When she answers a call from an old friend, Dr Erin Taylor is catapulted into the drama of decades past.  In 1996, three university students united to investigate the assault of a fellow student, Rina. But Erin and ‘The Furies’, as they called themselves, unwittingly triggered a time bomb. Two decades later, at a reunion lunch, Rina does not arrive. Within hours, Erin is missing as well, fighting for her life.  Double-Edged:  Past actions and present decisions — her choices will draw blood.

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Andzani’s childhood community has become a shadow in his Cape Town life that holds him hostage. He minimizes his visits back home to Mbambamencisi as a way to evade unpleasant, long-repressed memories. But as the past ruptures in the present, another Grindr binge fails to offer respite. A Soft Landing is a powerful coming-of-age story about trauma, healing, family, and the courage to love and be loved.

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Longing for independence, a young sheltered Kenyan woman flees the expectations of her mother for a life in New York City that challenges all her beliefs about race, love, and family.   'Readers will find a poignant, memorable voice they’ll feel lucky to have met.'  - Harper’s Bazaar (Best Summer Beach Reads of 2023)   Soila is a lucky girl by anyone’s estimation. Raised by her stern, conservative mother and a chorus of aunts, she has lived a protected life in Nairobi. Soila is headstrong and outspoken, and she chafes against her mother’s strict rules. After a harrowing assault by a trusted family friend, she flees to New York for college, vowing never to return home.   New York in the 1990s is not what Soila imagined it would be. Instead of finding a golden land of opportunity, Soila is shocked by the entitlement of her wealthy American classmates and the poverty she sees in the streets. She befriends a Black American girl at school and witnesses the insidious racism her friend endures, forcing Soila to begin to acknowledge the legacy of slavery and the blind spots afforded by her Kenyan upbringing. When she falls in love with a free-spirited artist, a man her mother would never approve of, she must decide whether to honor her Kenyan identity and what she owes to her family, or to follow her heart and forge a life of her own design.   Lucky Girl  is a fierce and tender debut about the lives and loves we choose—what it meant to be an African immigrant in America at the turn of the millennium, and how a young woman finds a place for herself in the world.

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From the acclaimed author of The List and Songs and Secrets, At Fire Hour is a sweeping, soulful novel that tells the story of Bhekisizwe Makhatini, a young black South Africa writer, detained and forced into exile, who undergoes a creative writing masters in the UK and military training with the ANC in Angola and in the Soviet Union, and faces the angst of choosing between his writing and his passionate desire to pit his new military skills against the apartheid regime. But Makhatini faces another challenge – suspicion by his ANC comrades that he was released from detention in return for spying on the ANC, that lingers throughout his exile life and beyond. But, is he a sellout? In the words of Mandla Langa: Despite its celebration of other writers, musicians, poets – the cultural workers, to use the parlance of the liberation movement – this, in the end is a story of betrayal and intrigue and, like Gilder’s earlier works, especially, The List, is a novel that dredges up the shameful betrayals by people whose actions precipitated incalculable losses and reversals. The writer takes a lot of risks in telling this story, going deep into his imagination to recreate a series of landscapes which form the staging grounds for acts of courage, love, commitment and of course, the very obverse side of this coin. For verisimilitude, he recreates platforms, such as the Culture and Resistance Conference that took place in 1982 in Gaborone, Botswana; Culture in Another South Africa (CASA) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1987, to name a few. The scenes are believable for the simple reason that the writer was present in almost all these arenas and captures the texture of the interactions among the vast gallery of players. He reconstructs conversations between the attendees, for instance, in Amsterdam writers such as the late Lewis Nkosi and Wally Serote exchange views with Bheki Makhathini and his partner Pumla, an underground agent of the ANC.

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Aged eighteen, Caster Semenya shot to fame on the global sporting stage for her blistering speed. But shrouding her monumental win were fierce rumours about her physical body rather than her phenomenal performance. Called ‘a threat to the sport’ and ‘not woman enough’, she found herself at the centre of the debate around the newly drawn line between gender and sport. Throughout the intense speculation, harmful rumours and long legal battle she has remained quiet, letting her running do the talking until she was banned from competing and defending her Olympic title in 2020. Now, Caster is ready to own her story and tell it in full. In this book, Caster speaks openly about growing up in a loving family and community that never regarded her as different, just Caster; of her early years understanding her agency, sexuality and athletic ability; and of her infectious spirit and tenacity to be the best. Told with conviction and humour, The Race To Be Myself is the story of a life lived in the spotlight, a manifesto for acceptance and change for all. This is the unforgettable story of one of the most recognisable athletes in the world, and of a woman’s journey to run free.

