The Sunday Times Literary Awards: Fiction Longlist

Welcome to Vivo, where the only cemetery is run by old Mateus and his dog, God. Mateus’s eyes aren’t so good these days, which is why he has been burying bodies in the wrong graves, and also why, while out walking with God, he trips over a young homeless girl. On a whim, Mateus decides to appoint the girl as his apprentice. Novo, who has been sleeping on the street with a dog-eared copy of The Savage Detectives as her pillow, is determined to reorganise the cemetery, but she will have to hurry: buried awry, divorced from their names, the ghosts of Vivo are accumulating, unable to proceed to the afterlife without knowing who they are. Also, someone, or some thing, is on the loose, killing people and closing in on the one person who can make things right. Vivo is a town with a pigeon-messaging service, a phone booth used for romantic encounters, and a number of residents who are not quite what they seem, including a prostitute, a professor and a prophetic flower-seller. Oh, and the coffee is hellishly strong. Erudite and wise, magical and quirky, Sven Axelrad’s debut novel is an enchanting adventure that explores what our names mean to us and who we are without them.

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In infinite parallel universes, there’s a version of you who already has everything you’ve ever wanted. But 24-year-old drop-out Bridge is paralysed, by all the other lives she could have lived, the choices she could have made, and now, whoever she’s supposed to be in the wake of her mother’s premature death. They always had a complicated relationship. Jo was the teenage runaway turned maverick neuroscientist who threw everything away chasing after an impossibility – a mysterious artefact – the dreamworm – that allows you to switch between realities. And now she’s dead and any chance of reconciliation with her is gone. But is Jo really gone ... or only in this universe? When Bridge and her best friend Dom stumble on the dreamworm, which does indeed open the doors to other worlds, otherselves, she becomes convinced her mom is lost out there. But the dreamworm is more dangerous than she can imagine, and she’s not the only one hunting across time and space. Page-turning and ambitious, Bridge is a dazzlingly inventive speculative thriller with an unforgettable cast of characters, and the work of a novelist at the height of her powers.

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The Weight of Shade is a haunting, gothic tale that explores the bearing of the past on our lives and whether we can ever escape the circumstances thrust upon us. In the rural Marico district of the Northwest Province, an orphaned boy, Agni, arrives at a lonely farmhouse in a valley. There he meets Esmeralda, the old woman who never leaves the shadows of her room, and the mysterious Kagiso, who has always lived on the property. He does not know why he was brought to this place, but as he spends his days in lessons with Esmeralda and discovers the secrets of the land from Kagiso, he begins to experience occurrences, which haunt his waking hours and dreams. Meanwhile, in a nearby town, Nikus has just finished high school. He longs to leave the Marico for the distant city and saves money by working as a handyman at the eerie old farmhouse. His only friends are the local drunk and the owner of The Outpost Deli, but Nikus also begins to spend time with the girlfriend of his best friend, who had already left for the big world. She gives Nikus hope in a different future, and together they plan to escape.

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‘Why can you not be friends anymore?’It was the story of his country, he supposed. Perhaps they could have been friends. Perhaps they were once. The reasons were complex, full of feeling, disappointment, resentment. And, of course, betrayal. This was the Middle East after all.Avi Dahan, a retired detective mourning his beloved wife in Tel Aviv, and Khalid Mansour, a Palestinian doctor confronting the precarious reality of living in Gaza City, are still reeling from the political fallout that jeopardised their delicate friendship. When a mysterious corpse scarred by history and forbidden love shows up in Khalid’s emergency room, he reaches out to Avi for help. Though the detective is the only one who might be able to assist, he is the last person on earth to agree …The stage is set for Andrew Brown’s unforgettable new novel, The Bitterness of Olives.Did it really matter? In the face of chaos, was it important how she had died? That was the guidance he needed from Avi now. He needed to understand that question: did it matter anymore? Was it of any significance, how you died in a war?

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One morning Laine wakes up to discover that the man she's been married to for 15 years has been secretively living out a monstrous lie. Her world is tilted on its axis. Now she must unstitch her existence, and peck through the pieces of her past... Just as Laine thinks she's reached the end of uncovering all the bitter truths, a child appears who demands her attention. This small, fierce person forces her to see the horror and ignites the tiniest flame of hope within. A brilliant debut novel.

