Litnet

Listen to a podcast of the discussion, see photos of the launch and read the text of David Attwell’s introduction at the Exclusive Books launch of A library to flee at the Cape Town Waterfront on 9 November 2022. 

Tell us who your favourite fiction author is and stand a chance to win a hamper full of books!

A publishing phenomenon and South Africaʼs fastest-selling book ever, The Presidentʼs keepers fearlessly exposed former president Jacob Zumaʼs darkest secrets. Our poisoned land is as riveting and explosive as its predecessor.

A pirated, hacked copy of Our poisoned land by Jacques Pauw is being shared on social media. The author and NB Publishers have taken great risks to bring this important investigative work out into the open. So please read it, but also do the right thing, and please pay for it.

"And so, the memoir’s two narrative and thematic strands – both of which evoke the irresistible pull of the past, of ancestral voices – are woven tightly into a fascinating and compelling account of a life richly and intensely lived. This is a story of family: of losses and of surprising, abundant gains. It is a tale of growing up as an outsider of sorts in a country committed to employing taxonomy to divide."

"Of course I admire, study and read books from other continents, but African writing is to my mind still hugely underrated and far too little known, when there are brilliant novels of great depth and complexity produced all over our continent."

"My first challenge is to write a really good story that readers will invest in. I try to weave in satisfying resolutions that readers won’t see coming. It takes me ages to get the plot sorted out and tie up all the loose ends."

Welcome to the 10th Poetry in McGregor festival. At this festival we will consider, through poetry, our roles as custodians of wilderness and creation, not to mention the need to nurture a certain inner wildness.

"For present purposes, what stands out is Schreiner’s modernity. Schreiner, residing in dusty De Aar, was an equal, a comrade in arms, a thinker in her own right on matters that even in the metropolitan centre still elicited considerable opposition."

Don’t miss the Bargain Books early-bird Christmas special! Do your gift shopping in November and enjoy a further 10% off already-reduced selected Christmas titles! Plus stand a chance to win a copy of Terry Pratchett’s biography!

"But crossing the Rubicon, as always, carries risks. PW Botha lasted a few years more, Julius Caesar had his Ides of March moment not long after – and Xi Jinping?"

Chris Marais and Julienne du Toit are the authors of numerous books on the Karoo. Tony Jackman spoke to them at the Etienne van Heerden Veldsoirée, days after their Karoo roads III had rolled of the press.

We hope that you can join us at one of these launches planned for November.

"Published by Umuzi, its extended narrative provides a vividly localised image of community life in Walmer Estate, an area of Cape Town that is set on the slopes of Table Mountain, most of whose adult and older occupants have haunting memories of District Six ..."

Mignonne Breier has won the 2022 Sunday Times Literary Award for non-fiction for Bloody Sunday: The Nun, the Defiance Campaign and South Africa’s Secret Massacre, published by Tafelberg, an imprint of NB Publishers.

The Professional Association for Transgender Health South Africa (PATHSA) will hold its first symposium on 12 November, 8:00–13:00. Anyone is welcome to attend.

The South African air fryer cookbook focuses on mouth-watering local favourites such as bobotie, apricot snoek with sweet potato, boerewors with chakalaka, paptert, milk tart and malva pudding.

The Island Prize is a literary prize open to previously unpublished debut African novelists from across the continent to help them reach wider audiences and break into the UK publishing scene. 

"I called this novel panoramic, but it is also kaleidoscopic, so pregnant is it with fractured reflections that reconfigure themselves at each quick shake."

We invite you to write a story of between 3 000 to 5 000 words.