Debut Highlights

When Nomandla is awarded a scholarship to attend the prestigious Cameron House for Girls in Durban, she thinks her life will improve. Instead, it falls apart.Growing up in Ziyabuya township, Nomandla battles poverty, racism, and her own mental health. She is pursued by visions which result in her being hospitalised, and is then made to accompany her father on Saturdays to his gardening job at the home of the Smith family. It is here that she first encounters Casey, a girl who will play a significant role in turning her life upside down, destroying her hope of a better future. Meanwhile, at Cameron House, Nomandla learns that, as a scholarship girl, she is expected to showcase gratitude as well as her culture, being regarded as little more than a display of transformation, unity and acceptance. Unfortunately, the reality is very different. Andile Cele’s beautiful debut novel considers the complexities around identity, its ties to shame, grief, and to South Africa’s painful history. Braids & Migraines follows Nomandla as she comes to a place of personal understanding and acceptance, without compromise.

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So, this was a hot flush. The utterly pointless flag-bearer of menopause. That explained a lot. She held her body as upright as possible on the cramped seat, like one of those hot-stepping lizards in the Namib desert and tried to look like she was having a detecting epiphany. ‘Shame, you’re really sweating, hey,’ said Gladys. ‘Don’t worry. It’s coming for you, too.’ Normally quick witted and sharp eyed, Detective Fatima Matthews is being sucker punched by menopause, and that’s not even the half of it. Someone is playing deadly games with a local publisher, there’s a reader found dead with melted eyes and just when she could really use the career boost, her internal polygraph has decided to flatline. As the threats escalate and one crisis triggers another, Fatima must come to terms with what it means to face your frailties, and whether a second chance is really possible when your greatest adversary is time. With plagiarism scandals, buried secrets and red herrings aplenty, Andrea Shaw’s thrilling debut gives the local publishing industry its moment in the sun.

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THE MARTAIN meets THE EXPANSE in this page turning debut science-fiction mystery****This is the story of the first human being born on Mars: Rose Fuller. She saw a better future than the one we were given and gave her life to build it.It's a story about Dylan Ward, a woman who grew up in the frontier of human existence and misses it every single day.It's a story about a man who went missing, and the man who wants to find out what he knew.It's a story about what makes us human - and how we might live once we leave our home.This is the story of the first murder on Mars.

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"I am the Shadow of the Lion. The one who will survive deaths without number. The one who has lost everyone. The one wounded and betrayed. I am not the Lion. He is dead. I am his Shadow. I am his revenge." Amkela has always fought beside his older brother Nenkani, the Lion of the West and last hope of their people against the invading Karaphi Empire. But when they are betrayed and hunted by Imperial airships, Amkela is offered power and revenge by an imprisoned being of visions and vines called dreaming-what-is-to-come. Thrust from his brother's shadow, Amkela must lead his people to freedom while keeping secret the terrible price he's paid. When the shadow of the Empire falls across him, will Amkela be strong enough to save his people? Will he be strong enough to survive?

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Game guide Alexandra Carnell-Ellis is principled, doesn’t suffer fools, and is generally not too fond of ordinary people either. When she’s fired from The Plains, a commercial ‘Ferrari Safari’-type game reserve in the Karoo for being rude to guests, she’s determined to make a fresh start. She lands a dream job at an exclusive game reserve in Mpumalanga, but Alex’s new beginning appears to be doomed from the start as she arrives at the lodge with attitude, a few facts about her that aren’t strictly true, and a stolen dog in tow. For one, she had pretended to be a man in her application, because she is convinced that khaki fever gives male guides an advantage. Alex struggles to control her unruly tongue and almost immediately makes enemies with the camp manager and the owner’s terrifyingly scary girlfriend, who can’t wait to expose Alex’s deepest darkest secrets. She finds love in the form of the level-headed and attractive head guide, but it’s not long before everything goes wrong. After impulsively abandoning her vehicle and guests to rescue an abandoned baby baboon, a storm breaks over her head and she flees the reserve. Will she ever be able to find her way back? 

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Azania Sethosa receives a call from former politician Joseph ‘Lefty’ Mafu’s lawyer to notify her of Lefty’s death. She decides to go to Knysna to seek answers about his life and the circumstances surrounding his death. But soon her quest for closure becomes intertwined with detective Florian Welter’s investigation. The seemingly straightforward case quickly turns into a complicated web of conspiracies. But the truth is as elusive as whoever is behind it all. If only the dead could talk...  

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