Litnet

"Paging through this book, I am struck by the huge variety of easy recipes that consist largely of everyday basics. The colour photographs by Craig Fraser do justice to the delectable food. I cannot wait to try out a few recipes!"

"It is a strikingly original work of narrative fiction based on the mimetics of life. The texture of the writing is finely laced and covers a wide range of emotional modalities from the tragic to comical."

"In the depiction of the building of a farm and a colony, in the contact between different groups of people, in the relationships within a family with their secrets and pettinesses and preferences and loves, Robertson creates another view of a particular piece of South African history for her readers."

"I am impressed by the wide and carefully chosen selection of mouth-watering recipes in My Portuguese feast. My favourite recipe by far is the golden koeksisters on page 48. Another firm favourite is the chicken and chickpea soup on page 104."

"While reading the essays in this collection, I found myself repeatedly rethinking my own attitudes. To start with, I wanted to be as sensitive and as aware as I could be while writing my review of the book. Change of attitude often begins with language. I hope that each of the words I have chosen for this review is respectful towards the contributors, their views and their sterling work."

"This is a powerful book that has you spellbound, especially as the secrets are revealed towards the end. It reminds you, once again, that knowing your ancestry is all-important for healthy self-actualisation."

"The science that underpins what we usually say without having any proof: people have more in common than they have differences. Now, to be told the fact that skin colour is less than 1% of what comprises the human body – 0,001% – is staggering."

Monday 5 March, 20:30, Drostdy Theatre, Stellenbosch: "Come join InZync for our first event of 2018 as we publish the long-awaited ConVerse, a collection that showcases some of the best new voices in South African poetry in translation, including Koleka Putuma, Jolyn Phillips, Sindiswa Busuku-Mathese, Nathan Trantraal and Mbongeni Nomkonwana."

"The President’s Keepers brought to light abuse of and corruption at these agencies, and this raid is evidence of how the priorities are perverted."

"A casualty of power is a brief novel, but it packs a strong punch, vividly and effectively raising matters of importance and urgent relevance to millions of Africans – and others, for African situations are never unique – and their intelligent depiction can enlighten readers all over the world."

"My latest book is called Jouw toekomst is mijn toekomst (2017) and contains the stories of four students with a refugee background. These are courageous stories that offer a different perspective on people who have made the crossing to Europe."

"In the end, like in the book, it boils down to helping one another. There is great blessing in giving a glass of water to a poor and thirsty person. It is a form of healing."

"The characters and the surroundings are drawn with the accuracy of a master painter, as the author’s descriptions evoke the hopelessness echoed in the area and in the lives of its inhabitants."

Navigate was launched at The Book Lounge on 31 January 2018. Paul Reeves captured the evening with his photos.

"Research on the constitution of foreign images of a canonical Afrikaans poet can start right here."

You are invited to the launch of Navigate on 31 January in Cape Town. Jolyn Phillips will introduce the poet, Karin Schimke, who will also read from her poetry collection.

"On a day-to-day basis, poems rush by me and through me all the time, and only now and again do I have the time to snatch them by their slippery tails and nail them to the page."

"Many news reports, blogs and scholarly articles have been written about 'the hashtag movements', but As by fire is the first comprehensive, systematic attempt at analysing the reflections on the movements from the perspectives of the leaders of those universities most closely involved."

"He lived as if he was a reed for the tunes and the rhythms and the winds of his time, and in that he was the reed of our turbulent passage on earth, perhaps transmitting a very ancient song to us."

"This important and moving text is the last completed work by an Algerian Berber novelist and public intellectual who wrote in French, the language in which the original Éditions du Seuil edition appeared in 1962."