Book of the Month
Boiling Point
by Leonie Joubert
An accessible book on the local effects of environmental change has long been overdue. We read a lot about global climate change, and we hear about the awful effects and conditions in other countries – but this book comes closer to home and asks – what impact is South Africa having; what are the effects of global warming locally and, vitally, who is it affecting?
One of the most important points of this book is to show the appalling discrepancy between the effect that the wealthy have on our environment (and that includes you and me), and the devastating subsequent consequences for those who are already impoverished and marginalised.
And here’s why we love this book – to make this point, Leonie introduces us to individuals upon whom environmental change has already had a terrible impact. So we meet Hendrik Hesselman, a rooibos farmer and share cropper in the Suid Bokkeveld; Ernest Titus, the fisherman from Lambert’s Bay; and Selina, the Limpopo sangoma – and we hear their stories and their voices – and that makes this book very special and unique.
2008 Man Booker Prize
Congratulations to Aravind Adiga, whose first novel The White Tiger won the 2008 Man Booker Prize. This brilliant and unusual novel and its murderous anti-hero graphically show a very different India to the usual portrayal of ˜colour and light’ rhetoric.
It was chosen from a very strong shortlist of
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant
The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz
…all of which you can find in-store!
Fiction
The Gargoyle
by Andrew Davidson
The nameless and beautiful narrator of this wonderful novel is driving along a dark road, wrestling with a bottle of bourbon, while high on a cocktail of drugs, when he is distracted by what appears to be a flight of arrows – he crashes the car, and watches, trapped, as the car (and the bourbon) catch fire and he suffers horrific burns. He wakes in a burns ward, horribly disfigured – his life is over. Or is it? He is visited in the hospital by the beautiful, mysterious and really rather odd Marianne Engel. She tells him stories of their love and life together in 14th century Germany – which, frankly, he finds a little hard to swallow…
This is an epic love story – but refreshingly told by a modern and sometimes cynical voice – it is adventurous and unexpected, and stayed with this reader for a long time after finishing.
The President’s Last Love
by Andrey Kurkov
Moscow, 2013. Bunin, the Ukranian president, has joined other heads of state in an open-air swimming pool to drink vodka and celebrate with Putin. During his rise to power Bunin has juggled with formidable and eccentric personal and political challenges. His troubles with his family and his women combine with his difficulties with corrupt businessmen and demanding allies, but it is his recent heart transplant that worries him the most. Since the operation he has started to develop freckles, and his heart donor’s mysterious widow seems to have moved in with him…
From the author of the wonderful Death & the Penguin, Kurkov always brings something fresh and new to his readers, with a sharp wit and an even sharper commentary on the Ukraine.
A Most Wanted Man
by John Le Carré
The newest novel from this most brilliant of writers, and a return to espionage, but this time against the backdrop of the so-called ˜War on Terror’. Described by the publisher as poignant, compassionate and peopled with characters the reader never wants to let go. Alive with humour yet prickling with tension, with Le Carré one is always sure of a good read.
The Other Hand
by Chris Cleave
So here’s what the publisher says about the latest Chris Cleave novel…
We don’t want to tell you what happens in this book, It is a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it.
Nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it so we will just say this:
It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific.
The story starts there but the book doesn’t.
And it’s what happens afterwards that is most important.
Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don’t tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.
So there you have it – and who are we to spoil the surprise? We can share some of the comments about his last novel Incendiary – “Stunning” (Newsweek, Herald Tribune & NY Times), “Captivating” (Economist), “Pitch-perfect” (Telegraph), “Mesmerising” (Washington Post), “Triumphantly convincing” (Sunday Telegraph).
Molly Fox’s Birthday
by Deidre Madden
Dublin. Midsummer. While absent in New York, the celebrated actor Molly Fox has loaned her house to a playwright friend who is struggling to write a new work. Over the course of this, the longest day of the year, the playwright reflects upon her own life, Molly’s, and that of their mutual friend Andrew, who she has known since university. But why does Molly never celebrate her own birthday, which falls upon this day? What does it mean to be a playwright or an actor? How do relationships evolve over the course of many years? Exploring family, friendship and love, this is a novel about identity, calling into question the ideas that we hold about who we are, and showing how the past informs the present in ways we might never have imagined.