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Twenty-nine-year-old Zola has spent the past 15 years working and studying in Europe thanks to a series of high school bursaries and opportunities that allowed her to escape the hardships of South Africa. But when her visa finally expires and there are no further prospects in sight, she has no choice but to leave behind her life, lover and the dreams she has begun to build in Germany and return home to an uncertain future. The Thing with Zola is a humorous and sexy beach read about a young woman navigating the working world, family politics and an unexpected office romance, all while trying to figure out her place in a country that no longer feels like home. Basically, it's complicated.

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Writer Daniel Hawthorne is packing up his mother’s house in Johannesburg when he hears about the disappearance of Sam Webster, the beautiful daughter of his friend, the famous historian Bruce Webster. When the body of Sam appears briefly on the banks of the flooded Buffalo River, Daniel decides to visit the Websters’ luxury lodge in the heart of Zululand. Under the guise of researching a new novel about his disgraced ancestor, the lepidopterist Lieutenant Charles Hawthorne, who fought in the Battle of iSandlwana, Daniel starts to investigate the reasons for Sam’s disappearance. The lines between loyalty and betrayal, love and hate, cowardice and courage, redemption and shame, soon become blurred as Daniel gets closer to the truth. Written in Craig Higginson’s masterful prose, The Ghost of Sam Webster is at once a war novel, a murder mystery, a multi-layered love story and a robust reassertion of what it is to remain human during the most challenging times.

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How do you begin a murder story starring a curious foreigner and an opportunistic local without giving away the entire plot—who died and why? You start with the obvious villain.2019, The Year of Return. It has been exactly 400 years since the first slave ships left Ghana for America. Ghana has now opened its doors to Black diasporans, encouraging them to return and get to know the land of their ancestors.Elton, Vincent, and Scott arrive from America to visit preserved sites from the transatlantic slave route, and to explore the country's underground queer scene. Their activities are narrated by their two combative guides: Kobby, their way into Accra's privileged circles; and Nana, the voice of tradition and religious principle. The pair's tense relationship sets the tone for what becomes a shocking and unsettling tale of murder that is at times funny, at times erotic, yet always outspoken and iconoclastic.

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Khulu Radebe already had had a full life before discovering at the age of 50 that he was a king. As a teenager, he teamed with other Alexandra Township youth to carry out the 1976 uprisings just prior to the Soweto rising. Arrested and sent to Robben Island, he was one of the youngest prisoners there. He served six years on the island with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki, amongst others. After returning to Alex, he helped organise the township during the 1986 Six Days War. He joined the armed struggle, repeatedly dodging death from the enemy and fellow MK soldiers in Angola, and later travelled the globe as a drummer for the ANC’s Amandla Cultural Ensemble. At age 50, and proving a midwife’s prediction correct, Khulu Radebe learned about his royal roots. He was informed that he was ruler of the AmaHlubi people of the Embo Nation, a nation that stretches along the east coast of Africa. In chronicling Radebe’s extraordinary life and times, this landmark biography tells, in a humane, vivid and deeply political way, of the revolutionary path for freedom in South Africa, and the role traditional leaders can play in shaping the nation’s future. Gripping and original, Comrade King makes a powerful contribution to understanding South Africa’s past and present at a critical moment in the nation’s history.

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Coloured as an ethnicity and racial demographic is intertwined in the creation of the South Africa we have today. Yet often, Coloured communities are disdained as people with no clear heritage or culture — ‘not being black enough or white enough. Coloured challenges this notion and presents a different angle to that narrative. It delves into the history of Coloured people as descendants of indigenous Africans and a people whose identity was shaped by colonisation, slavery, and the racial political hierarchy it created. Although rooted in a difficult history, this book is also about the culture that Coloured communities have created for themselves through food, music, and shared lived experiences in communities such as Eldorado Park, Eersterus, and Wentworth. Coloured culture is an act of defiance and resilience. Coloured is a reflection on, and celebration of Coloured identities as lived experiences. It is a call to Coloured communities to reclaim their identity and an invitation to understand the history and place of Coloured people in the making of South Africa’s future.

