Book of the Month
Begging to be Black
by Antjie Krog
In 1992, a gang leader was shot dead by a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe in Kroonstad. The murder weapon was then hidden on Antjie Krog’s stoep. In Begging to Be Black, Krog begins by exploring her position in this controversial case. From there the book ranges widely in scope, both in time – reaching back to the days of Basotho king Moshoeshoe – and in space – as we follow Krog’s experiences as a research fellow in Berlin, far from the Africa that produced her. Begging to Be Black forms the third part of a trilogy that Antjie Krog (unknowingly) began with Country of My Skull and continued with A Change of Tongue. Mixing memoir and history, philosophy and poetry, the book is stylistically experimental and personally courageous. Begging to Be Black is a welcome addition to Krog’s own oeuvre and to South African literary non-fiction.
Non-Fiction Special
The literary riches continue to pour in – this month we focus on some of the fascinating non-fiction…
Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do
by Michael Sandel
Is killing sometimes morally required? Is the free market fair? Is it sometimes wrong to tell the truth? What is justice, and what does it mean? Michael Sandel’s considers the role of justice in our society and our lives, and reveals how an understanding of philosophy can help to make sense of politics, religion, morality – and our own convictions. Breaking down often controversial issues – from abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage, to patriotism, dissent and affirmative action – Sandel shows how the most troubling questions in life can be broken down and illuminated through reasoned debate. Justice promises to take readers of all ages and political persuasions on an exhilarating journey to confront controversies in a fresh and enlightening way.
“One of the world’s most interesting political philosophers . . . Sandel makes his case not with the usual philosopher’s hypotheticals but with news stories torn out of the papers.” Guardian
“In the beautifully concise explanations of American philosopher Michael Sandel, I see great insight into our current predicaments. If any political reckoning is on its way . . . then perhaps it might come from the philosophy department of Harvard.” Madeleine Bunting
Superfreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance
by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
This is a sequel to the international bestselling phenomenon, Freakonomics. Steven Levitt, the original rogue economist, and Stephen Dubner have been working hard, uncovering the hidden side of even more controversial subjects, from charity to terrorism and prostitution. And with their inimitable style and wit, they will take us on another gripping journey of discovery. Superfreakonomics will once again transform the way we look at the world.
“Levitt and Dubner’s zeal for statistical anomalies is as undimmed as their eye for a good story . . . lie back and let Levitt and Dubner’s bouncy prose style carry you along from one peculiarity to the next.“ Sunday Telegraph
Who’s Afraid of Jane Austen?
by Henry Hitchings
Have you ever wondered how some people manage to have an opinion on every book ever published?
Well, help is at hand. Let Henry Hitchings educate you in the invaluable skill of literary bluffing in this survivor’s guide to talking about books you haven’t read. With tips on how to bluff with confidence using quotable insights and invaluable trivia, Hitchings covers all the great books you ought to have read but haven’t got around to yet. If you want to hold your own in a debate about Stephen Hawking or Philip Roth; or perhaps you find Shakespeare or Dostoevsky intimidating, then look no further. This guide will equip you with all the bookish information you need to bluff your way through any scenario, be it a vital exam, an in-depth conversation at the pub or chatting up the potential love of your life.
This book will help you to swot up on Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Henry James, James Joyce, Proust, Homer, Virgil, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Dickens, various contemporary writers, the Bible, the Koran, fairy tales, select bestsellers and some poetry.
Well, help is at hand. Let Henry Hitchings educate you in the invaluable skill of literary bluffing in this survivor’s guide to talking about books you haven’t read. With tips on how to bluff with confidence using quotable insights and invaluable trivia, Hitchings covers all the great books you ought to have read but haven’t got around to yet. If you want to hold your own in a debate about Stephen Hawking or Philip Roth; or perhaps you find Shakespeare or Dostoevsky intimidating, then look no further. This guide will equip you with all the bookish information you need to bluff your way through any scenario, be it a vital exam, an in-depth conversation at the pub or chatting up the potential love of your life.
