Go Set a Watchman
Harper Lee (Penguin Random House)
***
Book buff
It’s heartbreaking and haunting in more ways than one. Not all the beloved central characters that Lee wrote about in To Kill A Mockingbird appear. There’s Jean Louise (Scout, now 26), Atticus (now 72), her aunt Alexandra and new addition Henry Clinton: a son-like figure to Atticus who has romantically pursued Scout since their schooldays. There’s a little bit of Calpurnia, Jem and Dill, predominantly in Scout’s reminiscences. Nothing of Boo Radley. It’s not difficult to see why the publisher wanted a different story and not this difficult and complicated one. But Watchman is also enthralling – you want to know how an adult Scout deals with finding out that Atticus is not a god – that he is simply human, fallible and flawed.
- Jennifer Platt @Jenniferdplatt
Witch Girl
Tanvi Bush (Modjaji Books)
****
Book buff
From the moment we encounter feisty Luse and her vulnerable brother Josh on the streets of Lusaka, just as their stormwater drain home is about to flood during heavy rains, they tug at our heartstrings. We learn how they washed up here, victims of Zambia’s battle against HIV. The Aids stigma has become enmeshed with mythical beliefs about witchcraft, and sinister clandestine church sects prey on the credulous and desperate. As a wave of abominable violence against children unfolds, Witch Girl enthralls, even when we wish to look away.
- Ayesha Kajee @ayeshakajee
Anni Dewani: A Father’s Story
Vinod Hindocha with Shekhar Bhatia (Zebra Press)
***
Book buff
An engrossing account by Anni Dewani’s father, Vinod Hindocha, of his family’s suffering following Anni’s death in Gugulethu, Cape Town, in November 2010. The book tells of her close-knit family’s heartbreaking struggle to come to terms with her murder and their desire to see Shrien brought back to South Africa to account for her death. A moving story of love, grief and steely determination to see justice done.
- Gabriella Bekes @gabrikwa
Weightless
Sarah Bannan (Bloomsbury Circus)
***
Book Monster
It begins as a Cinderella story. Pretty 15-year-old Carolyn moves from New Jersey to an American small town with her mother and joins the local high school. As the shiny new thing, she becomes the immediate centre of attention – even finding herself on the radar of the hottest guy in school. But as jealousy sets in Carolyn’s newfound friends turn against her and she becomes the victim of a vicious bullying campaign that spreads to social media. Her decline is orchestrated with military precision, and reveals just how malicious teenagers can be. Weightless is a high school novel with teeth.
- SA Partridge @sapartridge
Book details
- Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
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EAN: 9781785150289
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- Witch Girl by Tanvi Bush
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EAN: 9781920590611
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- Anni Dewani: A Father’s Story by Vinod Hindocha, Shekhar Bhatia
EAN: 9781770228726
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- Weightless by Sarah Bannan
EAN: 9781408856437
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