Festive Fiction
Into the Storm
A storm lies ahead of her. Freedom lies beyond it … ‘Such a brilliant writer and this was another 5 star book for me’ Reader Review⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘Hugely immersive and emotional’ Reader Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘An emotional mystery that will grip you so tight that you can't breathe’ Reader Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘She is the master of creating real, flawed, magnetic characters’ Reader Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ONE NIGHT It is a wild night in the middle of December, and GP Enya is crouched over a teenage boy, performing CPR in the rain. ONE MOMENT The boy survives, but Enya’s life splinters in two. Trapped in a loveless marriage, the storm propels her to break free. ONE CHANCE TO BE FREE But even in the remote country town that becomes her sanctuary, Enya is haunted by the night in the rain. Beneath the boughs of an ancient tree that tells a thousand stories, can she find the courage to face her own? 'A terrific story! It had me completely gripped from the very first page' KARIN SLAUGHTER ‘Outstanding… I simply couldn’t stop reading. One of the two or three best novels I’ve read this year and without question the best book I’ve ever read by Cecelia' JOHN BOYNE
R 390.00
The Glassmaker
From the bestselling historical novelist, a rich, transporting story that follows a family of glassmakers from the height of Renaissance-era Italy to present day.It is 1486 and Venice is a wealthy, opulent center for trade. Orsola Rosso is the eldest daughter in a family of glassblowers in Murano, the island revered for the craft. As a woman, she is not meant to work with glass—but she has the hands for it, the heart, and a vision. When her father dies, she teaches herself to make beads in secret, and her work supports the Rosso family fortunes.Skipping like a stone through the centuries, in a Venice where time moves as slowly as molten glass, we follow Orsola and her family as they live through creative triumph and heartbreaking loss, from a plague devastating Venice to Continental soldiers stripping its palazzos bare, from the domination of Murano and its maestros to the transformation of the city of trade into a city of tourists. In every era, the Rosso women ensure that their work, and their bonds, endure.Chevalier is a master of her own craft, and The Glassmaker is as inventive as it is spellbinding: a mesmerizing portrait of a woman, a family, and a city that are as everlasting as their glass.
R 405.00
A Short Life
‘What are you thinking about?’ ‘I think I might have killed someone’ How far would you go to protect the ones you love? Two car accidents take place on the same night, on the same stretch of twisting valley road. One is fatal, and six friends’ lives will never be the same. Only two of them know what really happened that night – and one will stop at nothing to get to the truth. When your life is on the line, who can you really trust? Nicky Greenwall is a former TV-presenter, entertainment journalist and producer. Her print journalism has been featured in Marie Claire, Elle, Glamour, and the Sunday Times. A Short Life is her debut novel.
R 310.00
Fire and Bones
#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs returns with a new twisty, unputdownable thriller featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.It's never easy working fire scenes.Called to Washington, DC to analyse the victims of a mysterious arson attack, Tempe quickly finds her misgivings justified. The fire site is in Foggy Bottom, a neighbourhood with a colourful history, and as the pieces start falling into place, the property's ownership becomes more and more suspicious.Sensing a good story, Tempe teams up with a new ally, tele-journalist Ivy Doyle. Delving into the past, the duo learns that back in the Thirties and Forties the home was the hangout of a group of bootleggers and racketeers known as the Foggy Bottom Gang.Though interesting, this fact seems irrelevant until the son of one of the gang members is shot dead at his farm in Virginia.When another Foggy Bottom Gang-linked property burns to the ground, claiming one more victim, what might have been coincidence starts to look more like targeted attacks. As she and Ivy dig deeper, Tempe's instincts point towards the obvious: somehow, her every move since coming to Washington has been anticipated in advance. And every path forward brings with it a lethal threat.
R 400.00
There are Rivers in the Sky
This is the story of one lost poem, two great rivers, and three remarkable lives – all connected by a single drop of water.In the ruins of Nineveh, that ancient city of Mesopotamia, there lies hidden in the sand fragments of a long-forgotten poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh.In Victorian London, an extraordinary child is born at the edge of the dirt-black Thames. Arthur’s only chance of escaping poverty is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a printing press, Arthur’s world opens up far beyond the slums, with one book soon sending him across the seas: Nineveh and Its Remains.In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a Yazidi girl living by the River Tigris, waits to be baptised with water brought from the holy sit of Lalish in Iraq. The ceremony is cruelly interrupted, and soon Narin and her grandmother must journey across war-torn lands in the hope of reaching the sacred valley of their people.In 2018 London, broken-hearted Zaleekhah, a hydrologist, moves to a houseboat on the Thames to escape the wreckage of her marriage. Zaleekhah foresees a life drained of all love and meaning – until an unexpected connection to her homeland changes everything.A dazzling feat of storytelling from one of the greatest writers of our time, Elif Shafak’s There are Rivers in the Sky is a rich, sweeping novel that spans centuries, continents and cultures, entwined by rivers, rains, and waterdrops:‘Water remembers. It is humans who forget.’