This book will help you to swot up on Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Henry James, James Joyce, Proust, Homer, Virgil, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Dickens, various contemporary writers, the Bible, the Koran, fairy tales, select bestsellers and some poetry.
Telling Tales: A History of Literary Hoaxes
by Melissa Katsoulis
When Dionysus the Renegade faked a Sophocles text in 400BC (cunningly inserting the acrostic ˜Heraclides is ignorant of letters’) to humiliate an academic rival, he paved the way for two millennia of increasingly outlandish literary hoaxers. The path from his mischievous stunt to more serious tricksters like the controversial memoirist and Oprah-duper James Frey, takes in every sort of writer: from the religious zealot to the bored student, via the vengeful academic and the out-and-out joker. But whether hoaxing for fame, money, politics or simple amusement, each perpetrator represents something unique about why we write. Their stories speak volumes about how reading, writing and publishing have grown out of the fine and private places of the past into big-business, TV-book-club-led mass-marketplaces which, some would say, are ripe for the ripping.
For the first time, the complete history of this fascinating sub-genre of world literature is revealed. Suitable for bookworms of all ages and persuasions, this is true crime for people who don’t like true crime, and literary history for the historically illiterate.
The House of Wittgenstein: A Family At War
by Alexander Waugh
The Wittgenstein family was one of the richest, most talented and most eccentric in European history. The domineering paternal influence of Karl Wittgenstein left his eight children fraught by inner antagonisms and nervous tension. Three of his sons committed suicide; Paul, the fourth, became a world-famous concert pianist (using only his left hand), while Ludwig, the youngest, is now regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. In this dramatic historical and psychological epic, Alexander Waugh traces the triumphs and vicissitudes of a family held together by a fanatical love of music yet torn apart by money, madness, conflicts of loyalty and the cataclysmic upheaval of two world wars.
Alexis de Tocqueville: Prophet of Democracy in the Age of Revolution
by Hugh Brogan
Alexis de Tocqueville, French aristocrat and liberal politician was one the greats of modern political writers. As the son of a noble family which was nearly wiped out in the Revolution and as an ambitious politician during the July Monarchy and the Second Republic, Alexis de Tocqueville had a front seat at the revolutionary drama of his time. In 1831 Tocqueville made the famous voyage to the United States which led to his Democracy in America, a classic of democratic thought.
“One of the delights of this remarkable biography is to let its readers see the past as if it were the present, through the eyes of civilised Frenchmen like Tocqueville… A biography as humane, learned, humorous and perceptive as this extends our knowledge of ourselves and where we came from, as well as painting an incomparable portrait of one of the sharpest and most sympathetic writers of all time.” Observer
“A wonderfully rich life in which action had been balanced by contemplation, reason by emotion, and to which this superb biography does full justice.” Sunday Telegraph
Something on My Mind: A Battle With Alzheimer’s
by Kate Jowell and Sharon Sorour-Morris
Kate Jowell was the director of the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business – the first woman to hold such an office in South Africa – when, at the age of 59, she was diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s disease. Attractive, glamorous and hard-working she had, up until then, been a brilliant thinker whose high-profile career included being one of the first editors of Fair Lady and establishing herself as a labour specialist at the height of the industrial unrest in the 1980s, when she became a pioneering consultant and a highly regarded business academic.
Sharon Sorour-Morris met Kate Jowell at the end of 2002 and spent the following year working closely with her, recording her devastating mental decline and capturing the memories of those who were closely involved in her life. Kate’s poignant story reveals the havoc this terrible disease wreaks not only on the sufferer’s life, but also on family, friends, colleagues and caregivers. It also recounts a fascinating social history, as Kate’s path crossed those of Albie Sachs, Jenny Le Roux, Sydney Baker, FW de Klerk, Dennis Worrall, Mamphela Ramphele and many others.
