Books and writers
Information about the latest books and the people behind them
Video: Leon de Kock and Michiel Heyns in conversation
2013-03-22 Michiel Heyns and Leon De Kock in conversation with Jonathan Amid18 March 2013
JS Gericke Library Auditorium
Dangerous Love by Ben Okri: Seeking Solace in a Brutalised Society
2013-03-13 "The novel is ambitious in its scope and complex in its rendering."
The REBIRTH graphic novel launch at The Book Lounge
2013-03-05 REBIRTH, a truely South African graphic novel set in an alternative history in which Jan van Riebeeck was actually a vampire, launches at The Book Club in Cape Town this Thursday.
REBIRTH Graphic Novel: Jan van Riebeeck was a vampire
2013-03-05 "But what interests me more than this – and I hope that in some way we have explored this a bit in the book – is how the colonial trauma creates a kind of force field, a blight maybe you could call it, that affects both colonised and coloniser for centuries afterwards."
African Library: The Past Ahead
2013-02-28 "Dear friend, this story belongs to you now. If it interested you, read it again one day, being careful not to become too absorbed by the play of the narrative, for what’s essential lies elsewhere."
Wen met die Exclusive Books Summer Sale
2013-01-22 Lewer kommentaar oor die boek(e) wat jou lewe verander het en wen R500!Comment about which book(s) changed your life and win R500!
Johan Vlok Louw on Eric the Brave
2013-01-16 "All in all, it took him twenty years to finish what would become his debut novel. Precious little of the first draft made it into the final manuscript."
Author of Just a Dead Man, Margaret von Klemperer, in conversation with Janet van Eeden
2013-01-15 Margaret von Klemperer, long-time arts editor, book reviewer and journalist for KZN's The Witness newspaper, stretches her creative wings in her debut novel, Just a Dead Man. It is a classic whodunit, more Agatha Christie than Margie Orford in its style.
Imraan Coovadia responds to Ian Glenn
2013-01-07 "And all this, right to the edge of racial hatred, to prevent the fair or unfair scrutiny of a book and a writer?"
Coovadia, Coetzee and the literary field of post-apartheid South Africa
2013-01-04 "Coetzee’s departure then becomes a symbolic leaving open of a place for new writers and scholars to tackle the burning issues of the new era, issues on which he claims no authority and perhaps for which he takes no responsibility, for which he feels no affinity."
LitNet-boekresensies 2012 LitNet Book Reviews
2012-12-19 Hierdie resensies is in 2012 op LitNet gepubliseer.
An interview with the queen of Scottish crime fiction: Val McDermid
2012-12-19 "British readers have grown increasingly interested in foreign settings in their crime fiction. They're as likely to read about South Africa as anywhere else as long as the books are interesting!"
African Library: A Friend of the Court by M?roki Nd?ng’?
2012-12-14 "Nd?ng’?’s novel is a thriller and a gripping reading experience, but it carries a moral and political charge of unexpected magnitude."
Discoverability and the author
2012-12-07 Writing a great book won’t necessarily turn you into a best-selling author. Tracey McDonald’s goal is to introduce the general public to authors, and authors to the general public.
A Spook’s Progress as optional reading
2012-11-28 "A Spook’s Progress is a memoire, recounting the author’s life from his childhood years on, with special emphasis on his career."
Mackenzie’s Pale Horses atmospheric, thought-provoking fare
2012-11-27 "Pale Horses really starts to hit its stride when De Jong visits the devastation of the “scene of the crime”, only to find that the missing community lived on land expropriated from a white farmer."
Home is where the hurt is: Diane Awerbuck’s Home Remedies
2012-11-07 After finishing Diane Awerbuck’s latest novel, Home Remedies, successor to Gardening at Night, I sat dumbfounded, almost in tears, thinking to myself: How do I describe this evocative novel to someone who loves reading?
Booktown Richmond to relaunch the Athol Fugard Festival
2012-11-05 The Athol Fugard festival is being planned for the first quarter of 2013.
African Library: The Deadly Ambition
2012-10-31 "Anyone who reads novels is aware of the not merely lasting, but seemingly increasing, popularity of the thriller format. In African writing (in English), there have been interesting variations in local incarnations of this genre, some examples of which have been discussed in previous African Library entries."