R 400.00
And So I Roar
'Daré has proved, once again, that she is a masterful storyteller to be reckoned with' TARA M. STRINGFELLOW, author of Memphis 'An edge-of-your-seat return to the world of The Girl with the Louding Voice' CHARMAINE WILKERSON, author of Black Cake Plucky fourteen-year-old Adunni is in Lagos, excited to finally enrol in school. Having escaped her rural village in a desperate bid to seek a better future, she's found refuge with Tia, a kind and brilliant woman on her own troubled journey of self-discovery. But it's not so simple to run away from your past. On the night before she is due to join her new classmates for her first lesson, a terrible knocking at the front gate summons Adunni back to her home village, Ikati, where her dramatic story of resilience first begun. As Tia frantically tries to protect her from an uncertain fate, Adunni must try to save not only herself but all the young women of her village, and transform Ikati into a place where girls are allowed to claim the bright futures they deserve - and roar their stories to the world. PRAISE FOR ABI DARÉ'S THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE 'A brave, fresh voice . . . unforgettable' NEW YORK TIMES 'The book character I love the most' MAGGIE O'FARRELL 'The words jump off the page' GUARDIAN
R 390.00
By Any Other Name
What if the greatest writer of all time isn’t who we think he is? What if he isn’t even a he? Step back four hundred years and discover the female author who hid behind the mask of the man we know as William Shakespeare . . . In 1581, Emilia Bassano is allowed no voice of her own. But as the Lord Chamberlain’s mistress she has access to the theatre and finds a way to bring her work to the stage secretly. And yet, creating some of the world’s greatest dramatic masterpieces comes at a great cost: by paying a man for the use of his name, she will write her own out of history. His name? William Shakespeare . . . In modern day New York, playwright Melina Green is determined to see one of her shows make the stage. After years of struggle to be recognized she has finally written again, inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor — Emilia Bassano, England’s first published female poet. Although the challenges are different for her, four hundred years later, a woman’s voice is still not heard like a man’s. But what lengths will she be willing to go to in order to achieve her dreams? Moving between Elizabethan England and modern-day Manhattan, By Any Other Name is a beautifully written, compelling novel that explores the theme of identity and the ways in which two women, centuries apart—one of whom might just be the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—are both forced to hide behind another name to make their voices heard.
R 400.00
Die Keiser se Duim
Ella Neser en Lou Pepler werk weer saam as private ondersoekers. Maar die dag voor Ella op pad is Brugge toe, daag ’n familielid van Lou se eks op en smeek hulle om hulp. Liesbet se broer en sy neef is wynboere wat in Hongarye op ’n wynlandgoed naby Boedapest werk. Maar nou het hulle verdwyn. Lou moet tog dringend die twee jong boere in een stuk terugbring. So vertrek Ella na België, en Lou na Boedapest. Maar iewers duskant die Donau regeer daar ’n mafioso met die mag van ’n keiser.
R 360.00
Hans Hou Bruilof
Wanneer die bejaarde maar onstuitbare Hans besluit om te trou, laat sy aanstaande bruid se ryk familie die troureëlings aan ’n befaamde troubeplanner, Alexander Fokkens, oor. Maar Hans wil keer dat die troue in ’n spektakel ontaard. En gou besef Fokkens dat Hans van Kraaienburg hom nie laat hiet en gebied nie. Toe vriend Vasie boonop ondeurdagte planne beraam om geld te maak uit die onthaal, voel Hans aan sy broek se pype dat die bruilof op ’n ramp afstuur.
R 290.00
Heks
Die verteller in Heks vind haar toevlug in sprokies en mites. Terwyl die wêreld die oorlog in Oekraïne op TV-skerms gadeslaan, verdiep sy haar in die mitologie van dié land – ook as skans teen die toenemende vyandelikheid in haar huwelik. ’n Ongeoorloofde verhouding maak ’n besieldheid in haar wakker. Sy beroep haar op dié nuwe krag toe sy van ongerymdhede bewus word by die kosmetiekmaatskappy vir wie sy bemarkingskopie skryf. Dis tyd om beheer van haar eie verhaal neem.