While Kate’s story is a tragic one, it is not without redemption and hope – an account of a remarkable woman who lived her life with optimism and who faced the prospect of losing her mind with extraordinary dignity and courage.
Studs Terkel’s Working
by Harvey Pekar
Studs Terkel’s Working (1974) was one of the first attempts to chronicle the lives and attitudes of America’s workforce. This black-and-white graphic adaptation, faithfully rendered by some of today’s most prominent alternative cartoonists, brings a variety of professions into focus: a farm worker, a hooker, a barber, an organiser, a garbage man, and many others. Everyone interviewed explains the hardships and joys of working (surprisingly, the garbage man seems to derive more pleasure from his job than a successful actor does from his). All these life stories give us new insights and ways to approach the world of work. The artwork supports rather than overpowers the testimonies, and the adapters have tried to remain faithful to Terkel’s oral style. Overseen by scholar Paul Buhle and working-class comics creator Harvey Pekar (American Splendor), this valuable adaptation is both a companion and an introduction to the work of Studs Terkel.
Strange Days Indeed
by Francis Wheen
The nostalgic whiff of the seventies evokes memories of loons and disco, Abba and Fawlty Towers. However, beneath the long hair it was really a theme park of mass paranoia. Strange Days Indeed tells the story of the decade that a young Francis Wheen walked into having pronounced he was dropping out to join the alternative society. Instead of the optimistic dreams of the sixties he found a world on the verge of a collective nervous breakdown, huddled over candles waiting for the next terrorist bomb, kidnapping or food shortage warning. Whether it was Nixon’s demented behaviour in the White House, Harold Wilson’s insistence that ‘they’ (whoever ‘they’ were) were out to get him, or the trial of Rupert Bear, it is a story almost too fantastical to be true. With his acute sense of the absurd Francis Wheen slices through the pungent melange of mistrust and conspiratorial fever to expose the sickly form of a decade in which nations were brought to a sclerotic halt by power cuts, military coups, economic anarchy and the arrival of Uri Geller. A funny and shocking study of a decade of rampant paranoia and chaos.
“What makes this book such an outrageously funny, entertaining read is the stream of anecdotes, from the Oz obscenity trial to the mercenary coup plotters who fly into the Seychelles posing as rugby-playing members of the fictitious Ancient Order of Froth Blowers, their weapons hidden in their luggage under piles of toys ‘for disabled children’. Not even the most outrageous novelist could make this kind of stuff up, but perhaps only a writer of Francis Wheen’s skill and touch could turn it into a book as glorious, memorable and laugh-out-loud hilarious as this.” Literary Review
The Age of Wonder
by Richard Holmes
Richard Holmes’ ground-breaking new biography The Age of Wonder is inspired by the scientific revolution that swept across Britain at the end of the eighteenth century, which Holmes now radically redefines as ‘the revolution of Romantic Science’.
The book opens with Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain Cook’s first Endeavour voyage, stepping onto a Tahitian beach in 1769, hoping to discover Paradise. Banks, now President of the Royal Society in London, becomes our narrator and introduces us to the two scientific figures that dominate the book: astronomer William Herschel and chemist Humphry Davy. Herschel’s tireless dedication to the stars forever changed the public conception of the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy and the meaning of the universe itself. Davy first shocked the scientific community with his near-suicidal gas experiments in Bristol, then went on to save thousands of lives with his Safety Lamp and established British chemistry as the leading professional science in Europe. Holmes proposes a radical vision of science before Darwin, exploring the earliest ideas of deep time and deep space, the creative rivalry with the French scientific establishment, and the startling impact of discovery on great writers and poets such as Mary Shelley, Coleridge, Byron and Keats. With his trademark sense of the human drama, he shows how great ideas and experiments are born out of lonely passion, how scientific discoveries (and errors) are made, how intense relationships are forged and broken by research, and how religious faith and scientific truth collide. The result is wonderfully original and energetic vision of the meeting places of science and art, of discovery and wonder.
