WD Awards

Berlin. 11 July 1986. They meet by chance on a bus. She is a young student, he is older and married. Theirs is an intense and sudden attraction, fuelled by a shared passion for music and art, and heightened by the secrecy they must maintain. But when she strays for a single night he cannot forgive her and a dangerous crack forms between them, opening up a space for cruelty, punishment and the exertion of power. And the world around them is changing too: as the GDR begins to crumble, so too do all the old certainties and the old loyalties, ushering in a new era whose great gains also involve profound loss.From a prize-winning German writer, this is the intimate and devastating story of the path of two lovers through the ruins of a relationship, set against the backdrop of a seismic period in European history.

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The seas are alive, the waters are alive. From the smallest fish to the biggest whale. It is all alive. It is all alive. Zandi dreams of the big blue ocean and bright colourful fish even though she lives far away from the sea and hasn’t learnt to swim. One day the sea gives her a gift that changes everything. Zandi goes on an adventure full of amazing discoveries but something is threatening this magical world … is the key to protecting it buried in stories from the past? An empowering and inspiring story about our connection to the natural world, following your dreams, and caring for the environment.

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From one of our most accomplished novelists, a mesmerising story about a mother and daughter seeking refuge in a mental asylum in the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War. In 1874, in the wake of the War, erasure, trauma, and namelessness haunt civilians and veterans, renegades and wanderers, freedmen and runaways. Twelve-year-old ConaLee and her mother, Eliza, who hasn't spoken in more than a year, arrive at the Trans-Allegh­eny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, delivered to the hospital's entrance by a war vet­eran who has forced himself into their lives. There, far from family, a beloved neighbor, and the mountain home they knew, they try to reclaim their lives. The omnipresent vagaries of war and race rise to the surface as we learn their back­story: their flight to the highest mountain ridges of western Virginia; the disappearance of ConaLee's father, who left for the war and never returned. Meanwhile in the asylum, they begin to find a new path. ConaLee pretends to be her mother's maid; Eliza responds slowly to treatment. They get swept up in the life of the facility-the mystery behind the man they call the Night Watch; the child called Weed; the fearsome woman who runs the kitchen; the remarkable doctor at the head of the institution. Epic, enthralling, and meticulously crafted, Night Watch is a brilliant portrait of family endurance against all odds, and a stunning chronicle of surviving war and its aftermath.

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A story about finding your kindness when the big green monster of jealousy rears its head ... “Pumpkin Pie was grumpy. Her day had been the worst. She thought she’d win a prize at school but Megan had come first. Her anger started rumbling. It SIZZLED, SNAKED and GREW into a big green monster that she couldn’t quite undo.”

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Kule ncwadi entle kangakanana nenika inkuthazo, uMiss South Africa, uShudufhadzo Musida, ubalisa ngebali lakhe lobuntwana; eyintombazana ethanda ukucula, ukudanisa nelincoko, ekhulele kwilali eyaziwa ngokuba yiHa-Vhangani, egcwele uthando, ingakumbi elikamama wakhe noGogo Gugu. Kodwa izinto zange zimhambele kakuhle uShudu ngelixa ethuthela kwidolophu entsha, apho afika agezelwe ngabanye afunda nabo, bemenza isigculelo sabo. Funda ngendlela uShudu ajongana nazo ngayo iintsizi zakhe nemingeni adibana nayo, aze abe yintombazana, nenina eliqolileyo elifunde kabanzi ngokuzithanda!

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