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And our sunshine noir author for October is … Paul E. Hardisty
A new months calls for a new sunshine noir sending shivers down the spines of local thriller fans… This month, the co-author of the popular Detective Kubu series, Michael Sears, had the opportunity to...
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2017 Nobel Prize in Literature awarded to Kazuo Ishiguro
The prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to the renowned British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro. Ishiguro has received widespread acclaim for his novels Never Let Me Go, The Remains of the...
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Book Bites: 8 October 2017
Published in the Sunday Times The Word is Murder Anthony Horowitz, Century ** Just when one thought that Sherlock Holmes (the one Benedict Cumberbatch embraced as his character in the TV series) was...
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On evil’s own trail: Michele Magwood reviews Retribution Road
Published in the Sunday Times Retribution Road Antonin Varenne, MacLehose Press **** Don’t be put off by the cowboy on the cover and the words “adventure story”. This is no cartoon Wild West tale,...
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Lincoln in the Bardo wins 2017 Man Booker Prize
The 2017 Man Booker Prize has been announced! As per the press release: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders is named winner of the 2017 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Lincoln in the Bardo is the...
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Book Bites: 15 October
Published in the Sunday Times Late Show Michael Connelly, Orion, R275 *** Fierce, flawed and fallen from grace, Detective Renée Ballard now works “The Late Show” – the graveyard shift at the LA police...
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Feuding Faiths: Elizabethan England provides the intrigue-filled setting for...
Published in the Sunday Times Ken Follett and a sculpture of himself in the Plaza de la Burulleria in Vitoria-Gasteiz, northern Spain. Picture: © Mikelcg Wikimedia A Column of Fire Ken Follett,...
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Book Bites: 22 October
Published in the Sunday Times A Gap in the Hedge Johan Vlok Louw, Umuzi, R230 *** Amnesia is a strange thing. How do you remember how to drive a car or make a casserole but you can’t remember what your...
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Rewriting history: Tinyiko Maluleke reviews Robert Harris’s Munich
Published in the Sunday Times There’s no changing the fact of World War 2, but Robert Harris gives us an intriguing reinterpretation, writes Tinyiko Maluleke. Munich Robert Harris, Hutchinson, R295...
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Can this local author’s children’s book change the way we think about family?
Via Danielle Hess, for Beautiful News On Wednesday, 25 October 2017 Beautiful News released Elena Agnello’s short-film that relooks the chapter on diversity and shows a variety of families through her...
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“What did you edit out of The Cull?”“One sex scene”– a Q&A with Tony Park
Published in the Sunday Times You’re hosting a literary dinner with three writers. Who’s invited? Deon Meyer, the late John Gordon-Davis and Margie Orford. What novel would you give a child to...
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Light on the darkness: Elizabeth Kostova’s new novel paints a gripping...
Published in the Sunday Times The Shadow Land Elizabeth Kostova, Text Publishing, R360 **** How do you put an entire country into a novel? American novelist Elizabeth Kostova had done just that and...
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A Good Country is a thought-provoking coming-of-age story which explores...
Published in the Sunday Times A Good Country Laleh Khadivi, Bloomsbury, R290 **** Rez Courdee is the good, obedient 14-year-old son of Iranian immigrants in sunny California. His marks are top notch,...
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Yewande Omotoso and Mohale Mashigo on International Dublin Literary Award...
Via PEN SA Yewande Omotoso and Mohale Mashigo Yewande Omotoso and Mohale Mashigo have been longlisted for the €100,000 International Dublin Literary Award 2018! Omotoso and Mashigo have been included...
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A crime plague to cherish: Bron Sibree talks to Minette Walters about her new...
Published in the Sunday Times Minette Walters has combined her talent for psychological thrillers with the Middle Ages, writes Bron Sibree. The Last Hours **** Minette Walters Allen & Unwin, R330...
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Solve the girl-meets-boy equation by looking very closely: Rosa Lyster...
Published in the Sunday Times The Idiot **** Elif Batuman, Jonathan Cape, R290 It’s difficult to classify The Idiot. Elif Batuman’s novel begins on the narrator’s first day of college. Selin, a tall...
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Book Bites: 12 November
Published in the Sunday Times Blackwing: The Raven’s Mark *** ED McDonald, Gollancz, R310 Multi-volume fantasy series are generally soap operas, but every so often there is an excellent series with a...
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“It only gets harder because I have colonised more and more of my interior to...
Famed US novelist and birder Jonathan Franzen was recently in South Africa, where he shared literary insights, and a defence of the LBJ, with Michele Magwood. Jonathan Franzen is, as is his wont,...
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Book Bites: 19 November
Published in the Sunday Times Tin Man ***** Sarah Winman, Tinder Press, R275 This is one of those books that lures you in gently, and then grabs your heart and won’t let go. The book follows the...
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Philip Pullman revels in writing about bad guys and dark forces, like the...
Published in the Sunday Times La Belle Sauvage *** Philip Pullman Transworld, R290 His Dark Materials is not as famous as the Harry Potter series – maybe because there’s something much more insidious...
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