“The Age of Wonder gives us…a new model for scientific exploration and poetic expression in the Romantic period. Informative and invigorating, generous and beguiling, it is, indeed, wonderful.” Jenny Uglow, Guardian
“Richard Holmes’s exuberant group biography celebrates the scientific revolution that preceded and outsoared the political one, changing life, the universe and everything in the last decades of the 18th century… Holmes suffuses his book with the joy, hope and wonder of the revolutionary era. Reading it is like a holiday in a sunny landscape, full of fascinating bypaths that lead to unexpected vistas. He believes that we must engage the minds of young people with science by writing about it in a new way, entering imaginatively into the biographies of individual scientists and showing what makes them just as creative as poets, painters and musicians. The Age of Wonder is offered, with due modesty, as a model, and it succeeds inspiringly.“ John Carey, Sunday Times
Liberty in the Age of Terror: A Defence of Civil Liberties and Enlightenment Values
by A.C. Grayling
“The means of defence against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.” James Madison
Our societies, says Anthony Grayling, are under attack not only from the threat of terrorism, but also from our governments’ attempts to fight that threat by reducing freedom in our own societies. As Grayling says:
“There should be a special place for political irony in the catalogues of human folly. Starting a war ‘to promote freedom and democracy’ could in certain though rare circumstances be a justified act; but in the case of the Second Gulf War that began in 2003, which involved reacting to criminals hiding in one country (Al Qaeda in Afghanistan or Pakistan) by invading another country (Iraq), one of the main fronts has, dismayingly, been the home front, where the War on Terror takes the form of a War on Civil Liberties in the spurious name of security. To defend ‘freedom and democracy’, Western governments attack and diminish freedom and democracy in their own country. By this logic, someone will eventually have to invade the US and UK to restore freedom and democracy to them.”
In this lucid and timely book Grayling sets out what is at risk, and proposes a different way to respond that makes defending the civil liberties on which western society is founded the cornerstone for defeating terrorism.
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution
by Richard Dawkins
Charles Darwin’s masterpiece, On the Origin of Species, shook society to its core on publication in 1859. Darwin was only too aware of the storm his theory of evolution would provoke but he would surely have raised an incredulous eyebrow at the controversy still raging a century and a half later. Evolution is accepted as scientific fact by all reputable scientists and indeed theologians, yet millions of people continue to question its veracity. In The Greatest Show on Earth, Richard Dawkins takes on creationists, including followers of ‘Intelligent Design’ and all those who question the fact of evolution through natural selection. Like a detective arriving on the scene of a crime, he sifts through fascinating layers of scientific facts and disciplines to build his case: from the living examples of natural selection in birds and insects; the ‘time clocks’ of trees and radioactive dating that calibrate a timescale for evolution. All of which bears witness to the truth of evolution. Richard Dawkins shares with us his palpable love of the natural world and the essential role that science plays in its interpretation. Written with elegance, wit and passion, it is hard-hitting, absorbing and convincing.
In Defence of the Realm: The Authorised History of MI5
by Christopher Andrew
To mark the centenary of its foundation, the British Security Service, MI5, has opened its archives to an independent historian, the first time any of the world’s leading intelligence or security services has taken such a step. The Defence of the Realm reveals the precise role of the Service in twentieth-century British history, from its foundation by Captain Kell of the British Army in October 1909 to root out ˜the spies of the Kaiser’ to its present role in countering Islamic terrorism. The book casts new light on many events and periods in British history, showing for example that through well-placed sources MI5 was probably the pre-war department with the best understanding of Hitler’s objectives, and had a remarkable willingness to speak truth to power; how it was so successful in turning German agents during the Second World War; and that it had a much greater roles than previously thought during the end of the Empire and in responding to the recurrent fears of successive governments of Cold War Communist subversion.