The Lost Colours
by Mandla Langa
What happens when we all see the hidden lion – don’t we wish for colours of the chameleon? Bangula is a developing island nation presided over by the Colonel, architect of the highly praised Reform policy. But its success is clouded by rumbles of mismanagement and political opposition, as well as by the looming shadow of the blood plague, which threatens to ravage the island’s population. This is a gripping and sophisticated satire of politics in the developing world.
“Using the universal language of allegory, Langa portrays with a paradoxical combination of sensitivity and brutal honesty how power transforms the most benign and mild-mannered of us into despots.” Zakes Mda
The Wasted Vigil
by Nadeem Aslam
From the author of Maps For Lost Lovers comes a dazzling new novel set in modern Afghanistan. A Russian woman named Lara arrives at the house of Marcus Caldwell, and English widower living in the shadow of the Tora Bora mountains. It is possible that Marcus’s daughter Zameen may have known Lara’s brother. But the brother disappeared long ago, and Zameen is dead – a victim of a troubled age in a troubled country.
In the days that follow, further people arrive at the house, each with a very different story to tell. As the stories unfold, they tell of the terrible afflictions that have long plagued Afghanistan. A work of deep humanity, the novel offers a timely portrait of this region – angry, unflinching and memorably beautiful.
Magenta
by Denis Beckett
Bart Dunn is your average South African white guy, distraught at crime and cock-up. But he also has a rogue view, in that he can see upsides to Africa in the human factor. As he charges through the highs and lows of everyday life, local style, he is convinced there is a way, somewhere, somehow, to make things better.
Magenta is a utopian thriller with a difference. Beckett’s intelligence and love for his country make for a highly enjoyable read.
Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter
by Peter Manseau
In the last days of the twentieth century, two very different lives unexpectedly converge: those of a ninety-something Russian immigrant nearing the end of his days, and of his future translator, a twenty-one-year-old Boston college student whose journey through life and love is just beginning.
One sweltering summer a young graduate takes a job in a Yiddish book warehouse and finds himself falling in love with a woman – and a language. It is here that he first meets Itsik Malpesh – the self-proclaimed last great Yiddish poet. When he discovers a set of 22 old ledgers in which Malpesh has written his memoirs, he feels compelled to translate them. In doing so he embarks upon a great lie that will define his future, and the most unlikely yet enduring friendship he will ever have.
Short Stories of the Month
Nobody Ever Said AIDS: Stories & Poems from Southern Africa
compiled and edited by Nobantu Rasebotsa, Meg Samuelson and Kylie Thomas
One of the most important books published this year is no doubt Sindiwe Magona’s Beauty’s Gift – but this is not the first time she’s written about AIDS. This brilliant collection of Southern African writing about this dreadful epidemic includes a story by her, as well as poems and stories by the likes of Achmat Dangor, Dambudzo Marechera, Rustum Kozain, Antjie Krog, Phaswane Mpe, Ingrid de Kok - and many more. As both the title of this book, and that of Jonny Steinberg’s Three Letter Plague hinted, one of the major obstacles faced by those trying to deal with AIDS is the stigma underlying the refusal to speak about it. This book shows how eloquently, passionately and beautifully it is possible to speak about this disease, how important it is to do so… and most importantly, that this is ultimately a disease borne by people just like any other.
Non-fiction
Buy.ology
by Martin Lindstrom
Or – How Everything We Believe About Why We Buy Is Wrong. In this long-awaited and groundbreaking book, Martin Lindstrom (author of Brand Sense) shares the results of an extraordinary study he conducted to find out what makes consumers tick. Convinced that there is a gulf between what we believe influences us, and what actually does, he set up a highly ambitious research project that employed the very latest in brain-scanning technology, and called on the services of some 2000 volunteers. This book shares the fruit of this research, revealing for the first time what actually goes on in our heads when we see an advertisement, hear a marketing slogan, taste two rival brands of drink, or watch a programme sponsored by a major company. The conclusions are both startling and fascinating, showing the extent to which we deceive ourselves when we think we are making rational choices, and revealing factors as varied as childhood memories, religious belief, even our sense of smell, that come together to influence our decisions and shape our tastes. Truly extraordinary stuff.