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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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In this novel about being seen and what is not seen, the previously hidden is revealed when the unexpected happens. In the unusually wet winter of 2010, two teenage girls set off to a party on a farm across a river, and disappear without a trace. Six years later, in the worst drought in living memory, a young woman vanishes while on her way home from work on a busy road. In the days following these events, those closest to the missing women are forced to question how well they really know them. Praise for: Beautifully told against the backdrop of modern South Africa, with a cast of lovingly-drawn, relatable characters. Flipped is a deeply moving tale and, at the same time, an unputdownable page turner. Tony Park, journalist and best-selling author I could not tear myself from these pages! A thrilling read with vivid imagery, which makes you question everything on a heart-racing hunt for the truth. Quraisha Dawood, author of Stirring the Pot Hawthorne's darkly honest fiction trips us into believing one thing about this book before she turns the page into another - reeling all-too human nightmares into intertwining stories about pain and love. Janet Smith, journalist and author If you want a break from hard news but still crave something close to headlines, this is a must-read. A kaleidoscope of intersecting lives and emotions, this book tilts you into a journey those grappling with the disappearances of loved ones are forced to navigate. From moms and teens to cops and crooks – and an array of individuals in between – these pages provide an intimate glimpse of the varying realities underpinning what happens when someone basically vanishes. The abrupt voids, the gnawing anxiety, the relentless cycles of questions. Hawthorne deftly delivers all this through the eyes of several characters, some of who feel familiar. She takes us into their contrasting worlds, their homes, and thoughts, and treats us to nuanced views. We dip into gritty organised crime, poorly resourced policing, small town quirks, and tenuous and tight relationships. Hawthorne masterfully merges extensive situations. Flipped first gently then firmly grips you. It transports you away from pages into other spaces and lives. While a work of fiction, given meticulous research and textured detail, this could easily be reality. A reality any one of us could suddenly find ourselves navigating. Caryn Dolley, journalist and author

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From the bestselling author of The Search for the Rarest Bird in the World comes On That Wave of Gulls. An audacious novel, the tale is told by three characters – an architect, a Khoisan vagrant and a seagull, all of whom recount their lives in Cape Town. Hieronymus Vos is an overweight, white architect, recently fallen on hard times, and married to a beautiful, black British-Caribbean woman. Although he hates the ocean, his practice has, until recently, been doing very well by designing glitzy millionaires’ mansions on the Atlantic Seaboard. Pooi is a homeless man, recently arrived from the Kalahari, with a patchy grip on reality. He thinks he is the moon and wants to teach himself to swim so that he can reach Robben Island and fulfil a promise. The third narrator is Calypso, a female seagull who needs to find a mate and lay an egg to pass on her legacy and her identity. On That Wave of Gulls is a shrewd and lyrical tour de force by a natural storyteller. The everlasting story of how men and women relate in the closed system of violence, abuse and intimacy is masterfully told in this vivid novel.

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When Natasha, a novice writer from South Africa, is nominated for a major British literary prize, Terence, a young university lecturer, undertakes to introduce her to the sights of London. However, London and its literary cliques are a far cry from Natasha’s Karoo hometown: through no fault of her own, she is disqualified, and their affair ends in tragedy. Terence, whose best friend accuses him of suffering from a Good Samaritan complex, now takes an interest in a rough sleeper and his dog that he meets outside a tube station. This turns out to be a complex undertaking. As the ghosts of his past relationships are visited upon him, Terence is forced to reconsider the meaning of human connections – how our lives touch, and are touched by, others. Michiel Heyns’s Each Mortal Thing shows us the metropolis through fresh eyes, calculates the cost of acts of kindness, and speaks to the grace that friendship can bestow on us.

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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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Accomplished American artist Stella Wright’s beachside home in Cape Town is perched on the edge of land and sea, safety and vulnerability, the domestic and the wild. When Stella takes an afternoon swim, she is unprepared for the drama that unfolds. She and a nearby surfer are tracked by a giant great white shark that swims close enough so she can look it in the eye, leaving the two of them deeply traumatised. The surfer – Ben – is a waterman who paints trawlers for a living. There is an almost instant attraction between them, but Stella is married to wealthy American financier Jack Barlow, and she and her husband are preparing to leave the country. Stella and Ben begin a passionate affair. The two of them must face their fear of the water; Stella because beaches and oceans form the basis of her art, Ben because surfing is his passion. Into this situation Jack returns from overseas to tie up their affairs and bring Stella back to New York. Stella must make a choice between the man who has reawakened her original passion for art, and the man who can give her everything else the world has to offer. My Side of the Ocean is a novel of great empathy and insight, exploring essential questions about what it means to live, and love, when the secure foundations of a life have been ripped away.