The Big and the Beautiful
Christmas is around the corner, and here are some lovely things you might want to see in your stockings…
Lady Anne Barnard’s Watercolours & Sketches: Glimpses of the Cape of Good Hope
“I like the Cape…” wrote Lady Anne Barnard in 1797, “…I love these bold strokes with which the Almighty has separated the dry land from the sea in his chaos…the Bay opens beautifully at the foot of the mountains…it is in the power of activity and taste to make this the finest scene in the world…”
Lady Anne’s watercolours, including her wonderful panorama of Cape Town (in seven panels) painted from the roof of the Castle, published here for the first time in full colour encapsulate her enthusiasm for and delight in her new home at the Cape of Good Hope. Having accompanies her husband, Andrew, the first Colonial Secreta5ry under the new British administration, she decided to make a record of the people she met and places she saw for her friends and family at home. In this way she created a vivid an fascinating picture of the local inhabitants, architecture, landscape and natural history of the Cape during the last years of the eighteenth century.
Shiny Happy People
by Neil Roake
From the author of Life’s a Beach Cottage – Neil Roake’s latest cookbook takes him off the beach and through the door of his friends’ tasteful homes. Friends will be friends, no matter how different they are. And Neil is lucky enough to have an odd and varied bunch. From wild things to hopeless romantics, to exotic imports and exceptional eccentrics, there is always a common personality trait: the love of great food and excellent company.
There’s something for everyone in this book so join Neil as he spends some quality time with the important people in his life… these are my mates, and these are their tastes.
Women Aviators: From Amelia Earhart to Sally Ride, Making History in Air and Space
by Bernard Marck
This fascinating book charts the rise of women in the male dominated field of aviation through the stories of record-breaking aviatrixes: from those who piloted the earliest aircrafts to the first women in space almost a century later. These women who took to the skies fought their way to recognition against all odds. Bessie Coleman, an African American born into a humble cotton-picking family, worked as a laundress and manicurist to pay for flying lessons. She went on to become a fully fledged performance flier, the first of her race. The formidable Harriet Quimby was the first woman in the United States to gain a pilot’s license, and Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly across the Atlantich – her mysterious disappearance continues to fascinate. The backgrounds and life stories of these women differ wildly, and yet they all offer a reminder of what can be achieved through ambition and perseverance.
Valvona and Crolla: A Year at an Italian Table
by Mary Contini
Founded in 1934 by the Continis’ ancestors Valvona and Crolla – the Italian shop and restaurant – is legendary in food circles for its excellent food and drink. Now, co-owner Mary (author of the bestselling Dear Francesca) presents 200 delicious and authentic recipes. Organised season by season, the book offers a year of delicious delights from around the country of her heritage, together with recommendations for wines to match them. Starting with the festive flavours of winter, such as a creamy chestnut soup with smoked pancetta, moving on to the best of spring’s vegetables with a broad bean and spinach frittata, fresh seafood dishes in the summer, and finishing with the truffles, olive pressings and slow-cooked casseroles of the autumn, this beautifully written and evocatively photographed book adds up to a food diary of personal stories, history, anecdotes and recipes, all imbued with a very Italian warmth and local knowledge.
Sprigs Entertain
by Clare and Fiona Ras
Sprigs Entertain is the follow up to Fresh Kitchen Inspiration from the incomparable chef twins, Clare and Fiona Ras – the owners, managers, cooks, bakers, chefs, hosts and chief tasters at the Sprigs restaurant in Durban.
The Sprigs restaurant is a family affair that has been built in equal parts on the Ras’s passion for food and the immense pleasure they derive from feeding friends, family and the people who return time and again to their tables. The book combines a host of their favourite dishes, along with new recipes that utilise more contemporary ingredients and explore the tastes afforded by a myriad different cuisines. With exotic ingredients now readily available at the local supermarket, they argue that there is simply no need to limit home offerings to pastas and roasts.
Sprigs Entertain has been beautifully photographed by Russell Wasserfall, who regularly shoots for Fair Lady and Marie Claire, amongst others, and was the man behind the lens for the ever-popular Farm Kitchen.