Hot Flat and Crowded
by Thomas Friedman
From the three-time Pulitzer Prize-Winning author of the Number One Bestseller The World Is Flat – this book explores why the world needs a Green Revolution, and how we can renew our global future. He posits that, in a few years, it will be too late to fix things – unless there is a worldwide effort to replace our wasteful, inefficient energy practices with a strategy for clean energy, energy efficiency and conservation that Friedman calls Code Green. He argues that, although this is a great challenge, it is also a huge opportunity, which will afford us so much more than just clean air – it will inspire us to summon all the intelligence, creativity, boldness and concern for the common good that are our greatest human resources.
Love in the Time of Treason: The Life Story of Ayesha Dawood
by Zubeida Jaffer
It is 1997 – political activist Ayesha Dawood is standing at the Worcester train station, patiently waiting for the Blue Train to arrive. On board is Nelson Mandela, whom Ayesha is hoping to see for the first time in more than forty years. The last time they met was in the fifties, during the Treason Trial – the trial that changed both of their lives forever. Little could she have known what lay ahead of her…
In Love in the Time of Treason, Ayesha Dawood’s love story unfolds against the backdrop of South Africa’s turbulent political history. Set in both South Africa and India, this is a deeply moving tribute to an extraordinary life.
Suspicions of Mr Whicher
by Kate Summerscale
This is the story of a terrible murder, which took place in rural England in 1860, and which caught the attention of the whole country, and provoked national hysteria. The murder was investigated by Adam Whicher, celebrated member of the recently formed detective squad of Scotland Yard. His shocking conclusion caused uproar, and the role of detectives was called into question by the media.
This book is a brilliant snapshot of a transitional period in England – when the growth of the media was allowing more of the populace to share information and opinions; and the public was becoming aware that murders could all too easily occur within respectable middle class homes. It was an England of Wilkie Collins and the birth of detective fiction, of the Industrial Revolution and huge increases in movement of the population, and of progress towards a new century. This is a wonderfully atmospheric book, which took England by storm upon recent publication – and rightly so!
The Book of Atheist Spirituality
by André Comte-Sponville
Subtitled ˜An elegant argument for spirituality without God’ – this is the latest from one of France’s most brilliant philosophers, who writes with a wonderful common touch. He asks – can we do without religion? Can we have ethics without God? Is there such a thing as ˜atheist spirituality’? He attempts to answer these questions, with startling conclusions. He argues that we have allowed the concept of spirituality to become entwined with religion and have thus lost touch with the nature of a true spiritual existence. Whether you agree or disagree, Comte-Sponville’s rigourous and elegant arguments are definitely bound to provoke a reaction.
Bomb, Book and Compass: Joseph Needham and the Great Secrets of China
by Simon Winchester
From one of our great popular historians and teller of tales comes the story of Joseph Needham, whose passion for his Chinese mistress led him to a fascination with her country’s heritage and history. He soon developed an astonishing reputation as a self-taught, albeit eccentric, scholar of Chinese culture, and the man whose extraordinary 24-volume masterpiece Science and Civilization in China finally gave credit to China for the invention of printing, gunpowder, the compass, chess, suspension bridges and toilet paper (amongst many other things). Winchester tells of this extraordinary and eccentric life, and the unusual love triangle – Needham, his wife Dorothy and mistress, Lu Gwei-djen – which was not only acceptable, but essential to them all. Fascinating stuff.
Change We Can Believe In
by Barack Obama
So this is it – the countdown is on, and on November 4th the Americans go to the polls to elect their new president. If you want to brush up on the Barack Obama campaign, this is the perfect book for you – his plan to renew America’s promise, including seven key speeches from the 2008 campaign, and a foreword by the man himself.
