May Local Non-fiction

Forensic pathologist Ryan Blumenthal works in a world few people are ever exposed to . . . the mortuary. He spends his days among the dead, uncovering how they died and whether a crime was committed. To date, he has performed over 13 000 autopsies. In Trace, Ryan takes readers behind the scenes of some of the strange death scenes he has attended, such as a shallow grave beside a river where a body was found with an amputated finger.

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I was here. This happened. It mattered. And now, I am ready to carry on. This is not a book about breakups. It’s about erasure. About the quiet harm that can live inside love, the kind that doesn’t leave bruises on the skin but rewrites the architecture of your mind. It's for anyone who's wondered whether they were overreacting, too sensitive, too much, too little. Anyone who has asked, ‘Am I the problem?’ Joy Watson’s exquisite excavation of the female psyche traces the inner lives of three women: Zara, Mira and Thuli. Their stories unfold in fragments, with beginnings, middles and endings that are not always clean, and are interwoven with reflections from the author’s own experience. These are real stories, lightly fictionalised to protect those who lived them. If you have ever felt lonelier in a relationship than you were on your own, this book is for you. And as you begin again, you are not alone.

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A lost boy. A fractured family. A continent that will test them all.  Vilna, 1889. Eight-year-old Izzy Lieberman leaves his snow-covered homeland with only his father, escaping the pogroms and bound for a new life at the edge of the world - Cape Town, South Africa. But amid the chaos of the port, as tensions rise in the days before the Anglo-Boer War, Izzy’s father vanishes. In the confusion, Izzy is left behind - forgotten, frightened, and convinced he has been farfolen - thrown away.  Alone on the harsh streets of Cape Town, Izzy learns to survive among the city’s homeless boys who become his only family. Years later, drawn north to the diamond diggings of Kimberley, he toils under the blazing African sun with them, unearthing both fortune and sorrow.  Eleven years after his disappearance, the once-abandoned boy arrives in Johannesburg a man - scarred by hardship, hardened by survival - and comes face-to-face with the family he thought he had lost forever. And as Izzy stands on the threshold of a new life, he finally understands that even those who are lost can find their way home.  The Boy in the Barrel is a sweeping historical journey from Eastern Europe to the raw, restless soul of Africa - a story of survival, forgiveness, and the unbreakable bonds of family.

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This book tells the extraordinary true story of how two visionary South Africans transformed a dream born in the Cape Flats into a powerhouse listed on the JSE. This isn't just another business book --it's a gripping testament to the power of determination, community, and economic transformation in post-apartheid South Africa. Brimstone was founded in 1995 by an accountant, Mustaq Brey, and an insurance salesman, Fred Robertson, who did not want to leave their community behind. In that same year, they acquired a stake in Oceana, raising initial capital of R3m from community shareholders in the Cape Flats. Brimstone is the longest listed Black company on the JSE -- since 1998. In that time, they have triumphed over financial crisis, resisted hostile takeovers, recovered from poor investments and continued to pull ahead. This is an inspiring story of small beginnings, resilience and a social conscience in business.

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