Historic Maritime Maps 1209 – 1699
by Donald Wigal
This book presents a selection of ocean-going charts dating from the 13th century to the 17th century. While they may be rudimentary (and scarily so for the sailors and explorers of the time!), they bear excellent witness to the achievements of early European navigators, and to their determination to go to the ends of the Earth. What the charts may lack in geographical accuracy, they undoubtedly make up for in their charm. And of course they are invaluable as historical records. Recounting the epic journeys of maritime exploration, from Erik the Red to Robert Peary, author Donald Wigal leads us gently and pleasurably from ‘Terra Incognita’ to ‘The World As We Know It’.
Planting: The Planting Design Book for the 21st Century
by Diarmuid Gavin and Terence Conran
Planting explores nature’s vast palette of plants, where they come from, what grows naturally in which conditions, but most importantly how they are used in gardens all around the world and how you can use them in your garden. It looks at gardens with a designer eye and helps you plan your planting schemes – offering advice on the best plants for every situation. Written by two experts of easy, simple and beautiful garden design, this is a super book for anyone with dreams for their garden!
All this and Fiction too!
Generation A
by Douglas Coupland
In the near future bees are extinct – until five unconnected individuals, in different parts of the world, are stung. Immediately snatched up by ominous figures in hazmat suits, interrogated separately in neutral Idea-like chambers, and then released as 15-minute-celebrities into a world driven almost entirely by the internet, these five unforgettable people endure an onslaught of unusual and highly 21st-century circumstances. A charismatic scientist with dubious motives eventually brings the quintet together, and their shared experience unites them in a way they could never have imagined. Generation A mirrors the structure of 1991′s Generation X as it champions the act of reading and storytelling as one of the few defenses we still have against the constant bombardment of the senses in a digital world. Like much of Coupland’s writing, it occupies the perplexing hinterland between optimism about the future and everyday, apocalyptic paranoia, and is his most ambitious and entertaining novel to date.
“Fans of Coupland will rejoice: here is another bizarre, postmodern fable that takes the canon, mixes it up with life right now, wraps them both around a Coupland-shaped holes and turns the lot into a glittering, literary Mobius strip … Coupland’s audacious flights of fancy, his laugh-out-loud dialogue and his magnificent ability to bring it all back to storytelling and orange-flavour Tang, they’re all here … Such a treat.” Independent on Sunday
“Generation A hints at an idealism, a generation that could be at the beginning of something, although it may be too passive and self-involved to realise it … Beneath the typically brilliant, sharp wisecracks and riffs about fashion products, relationships and lifestyle, there is tangible outrage at the violation of Nature … Moving and meaningful.” The Times
The Death of Bunny Munro
by Nick Cave
The Death of Bunny Munro recounts the last journey of a salesman in search of a soul. Following the suicide of his wife, Bunny, a door-to-door salesman and lothario, takes his son on a trip along the south coast of England. He is about to discover that his days are numbered. With a daring hellride of a plot The Death of Bunny Munro is also a modern morality tale of sorts, a stylish, furious, funny, truthful and tender account of one man’s descent and judgement. The novel is full of the linguistic verve that has made Cave one of the world’s most respected lyricists. It is his first novel since the publication of his critically acclaimed debut And the Ass Saw the Angel twenty years ago.
The lead singer of The Birthday Party, The Bad Seeds and Grinderman, Nick Cave has been performing music for more than 30 years. He has collaborated with Kylie Minogue, PJ Harvey and many others. As well as working with Warren Ellis on the soundtrack for the film of The Road by Cormac McCarthy and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, he also wrote the screenplay for the film The Proposition. His debut novel And the Ass Saw the Angel was published in 1989. There is also a CD of The Death of Bunny Munro - read by Mr Cave himself.