Or you can get the lowdown on the John McCain campaign, from the late, lamented David Foster Wallace, who spent some time on the trail with McCain, in McCain’s Promise: Aboard the Straight-Talk Express.
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
by Paul Theroux
One of our greatest modern travel writers revisits the journey he took for The Great Railway Bazaar (published in 1975). He says “Long after the trip I wrote about…I went on thinking about how I’d gone overland, changing trains across Asia, improvising my trip, rubbing against the world. And reflecting on what I’d seen – the way the unrevisited past is always looping in your dreams…Thirty-three years went by. I was then twice as old as the person who had ridden those trains, most of them pulled by steam locomotives, boiling across the hinterland of Turkey and India. I loved the symmetry in the time difference…Had my long-ago itinerary changed as much as me?“
As The Times puts it so well – “Theroux needs no more that three or four brush strokes of his pen to complete the most vivid picture.”
For your Kitchen
Cooking Lessons
by Daisy Garnett
Full of highly entertaining and often hilarious food and family-related anecdotes, her adventures are diverse, inspiring and heartwarming. In this little gem, over 100 recipes are woven into a narrative, including basic techniques such as making breads and cakes, cooking and preparing meat and fish, and making jams and sauces, as well as specific dishes like sea bass cooked in banana leaves, pumpkin risotto and mango sorbet. With charming illustrations throughout, this book will inspire all readers to appreciate the pleasures of cooking and enjoy a few other lessons along the way.
Mrs Harvey’s Sister-in-Law and other Tasty Dishes
by Margaret Dunn
What an excellent title! Many of the recipes comes from handwritten recipe books that Margaret Dunn inherited from her mother and aunts, which read like diaries in their progression of names and places attached to the recipes. A beautifully cloth-bound treasure for all who value the warmth of the kitchens they grew up in.
Buonissimo!
by Gino D’Acampo
The subtitle on the book is Italian food has never been so sexy, and it’s rather true. Mr D’Acampo is great on the eye, but even more so, his amazing recipes. He makes Italian food that you can actually cook without being born in a small town in Italy and having a gran or aunt who beat you into learning to make the perfect meal. His menu’s are modern and interesting to the point where you find yourself saying, ˜oh, I want to make that tonight’ for just about every page of his book. Equally tasty is his other book Fantastico!
Some local gems…
Street Stories
This wonderful book, from the Centre for Popular Memory, takes a wander down three arteries of the southern suburbs of Cape Town – Main Road, Klipfontein and Landsdowne – and simply chats to people along the way, and lets them tell their stories.Through this simple method we get a snapshot of life in Cape Town and the flats, of what people have been through, and what many people have to do to survive today. An unforgettable book.
Searching for Mermaids in the Karoo
DVD and booklet
A charming documentary which takes a trip on the mythological side of life to explore the legend of the Karoo Mermaid. A gentle road movie through a remote, semi-desert region of South Africa – full of dust, silence, space and folklore.
Mona’s Story
by Mona Macmillan
This is the colourful and sometimes dramatic story of the daughter of a naval officer, the eldest of seven children in the early twentieth century. She describes her relationships with her extraordinary parents, the father who moved through historic events and the mother who feared her gifted child would remain unmarried. Her conventional education was followed by a political awakening, going against her parents views – and visits to revolutionary Spain and segregationist South Africa. She then married the radical historian and social critic WM Macmillan, and she describes her unconventional relationship with charming frankness – it was through him that she found a cause in the search for racial justice and colonial reform in Africa.
This is a charming personal insight into an extraordinary life, as well as a snapshot of some of the major events and movements of the twentieth century.
Brokie’s Way: An Anthropologist’s Story
by David Brokensha
This important memoir shows how one person’s knowledge can benefit all. David Brokensha, now 84, was a soldier in WW2, a POW, a student at 3 universities, a colonial administrator, a founder of a public policy NGO, a professor of anthropology, and a South African exile who returned home in 1999. This fascinating book follows his long and productive life and demonstrates, in a highly readable fashion, how anthropological fieldwork can generate great benefits to the ˜subjects’ his research. It is also a story of a love that survived against the odds.