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It’s 1997, three years after the end of Apartheid. Two girls, Leilah, who is mixed race, and Frankie, who is white, are drawn together when they start at a new school, one that remains racially divided despite the country’s new laws. Their friendship deepens and intensifies before suddenly falling apart when each tells the other secrets.

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Fortunately for journalist and PR maven Lucy Khambule, the alarming news, in January 2006, that her nemesis might once more be on the loose has proved to be false. Charred remains in a prison pipe-shaft, along with a suicide note, are confirmation that convicted serial killer Dingiswayo is dead. Once Detective Justice Morapedi brings her a copy of the note to compare with the letters the killer wrote to her, Lucy tries to put her unease aside. A year on, Lucy is flying high in her life and career. Her book on Dingiswayo is abestseller, she is in demand for talks and interviews, and her company has been chosen as part of the team organising glamorous events around the Preliminary Draw to take place at the Durban International Convention Centre ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. But who is the person stalking her on Facebook? And what should be made of the gruesome ‘copycat’ murders of two young women at the Reed Dance in the neighboring kingdom of Swaziland? Is this the work of an ex-convict on a deadly mission or are there other dangers lurking?

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Three Egg Dilemma is a visionary novel. Morojele has built worlds and characters that are unforgettable. This audacious novel is set to become a classic work of South African fiction. This is the story of Ex (short for ‘Example’), who lives in a small township on the outskirts of a town in Lesotho. He stays in his dead parents’ house, decorated with all his mother’s things, where he subsists off renting out back rooms. He drinks – too much – at Mada’s down the road, and has two friends: Sticks, who sells eggs on the street, and Latrine, so called because of his meagre digestion. Although Ex used to have broad horizons, his life now is limited by the street he lives on. Once he had a meaningful job, he travelled, had money and hope. Life, and Lesotho, have been badly knocked: the country has suffered droughts, and is periodically thrown into turmoil by violent soldiers, or attacks by roving bandits such as the vicious Zuluboy. Poverty is rife. Early on, we are introduced to a recurring vision, or supernatural phenomenon, that haunts Ex – ‘Mota’s ghost’, a ghastly demon-like being, ghost or representation of death or fate. It first appears to presage the death of a friend, and later returns when death visits his town. The second important figure in the story is Phuleng / Pearl, an innocent young woman who arrives as a refugee when the soldiers are rampaging, and stays in Ex’s house – in his mother’s room. Ex, though much older, predictably enough falls in love with Pearl, but she has other ambitions. She works in a hotel in town, and eventually we learn that she has been impregnated by a white guest. Before the end, Ex will frighten her away, attempting to sexually assault her in the house. She will eventually end up a refugee again, homeless and on the streets outside Ex’s house, after soldiers and gangs have torn the area apart. Major incidents in Ex’s life include an abortive love affair during his time of plenty, when he meets a woman from Botswana at an international aid conference, falls in love with her and travels across South Africa to join her – only to realise that he has misunderstood the signs, and that she is marrying a white man. The other formative moment is when he is tricked into believing that a street child is his son. Each of these moments of hope ends with him, to different degrees, being deceived, humiliated and exploited. The novel ends with Ex back in his house after Zuluboy’s ravages, running the old shop and bar and being counselled in acceptance by the hideous Mota’s ghost. Morojele has written a dystopian masterpiece: one which takes the reader on a darkly comic journey. Three Egg Dilemma is a visionary novel. Morojele has built worlds and characters that are unforgettable. This audacious novel is set to become a classic work of South African fiction.

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In this lyrical, fragmented novella, Lethokuhle Msimang uses autobiographical and poetic interventions to lead the reader through landscapes of loss and longing, travelling between France, China, Spain and South Africa, to explore the troubled terrain of leaving and finding home.  At once exhilarating, heart-breaking and haunting, The Frightened speaks to the complexity of relationships, the pain of love, the effects of trauma, the necessity and constant work of healing, and the unfulfillable wish to feel a true sense of belonging. It is the story of finding one’s voice amidst inherited violence, and the importance of art and creativity in that process.