The Bradshaw Variations
by Rachel Cusk
Since leaving his job to look after Alexa, his eight year old daughter, Thomas Bradshaw has found the structure of his daily piano practice and the study of musical form brings nourishment to these difficult middle years. His pursuit of a more artistic way of life shocks and irritates his parents and his in-laws. Why has he swapped roles with Tonie Swann, his intense, intellectual wife who has accepted a demanding full-time University job? How can this be good for Alexa and for the family as a whole? Tonie tunes herself out of domestic life, into the harder, headier world of work where long-since forgotten memories of herself are awakened. She soon finds herself outside their tight family circle and alive to previously unimaginable possibilities. Over the course of a year full of crisis and revelation, we follow the fortunes of Thomas, Tonie, his brothers and their families. At the head of the family, the aging Bradshaw parents continue their marital dynamic of bickering and petty undermining. The Bradshaw Variations is a powerful novel about how our choices and our loves and the family life we build will always be an echo – a variation – of a theme played out in our own childhood.
The Wild Things
by Dave Eggers
Seven-year-old Max likes to make noise, get dirty, ride his bike without a helmet and howl like a wolf. In any other era, he would be considered a boy. In 2007, he is considered willful and deranged. His home life is problematic. His parents are divorced; his father, immature and romantic, lives in the city. His mother has taken up with a younger man who steals quarters from the change bowl in the foyer. Driven by a series of pressures internal and external, Max leaves home, jumps in a boat and sails across the ocean to a strange island where giant beasts reign.
Adapted from Maurice Sendak’s visionary classic, this is an all-ages adventure, full of wit and soul, that explores the chaos of youth while Max explores the chaos of the world around him. The live-action film, co-written by Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers, and directed by Jonze, is due this autumn.
Black Diamond
by Zakes Mda
Kristin Uys is a tough Roodepoort magistrate who lives alone with her cat. She is on a one-woman crusade to wipe out prostitution in the town for reasons that have personal significance for her. Although she is unable to convict the Visagie Brothers, Stevo and Shortie, on charges of running a brothel, she manages to nail Stevo for contempt of court and gives him a summary six-month sentence. From Diepkloof Prison, the outraged Stevo orchestrates his revenge against the magistrate, aided and abetted by his rather inept brother Shortie and his erstwhile nanny, Aunt Magda, who believes mass action will force the powers that be to release Stevo. Kristin receives menacing phone calls and her home is invaded and vandalised. The chief magistrate insists on assigning a bodyguard to protect her. To Kristin’s consternation, security guard Don Mateza moves into her home and trails her everywhere. Don’s long-time girlfriend Tumi – a former model and successful businesswoman – is intent on turning Don into a Black Diamond sooner rather than later. But Don soon finds that his new assignment has unexpected complications which Tumi simply does not understand.
In Black Diamond, Zakes Mda tackles every conceivable South African stereotype, turning them upside down and exposing their ironies, often hilariously. This is a clever, quirky novel that captures the essence of contemporary life in Gauteng and will resonate with all South Africans.
Notwithstanding
by Louis de Bernières
A Frenchman once pointed out to Louis de Bernières that Britain was the most exotic country in Europe, adding that it was ‘an immense lunatic asylum’. Casting his mind back to the village in southern Surrey where he grew up in the sixties and seventies, but plagued by a novelist’s inability to stick to the truth, Louis de Bernières brings us in Notwithstanding – stories of a vanished England. The English village was a place where a lady might dress as a man in plus fours and spend her time shooting squirrels with a twelve bore, or keep a vast menagerie in her house. A retired general might give up wearing clothes, a spiritualist might live in a cottage with her sister and the ghost of her husband, and people might think it quite natural to confide in a spider that lives in a potting shed.
Notwithstanding is not about an imagined idyll; it is about people who are worth remembering, whose lives are worth celebrating, and who might otherwise have been forgotten.
Haunting Bombay
by Shilpa Agarwal
As the supernatural weaves into the narrative of family life, the Mittals must struggle to come to terms with the secrets that had been locked away behind a mysterious bolted door. Themes of hidden shame, forbidden love and a call for absolute sacrifice enrich this beautifully written novel. Agarwal unfolds the story against an intense portrait of Bombay, delving into the world of the slum-dwellers, prostitutes and hermaphrodites who survive on the peripheries of Indian society.
