‘Those in the know claim Michael K disembarked from a diesel-smoke-spewing truck one overcast morning, looked around, and without missing a beat, chose a spot where he set down a small bucket (red, burnt and disfigured) that contained an assortment of seedlings, some fisherman’s twine and a rudimentary gardening tool – probably self-made.’

How is it that a character from literary fiction can so alter the landscapes he touches, even as he – in his self-imposed isolation – seeks to avoid them? How is it that Michael K, bewildered and bewildering, can remain so fragile yet so present, so imposing without attempting to be so? In this response to JM Coetzee’s classic masterpiece, Life & Times of Michael K, Nthikeng Mohlele dabbles in the artistic and speculative in a unique attempt to unpack the dazed and disconnected world of the title character, his solitary ways, his inventiveness, but also to show how astutely Michael K holds up a mirror to those whose paths he inadvertently crosses. Michael K explores the weight of history and of conscience, thus wrestling the character from the confines of literary creation to the frontiers of artistic timelessness.

This is the future world that haunts portrait photographer and narrator, James Baldwin, as he alternates between present-day South Africa and the Frontier — an existential dystopia where women are inexplicably completely and permanently wiped from the world. This, according to him, can only mean extinctions of varying and catastrophic degrees.

He is a lover of women, and there are countless things he would terribly miss: how women hold and shake rainwater from umbrellas, the musical click of stilettos on concrete or tiled floors, the way light falls on their face during cosy, candlelit dinners. He would miss the patience of female psychologists who fix the world one madman at a time, there would no longer be eye-catching and dramatic fashion statements at weddings or funerals, florists would eternally be emptied of their stock, and the rate of tunes belted out in showers would drop dramatically if not completely cease, the world would not be the same without the gossip mill of some women, their petty jealousies and catfights, their ever-evolving and varied insecurities…

A lull would befall the land.

Erotic, perceptive and transcendental; Breasts, etc. is a novel of double consciousness. It is an exploration of, and meditation on the existential strife and tragic comedy at the Frontier, a post-apocalyptic and desolate landscape that forms the backdrop to an examination of masculine vulnerabilities and wickedness in a world stripped of feminine presence and wisdom.

A new collection of short stories by one of South Africa’s most original writers, A Little Light is a timely and sensitive evocation of places, bodies, politics, regrets and hope, all revealed in tightly controlled and beautifully lit stories.

Mohlele’s daring writing is on full display with the publication of this volume.

In this haunting tale of love and learning, the existential chaos of a life ravaged by circumstance takes on a rhythm of its own, one bound by loss and loneliness, but also an intelligent awareness of self. Sometimes melancholy, sometimes brutal, occasionally funny and infuriating, a journalist-comrade-lover caught up in the shade and shadow of politics and social injustice faces treachery and betrayal on every level.

Set against the backdrop of a cityscape that taunts and tantalises, this is where love fails and passion wanes, “where suffering has no meaning”, where an individual escapes death only to find himself confronted with choices wrought by remorse and retribution, by conscience and character. And yet, with all trauma, there is a distinct musicality to the lyrical unpacking that follows a string of small things …

Mister Winston is a substantial man, an honest man, a ‘good’ politician. Or at least, this is how he likes to see himself.

But as his life falls apart and his political party’s hypocrisies and failings become impossible to ignore, this easy image begins to crack, and he goes from being a potential president to a man washing dishes and sleeping under bridges.

With lucid prose and startingly beautiful imagery, Nthikeng Mohlele reaches into the consciousness of a man fallen from grace, and the disillusionment, fractured morals and unravelling personal life which led to this spiritual exile is revealed.

Revolutionaries’ House is an electrifying novel of love, power and attachment, and their many betrayals.

The Discovery of Love, explores and heightens one of the dominant themes in Nthikeng Mohlele’s literary oeuvre, that of love.

In this collection, love is reflected upon in expansive and unexpected dimensions. It becomes the backdrop against which Mohlele delves into the intricacies of human agency with profound and often unexpected effects.

These stories dazzle; they are wide-ranging in scope, yet particular in their authorial intent.

Q is diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder and resigns as lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Good Hope in Lumumbaville. In quiet moments he reflects on his childhood; the passing of his mother and the strained relationship with his father. Bernice, his pregnant older lover, vanishes one day – without ever confirming that the baby was his.

Now unemployed, Q’s life takes a peculiar turn as he searches for her. He finds himself on a haphazard journey to Misty Hills. And it is here, in a field of sunflowers, that he may find the answers that he’s been seeking.

The Scent of Bliss is an intimate look into Q’s life as he struggles with his anxiety disorder, the sombre memories of his childhood and the sense of not belonging. This novella is also a love tale that explores anguish and survival, and the absurdities that define the human condition.

"I wrestled with life and lost." So begins the story of Michael, a corporate lawyer known to his colleagues and associates as Sir Marvin, who picks his way – sometimes delicately, but more often in his own blundering way – through the unfathomable intricacies that make up a life: love and anger, humility and ambition, trust and distrust, selfishness and selflessness. A flawed individual with an acute understanding of the roads that must be navigated to achieve even the slightest insight into the human condition.

In this study in introspection, embroidered with lyrical prose and astonishing intuition, the hero, meditative and melancholic, is at once both tragic and comic.

Michael is a respected and haunted South African corporate lawyer - the narrator of this sweeping, intimate and intricate exploration of the plurality and mystery of things: love, grief, fate, lust - but most of all life. Nthikeng Mohlele once again delves into head-cracking and bruising questions, in this coming-out-of and against-age story; told with humour, beauty and calculated rage. Brimming with delicacy and authorial thunder, this part campus novel, part philosophical epistle, is one man's rebellion against `life as we know it'. Rusty Bell is an appallingly wise examination of the perils of being human - by a writer who knows the beauty and savagery of words.

Bantubonke is an accomplished and revered jazztrumpeter, composer and band leader in decline - an absent present and inadequate spouse. He lives for art at the expense of all else, an imbalance that derails his life and propels him to the brink of madness and despair.

A story of direct and implied betrayals, Illumination is an unrelenting study of possession and loss, of the beauty and uncertainty of love, of the dangers and intrusions of fame.

This is the story of a dreamer, 'an average man,' singled out by fate for an uncertain life.

Jailed for 18 years under apartheid for unspecified sins, he emerges into a world that has no place for him. His fluctuating fortunes land him on the unpredictable, bitter-winter streets of Johannesburg, where 'harmlessness' is an 'unfortunate trait,' but tempestuous skylines offer space to breathe.

A trumpet and an indigent dog are his accomplices in survival. But, it is his obsessive love for the erratic, hard-hearted Desiree that remains the one constant in his life and impels his search for the elusive meaning of existence.

Through his protagonist - the trumpet-playing philosopher poet - author Nthikeng Mohlele weaves unique magic with words, posing powerful questions in his inimitably individualistic and evocative style.