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One evening in early autumn, ten people drive into a tunnel through the Cape mountains – and find themselves trapped. As their limited supplies dwindle, what do they do?Where can they go? What will they find? Tunnel burrows deep into the psychologies and coping strategies that connect and disconnect these protagonists in a dark, tense and compelling human drama. An urgent new novel, told through many eyes; a journey – terrific and mystical – through despair, memory, and love.

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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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Roshana Peterson, a science journalist, wants to escape her traumatic past and mundane reality. A story takes her from the bustling city of Cape Town to the lush sub-tropical hills of KwaZulu-Natal. A mysterious man claims to have the origin story of an enigmatic cure that eradicated a global pandemic decades ago. Together, they delve into the realms of science, death and consciousness to reveal what it means to die and to truly live.

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Daniel is a journalist, moving between London and Cape Town, until his elderly and demented father passes away. There is an unusual clause in the old man’s will: Daniel will only inherit his half of the estate once he has paid his estranged cousin a visit on the old family farm in the Free State. It is a visit that will result in Daniel, his cousin and a sick young boy making a hopeful trip to Tokyo – a journey that will change all of their lives. An exquisite, tender novel by the award-winning writer SJ Naudé, author of The Alphabet of Birds, The Third Reel and Mad Honey. An exploration of the relationships between fathers and sons, and of fatherhood, masculinity and loss. Translated into English by Michiel Heyns. Also available in Afrikaansas: Van vaders en vlugtelinge.

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From Commonwealth Book Prize Shortlisted Author Bridget Pitt, Finalist for the Tuscarora Award for Historical Fiction. A Zulu foundling and a white missionary’s child raised as brothers in a world intent on making them enemies. A sweeping tale of identity, kinship, and atonement, set in 1870s South Africa, a decade of ruthless colonial aggression against the nation's indigenous people. Moses, a Zulu baby discovered on a riverbank, and Daniel, the son of white missionaries, are raised as brothers on the Umzinyathi mission in 19th century Zululand, South Africa. As an infant, Daniel narrowly escapes an attack by a rhino and develops an intense corporeal connection to animals which challenges the religious dogma on which he is raised. Despite efforts by his adoptive mother to raise the boys as equals, Moses feels like an outsider to both white and Zulu society, and seeks certainty in astronomy and science. Only through each other do the brothers find a sense of belonging.At Umzinyathi, Moses and Daniel are cushioned from the harsh realities of the expanding colony in neighboring Natal—where ancient spiritualism is being demonized, vast natural beauty faces rampant destruction, and the wealth of the colonizer depends on the engineered impoverishment of the indigenous. But when they leave the mission to work on a relative’s sugar estate and accompany him on a hunting safari, the boys are thrown into a world that sees their bond as a threat to the colonial order, and must confront an impossible choice: adapting to what society expects of them or staying true to each other.With elements of magic realism, Eye Brother Horn is the heart-wrenching story of how two children born of vastly different worlds strive to forge a true brotherhood with each other and with other species, and to find ways to heal the deep wounds inflicted by the colonial expansion project. 

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Victor Zulu has to take control of the family-owned club in which both his father and brother were killed. Will he be next? He’ll have to watch his back with gangsters coveting the club as a place to push drugs. Meanwhile, his brother’s best friend, Fana, wants to buy the club from the Zulus – but with what money? And then there’s Busie, his brother’s widow whom Victor secretly loves, but even she seems to have secrets. A thrilling tale of mystery and suspense, danger and daring.

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Monique and Ben Klein have been married for twenty years. They both know that they didn’t get married for all the right reasons, but they’re happy with the decision they made. They have a good life in a beautiful house, with three children who they adore. It all worked out in the end. Or did it? Monique has become obsessed with being the perfect wife and mother. Her sense of self is attached to the compliments she receives from friends and relatives. From her appearance to her home to her children, nobody is allowed to see the cracks. They might be normal for other people, but not for Monique. Ben knows that he gave up on a part of himself and his dreams when he married Monique. He’s an actuary, working for a corporate, and not the artist that he longed to be. He ignores as best he can the difference in their thinking. If anyone asks, he is happy. Their daughter Rosie is struggling with her friendships and the daunting world of teenage parties. But with a strict mother like Monique, she knows that even if she gets frustrated, Monique’s rules will keep her safe. Until Ben meets Daisy. And Rosie meets Margie. And everything starts to fall apart.