The Complaints
by Ian Rankin
“Mustn’t complain” – but people always do. Nobody likes The Complaints – they’re the cops who investigate other cops. Complaints and Conduct Department, to give them their full title, but known colloquially as ‘The Dark Side’, or simply ‘The Complaints’. It’s where Malcolm Fox works. He’s just had a result, and should be feeling good about himself. But he’s a man with problems of his own. He has an increasingly frail father in a care home and a sister who persists in an abusive relationship – something which Malcolm cannot seem to do anything about. But, in the midst of an aggressive Edinburgh winter, the reluctant Fox is given a new task. There’s a cop called Jamie Breck, and he’s dirty. The problem is, no one can prove it. But as Fox takes on the job, he learns that there’s more to Breck than anyone thinks. This knowledge will prove dangerous, especially when a vicious murder intervenes far too close to home for Fox’s liking.
Her Fearful Symmetry
by Audrey Niffenegger
Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers – normal, at least, for identical ‘mirror’ twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn’t know existed has died and left them her flat in an apartment block overlooking Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin…but have no idea that they’ve been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt’s mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the twins’ mother – and who can’t quite seem to leave her flat.
With Highgate Cemetery itself a character and echoes of Henry James and Charles Dickens, Her Fearful Symmetry is a delicious and deadly twenty-first-century ghost story about Niffenegger’s familiar themes of love, loss and identity. It is certain to cement her standing as one of the most singular and remarkable novelists of our time.
Something for the Little People Too
My First Nursery Rhyme Collection
by Tony Ross
This lovely collection of favourite nursery rhymes has been selected and illustrated by Tony Ross. Classic rhymes are given a contemporary edge and brought alive by the award-winning artist. The collection includes favourites like The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Henny-Penny, The Gingerbread Man, Three Little Pigs, The Enormous Turnip, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and more. The stories have been specially selected for their read-aloud qualities, and the large type and full colour, with integrated illustrations on every page, make these wonderful books to share with even the very youngest child.
Tabby McTat
by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
Tabby McTat was a busker’s cat With a miaow that was loud and strong. The two of them sang of this and that, And people threw coins in the old checked hat…
Fred, the busker, and his cat, Tabby McTat, are purr-fectly happy, singing together all day long. But when Fred gives chase to a thief, the two are separated. Will they ever find each other again?
The Bedtime Collection
compiled by Wendy Cooling
This delightful collection has been compiled for babies and toddlers by children’s book expert Wendy Cooling, with contributions from the very best of today’s authors and illustrators. This celebration of words and pictures for the very young is perfect for sharing at any time – from a quick two-minute storytime to a cosy ˜snuggle up at bedtime’ read. Royalties from every copy sold will go to the charity Booktrust.
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury
“There was one little baby who was born far away.
And another who was born on the very next day
And both of these babies, as everyone knows,
Had ten little fingers and ten little toes.”
All over the world, babies are different. Yet in some ways they are very much the same: each one has ten little fingers and ten little toes – to play with, to tickle, to wave. And each child is very, very special to its parents. From Helen Oxenbury, best loved as the illustrator of the classic nursery join-in picture book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes will fast become the essential book for baby playtime – and the perfect gift for a new arrival!
1001 books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
edited by Julia Eccleshare
So no pressure there then! Actually this is a wondereful introduction to the very best books of childhood that have a special place in the heart. It introduces a wonderfully rich world of literature to both parents and children, offering both new titles and much-loved classics that many generations have read and enjoyed. Here is a journey into fantasy, adventure, history, contermporary life, and much more. These books will enable you to travel to some of the most famous imaginary worlds such as Narnia, Middle Earth, and Hogwart’s School. And the route taken may be pretty strange, too. You may fall down a rabbit hole, as Alice does on her way to Wonderland, or go through the back of a wardrobe to reach the snowy wastes of Narnia.