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Why do some states thrive, grow their economies and uplift their people, while others, facing similar challenges, slide into low growth, social dysfunction and failure? After decades of work on the ground in Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, bestselling author Greg Mills seeks to provide answers in Rich State, Poor State. After decades of work on the ground in Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, bestselling author Greg Mills seeks to provide answers in Rich State, Poor State. On each continent he traverses, Mills interrogates the how and why. How did Botswana go from being one of the least-developed and poorest nations at independence to enjoying the highest rate of per capita growth of any country in the world? Why has South Africa failed to attain similar heights? How did the Baltic states achieve reforms that have positioned them among the best-performing economies in Europe? How did Vietnam overcome a traumatic past in favour of a rapid and positive development transformation? Why is Mexico the only large developing economy that competes with China in manufacturing? Drawing from interviews with current and former presidents, prime ministers and key government officials across the globe, as well as research from leading institutions to enrich his fieldwork, Mills contrasts the successes and the failures, and in so doing, seeks to determine a path for the next generation of leaders.Insightful and inspiring, Rich State, Poor State shows that with better choices, the right policies and the will to implement them, it is entirely possible to travel the road from poverty to prosperity.

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Senidlile Kodwa? is the third cookbook from Zanele van Zyl. Based on the isiZulu phrase, which means ‘have you eaten yet?’, a question asked by every mother, aunty or grandmother when you enter their home, Senidlile Kodwa? is an expression of Zanele’s identity, her love language, and the joy she finds in preparing food for other people. Filled with 100 simple yet tasty recipes, the book is a celebration of food, whether you’re cooking for yourself or the people you love. Expect everything from bright and cheery breakfasts; wholesome veggies; meaty mains with heart; a signature Sunday spread; traditional village favourites; simply delicious sides; and, of course, something sweet to round it all off. And, in true Zanele fashion, these recipes all show that cooking beautiful food can be fun and unintimidating!

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After matriculating from a top private Jewish school in Joburg, Nikki Munitz finds herself in the clutches of heroin addiction. She's sent to Noupoort, a rehab centre in the remote Northern Cape, run by a pastor who brandishes a tattoo of Satan. In this hellhole, she meets Jake, the handsome son of a wealthy Afrikaans family. Lured by the illusion of her ‘happy-ever-after’, she marries him - but the façade of her new family soon crumbles. Money is in short supply, so Nikki gets a job at a law firm and starts syphoning money from trust accounts. By the time her R2,5 million fraud is discovered, she has been clean and sober for five years. A grueling court battle follows, and she is found guilty on 37 counts of fraud. Fraud is a powerful memoir about the unmasking of the self. It's the tale of a young Jewish mother who is forced to examine a life of lies and deceit from behind bars, until an unexpected encounter in the grimy prison gives Nikki her wings to fly free.

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A shrewd yet soulful novel, Paperless is set in Oxford and revolves around three groups in the university town: the African students who entered the country legally on student visas, the blue-collar South African workers who overstayed their visitor visas and are illegal, and black Britons who are an enigma to the Africans. As the chief protagonist Luzuko Goba navigates these worlds, his relationship with his former political exile father – who has just died – is revealed. This is a book about migrants, legal and illegal, out of time, on the wrong side of the UK’s department of immigration. They are paperless.

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Bounce: How to Raise Resilient Kids and Teens is an easy-to-read, effective guide that can make an immediate difference to your parenting approach and your relationship with your children. Based on years of experience as a parent and a parenting expert, it provides accessible information and advice, thought provoking exercises and proven techniques. Bounce will help you tackle this messy and beautiful journey of life and parenting in a very human way.

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In a moment of madness, Costa Ayiotis, a former United Nations diplomat, quits the Joburg rat race and opens a Greek taverna in Hout Bay. The local barflies and village idiots predict his demise in a notoriously fickle seasonal town. He is determined to prove them wrong. In this refreshingly hilarious rollercoaster of a ride, Costa's fiery Greek temperament is tested by a constant stream of customers from all corners of the planet. A book for anyone who ever yearned to escape from it all.    

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Peter Truman SC, beloved family patriarch and a leader in the Cape Town legal fraternity with widespread accolade and admiration, is days away from an official inquest into the mysterious death of his family’s au pair. Told through his own lenses, one current and one retrospective, A Weakness to Die For delves into the dark and powerful demons of his past that Peter becomes driven to confront, leading to his ultimate personal victory.

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