R 330.00
Here One Moment
The new novel from the worldwide Number One bestselling author behind the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning HBO series Big Little Lies and recent smash hit bestseller Apples Never Fall. We’re all so busy, caught up in life's moments, big and small . . . The flight attendant working a shift on her birthday. The mother struggling alone with two young children. The newlyweds excited about their tropical honeymoon. The overworked father missing his kid’s big show. The young man returning from his best friend’s funeral. The ER nurse wondering what retirement will bring. All strangers. All unsuspecting. Each with a life heading in a particular direction – or so they imagine. Because an elderly woman is about to step into each of their paths. In just a few words, she will make a prediction, tying herself to all of them. And, in being bound to her, these disparate strangers will all face similar existential dilemmas. .Who is this woman? Is she a genuine clairvoyant? A charlatan? The answer to prayers, or a harbinger of nightmares? What she will prove to be is an agent of chaos, fraying relationships, putting entire futures into doubt and causing the most ordered of lives to unravel in the most unexpected of ways . . . Praise for Liane Moriarty: 'One of the few writers I'll drop anything for' Jojo Moyes 'An engrossing mashup of family drama and psychological suspense that offers a mystery. Complex and satisfying. Perfect holiday reading' Guardian 'Keeps you guessing until the very end' Reese Witherspoon'Moriarty writes vividly, wittily and wickedly' Sunday Express'Had me utterly hooked' Daily Mail
R 400.00
In Too Deep
Reacher had no idea where he was. No idea how he had got there. But someone must have brought him. And shackled him. And whoever had done those things was going to rue the day. That was for damn sure. Jack Reacher wakes up, alone, in the dark, handcuffed to a makeshift bed. His right arm has suffered some major damage. His few possessions are gone. He has no memory of getting there. The last thing Reacher can recall is the car he hitched a ride in getting run off the road. The driver was killed. His captors assume Reacher was the driver's accomplice and patch up his wounds as they plan to make him talk. A plan that will backfire spectacularly . . .'There's only one Jack Reacher. Accept no substitutes.' MICK HERRON Although the Jack Reacher novels can be read in any order, In Too Deep is the 29th book in the internationally bestselling series. And be sure not to miss Reacher no.28, The Secret!
R 395.00
Intermezzo
From the author of the multimillion-copy bestseller Normal People, an exquisitely moving story about grief, love and family. Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties - successful, competent and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father's death, he's medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women - his enduring first love Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude - a period of desire, despair and possibility - a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.
R 390.00
Leo
'Unquestionably the supremo of South African crime-writing fiction' - Peter James Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido are languishing in Stellenbosch. Run-of-the-mill police work in the leafy university town is a far cry from their previous life in the elite HAWKS. But when a student is found dead on a mountain trail, the two detectives find themselves trying to unpick a stubbornly difficult mystery. In the north of the country, meanwhile, a beautiful wildlife guide is recruited by a group of special forces soldiers to act as a honeytrap, part a dangerous multi-million-dollar heist that goes tragically wrong. Then back in Stellenbosch, a local businessman is found murdered in what looks like a professional hit - suffocated by fast-action filler foam sprayed down his throat. A message to keep silent - but about what? You need a cool head to unravel it all, because sadly, the thieves and criminals are as likely to be in government - or even the police - as on the streets. You need to stay calm, focused - and sober. Benny may be sober these days, but he's not feeling calm. Solving this puzzle is turning into a deadly race against time and there's another date that's coming towards him like an express train. Alexa has fixed the date for their wedding. Big trouble, on every front.
R 395.00
Love Marry Kill
In South Africa, homicides are sometimes for insurance. But sometimes the insurance is just an added bonus.In Bryanston, Johannesburg, one couple has loved, married and is plodding on after surviving a betrayal. In Fourways, Johannesburg, a man is holding on to a secret that he cannot share with his wife. Then on a rainy summer’s night, as if conspired by the universe, the lives of the two couples are forever changed. An instant connection leads to a safe and healing love, one that not even a designated WhatsApp family group or attempts at seduction can extinguish. But love is messy, and life is complicated. And when a stylish man with a prosthetic right arm shows up brandishing a .44 Magnum, the lovers may just discover how some great love stories end. That sometimes ‘till death do us part’ has a different meaning to different people
R 330.00
The Creation of Half-Broken People
Showcasing African Gothic at its finest, this hypnotic novel tangles together classic texts of madness and female rebellion alongside elements of the jingoistic novels of Victorian adventurer H. Rider Haggard. The result is an extraordinary reinvention of colonial and patriarchal perspectives. The unnamed narrator spins a web back through a century of colonial possession – political, spiritual and mental – to imagine the stories of conquest and captivity, control and disruption, from the perspective of the women and men ‘half-broken’ by the stigmas attached to race and mental illness. Equally ‘half-broken’ are those dehumanised by their insane greed for dominion and treasure. With trademark compassion and complexity, Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu balances the humanity of her characters against the cruelty of empire, making for a spellbinding and literally haunting account of love and magic.