For the Love of Children’s Books
I have never been a big Nick Sharratt fan, until this month! He illustrates the covers of Jacqueline Wilson’s books and has worked with a lot of well known authors such as Julia Donaldson and Giles Andreae on their books. His illustrations are bright, bold and happy. You can see Sharratt has a sense of humour in his own books, such as Elephant Wellyphant, but I have always felt he should do more of his own. And he has! This month has brought us the brilliant Foggy Foggy Forest which is a bit of a printing masterpiece for little ones, with black printings on trace paper involving a nursery rhyme quest which will have you in stitches. He has also done a simple yet brilliant magnetic book which had me asking why no-one has ever thought of it (I’m sure they have, just not this funny). This Dinosaur is so BIG! contains a selection of magnets ranging from a tree to a sofa which can be placed in and on the dinosaurs in different pages to show you just how strong and scary the dinosaurs are. It will make story time with the little one fun and even better you can change the story as you change the magnets (you get the idea…). In collaboration with Michael Rosen, children’s laureate, he has illustrated a great Agony Aunt book based on nursery rhymes called, Dear Mother Goose. A big hooray for Nick Sharratt from the young ones!
Somebody I am very excited to introduce is the brilliantly funny Mo Willems. Mo started out as an animator and writer for TV, winning many Emmy awards for his work on Sesame Street. This all changed when he created one of the most memorable birds in children’s picture books, PIGEON! My favourite remains, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. He is also the creator of Knuffle Bunny and other books like Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She was Extinct. Last year he created a new series about two friends, Piggie and Elephant with great titles such as There’s a Bird on Your Head. What makes these books so magical is his ability to create the funniest facial expressions for his characters. They don’t need dialogue stating they are angry, ecstatic or totally confused; he draws the emotions better than words could say. Put that together with his sharp wit and in just a few frames he has you, the reader in stitches. Mo Willems proves without a doubt that we are moving into a new era in children’s books, where children are not spoken down to, but rather given a chance to prove just how clever they are!
We Are All Born Free
Take the time to have a look at this beautiful book. It is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (by Amnesty International) published, for the first time, as a picture book for children. With illustrations by so many of the greats – John Burningham, Niki Daly, Debi Gliori, Piet Grobler, Satoshi Kitamura, Chris Riddell, Marcia Williams and so many more – what better way to let all of our children know that they are entitled to be treated fairly and enjoy a good life, and have a duty to allow the same to others, than in this colourful and truly gorgeous book. Published to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Declaration, on December 10th. Available in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa.
Aural Poetry, or CD of the Month
The Kids at The Club
compiled by How Does It Feel?
How Does It Feel? (or HDIF) has become a cult-classic clubnight on the British indie scene. Founder – and now record-label boss – Ian Watson has managed to build a loyal following of the indie-pop scene with his themed clubnight, often host-DJ’ed by luminaries of the scene. The club has thrived on playing the best the scene has to offer, and not necessarily the best-known – in fact, some of the best new but unknown bands on the UK scene have had their first airings in the club. Long overdue, then, for a compilation sampling the music which has made this club a hit: there is some great danceable music on this sampler, showing off Watson’s love for the best of the 60′s with horn arrangements and harmonising backing vocals; Krautrockish drones and grooves; alternately spiky and chiming guitars paired with the literate lyrics and DIY ethos that made the 80′s underground scene. There’s a wealth of new talent (and some great songs) to be discovered in the little-known indie-pop world superbly represented by these 19 songs. The kids are at the club… and the kids are alright!
Banned book
Animal Farm
by George Orwell
Featured on Time Magazine’s 2005 list of the best 100 novels, it was banned in the USSR until perestroika, for being anti-communist. It was also banned in the US for ˜Communist material’ in its introduction, even though the book is a satire on Stalinism. Go figure…