinders vertel om lewenslesse oor te dra, en vriende vertel vir mekaar stories om mekaar te vermaak, of om inligting oor te dra. Die vertelling van verhale is dus ‘n belangrike deel van menslike interaksie. “Vertel stories waar dit nodig is. Dit voed die mens se siel. Ons het partykeer elkeen net ‘n goeie storie nodig.

At last – the complete collection of over 50 Hercule Poirot short stories in a single volume!

Hercule Poirot had a passion for order, for rational thought, and had a justified confidence in his deductive genius. No matter what the provocation, he always remained calm.

The shrewd little detective with the egg-shaped head and the enormous black moustache was created by one of the world's greatest storytellers, Agatha Christie, who excelled at the art of short story writing. Only she could have devised the cases worthy of Poirot's skill, the ingenious mysteries that challenge the reader as well as the detective.

There is a spectacular diversity in the plots and themes of these cases, ranging from very brief tales to full-length novellas. Violent murders, poisonings, kidnappings and thefts, all are solved or thwarted with Poirot's usual panache – and the characteristic application of his 'little grey cells'.

“Little masterpieces of detection – Poirot and Agatha Christie at their inimitable best”
SUNDAY EXPRESS

“There is no more cunning player of the murder game.”
SUNDAY TIMES

Welcome, dear visitor, to a proud and storied nation. When you put down this guidebook, look around you. A nation isn't land. A nation is people.

Equal parts speculative and satirical, the stories in Matthew Baker's collection portray a world within touching distance of our own. This is an America riven by dilemmas confronting so many of us, turned on its head by one of the most innovative voices of the moment.

Read together, these parallel-universe stories create a composite portrait of our true nature and a dark reflection of the world we live in.

In Die ontbrekende helfte word Yvette Faure deur 'n agentskap as sekretaresse na die verstrooide professor Rabe se huis gestuur. In Liefde uit die stormnag soek 'n kunstenares skuiling in 'n hewige sneeustorm en is dae lank vasgekeer saam met 'n skatryk Kanadese nyweraar. In Teësinnige erfgenaam ontdek die 28-jarige Melissa van Eeden ná afgesonderde grootwordjare skielik dat sy die erfgenaam is van 'n skatryk man en weet sy nie hoe om haar nuutgevonde vryheid te hanteer nie.

Die nuwe Afrikaanse prosaboek is ’n viering van verskeidenheid. Dit bied ’n verruimende, vars blik op die Afrikaanse kortverhaal met sowel klassieke verhale deur welbekende skrywers asook voorheen ongepubliseerde verhale deur nuwe stemme. Jan Rabie, wat in die laat-1950’s die kontoere van die literêre landskap verlê het met sy soms absurde, soms filosofiese, soms politieke “prosas”, dien as inspirasie. 

Bellingan het nie ontsag vir heilige koeie nie. In haar brief aan meneer Mbeki vermeld sy: "Ek gaan vandag met die deur in die huis val. Wel, dis wat die diewe Saterdagaand met my agterdeur gedoen het." Kunstefeeste? Op plekke soos Afganistan, Irak en Aardklop sien jy dinge wat geen sielkundige kan regpraat nie. Dalk is dit hoekom sy 'n play wil skryf, Jakkals is ook die bliksem in. Sy onderskat ook nie die Engelse nie. Hulle het "'n reuserol gespeel in die ontwikkeling van die spoeltoilet". Scotland Yard soek steeds na haar nadat sy agterop 'n Nederlandse vrugtelorrie die land onwettig verlaat het. Advokaat Dubbel D lyk soos Saartjie Baartman wat op haar hande loop. En al dra die meeste mans in Kaapstad maskara en noem mekaar "dahling" is dit ten minste een plek in die land waar mans dink Patricia Lewis is 'n meubelwinkel op Drie Susters.

Tjieng Tjang Tjerries and Other Stories received the HSS Award for Best Fiction Single Authored 2018 and was short-listed for the UJ Debut Prize in 2017.

Tjieng Tjang Tjerries and Other Stories documents the unique dialect and lives of the Gansbaai fishing community. Phillips’ stories reflect the natural disorder of daily life and explores how the impact of love and loss defines – and divides – families and communities. An award-winning collection of short stories and sketches set in the Overberg district.

In the author’s own words: “This book is a collection of my soul, who I am as a human being, and how I connect to the people I come from.”

“An impressive debut that brings across voices never heard before in South African English - not only in rhythm and timbre, but plumbing the unspoken. With such a remarkable ear, Jolyn Phillips is a young writer to watch.” – Antjie Krog

Jaroslav Hasek was a humorist and satirist of rare order long before he wrote his celebrated novel, The Good Soldier Schweik. This selection of 32 pre-1914 stories of Prague life--most were translated into English for the first time in this collection--revels in the twisted logic of politics and bureaucracy in the Czech capital which was also an Austrian provincial city.

In a time of contentiousness and flagrant abuse, it often feels as if our world is run on hate. Invective. Cruelty and sadism. But is it possible the greatest and most powerful force is love? In the newest issue of this acclaimed series, Freeman's Love asks this question, bringing together literary heavyweights like Tommy Orange, Anne Carson, Louise Erdrich, and Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk alongside emerging writers such as Gunnhild Oyehaug and Semezdin Mehmedinovic.Mehmedinovic contributes a breathtaking book-length essay on the aftermath of his wife's stroke, describing how the two reassembled their lives outside their home country of Bosnia. Richard Russo's charming and painful "Good People" introduces us to two sets of married professors who have been together for decades, and for whom love still exists, but between the wrong pair. Haruki Murakami tells the tale of a one-night stand that feels like a dying sun. Together, the pieces comprise a stunning exploration of the complexities of love, tracing it from its earliest stirrings, to the forbidden places where it emerges against reason, to loss so deep it changes the color of perception. In a time when we need it the most, this issue promises what only love can bring: a solace of complexity and warmth.

Emile de Jongh, kroonprins van die modelplaas La Rhône, is ’n gesogte vangs onder die vroue in En die klippe sal uitroep. Miempie Rust, die distrik se nuwe verpleegsuster, is egter nie beïndruk met Emile se sjarme nie. Sy verlang eerder na reg en geregtigheid – veral vir die plaaswerkers.

Was Louis Mocke se erfporsie die lokaas vir sy blitshuwelik met Santie Marais in Verworpe silwer? Hoekom is sy broer, Darius, so bekommerd oor Santie se toekoms? Boonop daag Louis se vorige liefde op met ’n seuntjie aan die hand. Voor Santie al die legkaartstukkies inmekaar kan skuif, tref ’n ramp die Eloffsdallers.

Karien Saayman swig voor die getroude dr. Arnold Lutz se glimlag in Die uurglas loop leeg. ’n Huwelik met Hannes Eksteen word ’n reddingsboei uit die stormwaters van begeerte, tot hy in ’n ongeluk beland. Hannes se dokter, Christian Willems, ontwikkel ook gevoelens vir Karien. Dinge word verder gekompliseer wanneer Arnold ’n wewenaar word.