R 360.00
The Map of Bones
A sweeping story of love, adventure and adversity, The Map of Bones by Kate Mosse is the sequel to the number one bestselling The Ghost Ship. 'Mosse is a master storyteller' – Madeleine Miller, bestselling author of Circe Olifantshoek, Southern Africa, 1688. When the violent Cape wind blows from the south-east, they say the voices of the unquiet dead can be heard whispering through the deserted valley. Suzanne Joubert, a Huguenot refugee from war-torn France, arrives in search of her cousin – the notorious she-captain and pirate commander Louise Reydon-Joubert – who landed at the Cape of Good Hope more than sixty years before, then disappeared without a trace . . . Franschhoek, Southern Africa, 1862. Nearly one hundred and eighty years after Suzanne’s perilous journey, another intrepid woman of the Joubert family – Isabelle Lepard – has journeyed to the small frontier town once known as Oliftantshoek in search of her long-lost relations. Intent on putting the women of her family back into the history books, she quickly discovers that the tragedies and crimes of the past are far from over. Isabelle faces a race against time if she is not only going to discover the truth, but also escape with her life . . .Painstakingly researched and beautifully told, The Map of Bones is the fourth – and final – novel of The Joubert Family Chronicles, following the bestselling The Burning Chambers, The City of Tears and The Ghost Ship. Praise for The Joubert Family Chronicles: 'Gripping, complex and intensely atmospheric' – The Mail on Sunday on The Burning Chambers 'A historical epic' – The Observer on The City of Tears 'Meticulously researched and stunningly written' – Santa Montefiore, bestselling author of Wait for Me, on The Ghost Ship The Ghost Ship by Kate Mosse was a #1 Sunday Times bestseller w/c 09-07-23
R 399.00
The Tea Merchant
It is 2005, a time of silent anticipation and hidden possibilities in the rugged Cederberg mountains. Cameron Coal is embroiled in a desperate fight to save his family’s rooibos farm, which is a hair’s breadth from bankruptcy, while wrestling overwhelming grief after his wife’s death and trying to build a relationship with his blind daughter. His father, John, might be the family’s last hope to save their farm from an enemy lurking in plain sight. But in the shadows, Cameron’s brother, Sole, harbours a secret that could shatter their world. Amid the chaos of a veld fire, Cameron’s gaze falls upon an enigmatic nurse, Luna Parks, who is new to their town. As Luna and Cameron grow closer, her mysterious past and closely guarded secrets could shatter the very foundation of their relationship.In the meantime, several questions must be answered: Who wanted Cameron’s wife dead? How far will Cameron go to keep his enemies at bay? Will Luna ever tell him the truth about her past? Who really owns South Africa’s indigenous plant, the illustrious rooibos? And will Cameron’s decisions cost another life, or will they ensure the rise of the Tea Merchant?
R 310.00
We Solve Murders
FROM THE #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB A brand new series. An iconic new detective duo. And a thrilling new murder to solve . . . -----Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favourite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now. Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job . . .Then a dead body, a bag of money and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a deadly enemy?
R 400.00
Milk and Honey 10th Anniversary Special Edition
This stunning new hardcover book celebrates the journey of Rupi Kaur and milk and honey. 40 new original poems and 20 new illustrations Full-color, never-before-seen photos and memorabilia Illuminating introduction and handwritten diary entries by Rupi Heartfelt annotations from Rupi and some of today’s most respected voices Since its debut, milk and honey has sold more than 6 million copies globally, becoming the highest-selling book of poetry in the 21st century and propelling Rupi Kaur into the stratosphere as the voice of a generation. milk and honey have taken millions of readers on a shared journey through life’s most emotional moments, reminding us along the way that there is sweetness everywhere, if only we are willing to look. An exceptional volume, the milk and honey 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition is a must-have keepsake that will be treasured by longtime fans as well as readers new to the work that transformed poetry in our time.
R 605.00