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Fully early pandemic “locked down” in an old age home, 70-year-old boomer, Maggie, ditches her bra, browses an old diary and reconnects with her artist self. While the world is happier with its oldies locked away, the lovable and maverick elders of Hazyview Mansions, galvanised by Maggie and her four close friends, have their own ideas. Romance, old loves; individual, local and global issues drive the story of this consequential movement with sustained and gentle humour. Bloomer is both enormous fun and truly weighty.

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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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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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You wouldn’t know it was there, the unnumbered house behind the iron-grille gate, just below the craggy rocks of Northcliff Ridge. To the untrained eye the rambling property might seem neglected, with its tangle of trees and untamed indigenous bush. But there is purpose here, and a peaceful, subterranean, focus on all that withers and dies. Five strangers – a model, a former nun, a couple in crisis, and an offender newly released from prison – have come here, to this place, to discover an end to life as they’ve known it. Placing their trust in their hosts, the Mortician and Mustafa, the five open their minds and bodies to an alternative experience. Not all of them will survive – or at least not in the way they imagined – but all of them will be shown the limits of their living. The Institute for Creative Dying is vivid and visceral, unique in its bold and imaginative exploration of mortality and the interconnectedness of all forms of being.

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It's the late Eighties in Strand, a small coastal town southwest of Cape Town. When Johanna, a new maid, arrives at the home of a dominee's family, nobody imagines that she will capture the family in her web of emotional complexity. The narrator daughter develops an ambivalent friendship with the new recruit but Johanna remains an enigma. She is at once mercurial and full of fun, playing children's games and making mischief, but also has periodic rages, throwing bricks and abusing animals - and eventually turning on the children. After her arrival, Johanna joins a pack of roving neighbourhood children that includes the daughter and her brothers. Together they find a form of belonging and imaginative outlet in the stifling religious community. But when a shift in the political landscape precipitates a change in family life, Johanna is in danger of being left behind. With her place in the household and neighbourhood increasingly uncertain, Johanna draws the narrator into a scheme where domestic tensions threaten to explode. Later in life, the narrator finds herself haunted by the mysterious fate of a woman who seems a part of her. Emotionally charged and poignant, Almini van der Merwe's first novel is a meditation on the mutability of memory and guilt and of the consequences of reality denied.

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Out here, the past and the future lie over each other, like the strata of koppies. And in certain places the boundary between the two rubs clean. A century-old trunk has been dug up near the railway village of Sterfontein. Inside is the lost journal of Victorian author Elizabeth Tenant – and what appear to be the remains of a child. Michael, a university student recovering from a broken heart, is intrigued by what the journal describes: a scarlet curtain billowing above the desert, covering the entrance to another world. But things become even stranger when a line in the journal seems to be connected to Michael and his cosmologist mother, written a hundred years before their time. Without much to go on, Michael travels to the old Karoo hotel where Elizabeth wrote her novel Mirage. Amid talk of omens in the sky, ancient prophecies and the end of the world, he tries to decipher the journal’s secrets. As one mystery leads to the next, constellation-like patterns between his own life and Elizabeth’s appear, helped along by Renata, a self-proclaimed medium, and Oom Sarel, the local museum curator. But as time starts to dissolve in the mirages of the Karoo, it becomes more and more difficult to know what is real and what is not. And why can’t he shake the feeling that he’s been to the village before?

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At an army base close to Voortrekkerhoogte in Pretoria, at the height of summer and South Africa's Border War, 18-year-old recruits endure an appalling drill sergeant bent on turning them into killing machines for the sadf. They are sleep deprived, and tension mounts in this group of disparate individuals - boys from all walks of life - expected to function as a unit. Andrew Howard-Smythe, a surfer from Durban, is the first to notice the giant Afrikaans boy Reghardt Jurgens, whom he describes as a cross between a heavyweight wrestler and an orangutan. After a particularly gruelling training session on a shooting range, it is Reghardt who snaps, severely injuring three officers before he is restrained. The investigation that follows is suspicious right from the start. It turns out that, instead of being prosecuted, Reghardt will be recruited for a sinister military outfit when his propensity for violence is recognised. Thus, this short, hard-hitting novel tracks the making of a henchman. Written in staccato, pointillist prose, Sons of Mud is deeply poetic and original, and a powerful anti-war manifesto.

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