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by Hagen Engler (Jacana) ISBN 978-1-4314-2376-7 “How to be white when you’re no longer centre of attention? When you no longer even matter? How to be white when everyone’s patience runs out? Disco Dave is a South African hipster on the Port Elizabeth social scene, such as it is. His dreams of media moguldom evaporate before […]

The One Man by Andrew Gross (Macmillan) ISBN 9781509822812 Why would a man risk his life for someone he has never met? That is precisely what Nathan Blum has agreed to do. He is a young intelligence lieutenant in Washington D.C. Three years ago he was in Jewish ghetto in Krakow, from where he managed to escape. He joined

Fever At Dawn by Péter Gárdos (Doubleday) ISBN: 978-0-857-52379-2 This first novel by Hungarian film director, Péter Gárdos, is the true story of his parents’ courtship. After his father dies in 1998, Gárdos finds two bundles of letters between his patents, bound in silk ribbon. He questions his mother to flesh out the story. Gárdos’ father,

by Katie Fforde (Century) ISBN: 9781780890869 After a particularly difficult experience where her very profession is belittled and called into question, Emily, a trained mid-wife, needs an escape. She decides to embark on a summer holiday aboard a steam boat on the Western Isles of Scotland. Working as a cook aboard the “puffer”, Emily meets

The Dot Spot by Dorothy Black (MF Books)  ISBN 978 1 920601 54 5 From flying solo in the bedroom to understanding your ‘kink’ and the importance of tantric sex (or not) the dot spot kind of covers everything about sex and then some. Dorothy Black’s successful sex column over time has always had an

by Bongani Madondo (Picador Africa), ISBN: 978-1-77010-495-2 Sigh The Beloved Country is a beautiful book of narrative essays that illustrates South Africa’s social complexities. The book kicks off with an adequately titled Black Eish and White Eina chapter. Madondo pokes fun at the concept of whiteness and the ignorance of white racists. He then humorously turns

Angry Owl by Kerryn Ponter (Struik Children)

by Jack Grimwood (Penguin) ISBN: 978-0-718-18156-7 Tom Wolfe is an intelligence officer, banished to Moscow after an incident in Northern Ireland. Conveniently unavailable while a commission of enquiry takes place and his superiors decide on his future. While stationed at the British Embassy a body is found dumped outside the walls of the Kremlin. It

by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Century) ISBN: 9781780892900 15th Affair is the latest in the Woman’s Murder Club series from James Patterson. Detective Lindsay Boxer is the lead investigator on a quadruple murder at a luxury hotel in San Francisco.  She uncovers a web of deceit and deception that interjects with the previous life of her husband Joe,

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (Viking) ISBN 9780241242735 ‘The family is like the forest: if you are outside it is dense; if you are inside you see that each tree has its own position.’ – Akan Proverb Yaa Gyasi was born in Mampong, Ghana and raised in Huntsville, Alabama, USA. She has written short stories and