SPRING READING

Three new releases to kick off your spring reading… SPRING READING

NOT TO MENTION: A NOVEL BY VIVIAN DE KLERK

As her 21st birthday approaches, Katy Ferreira has not left her bedroom for close on two years. In fact, she has not left her bed – at 360 kilogrammes, she simply can’t. Characterised by an indomitable spirit, Katy tries to make the best of a bad situation. She does the crossword in the Herald newspaper her mother brings home, consumes the food she craves – biscuits, pies, doughnuts, litres of fizzy drinks – and waits in hope for insulin and a solution to her plight. To pass the time she begins to compile her own crossword in one of the Croxley notebooks that have been unused since she dropped out of school. Within each cryptic clue is a message, an attempt to explain how it feels to be ‘the fat girl’, how taking comfort in sweet things as a grieving and lonely child escalated into a deadly relationship with food and a psychological and physical disease.

The process triggers splintered memories of dark family secrets and hints of culpability. As Katy finds her voice – quirky, macabre, devastatingly astute and viciously funny at times – the notebooks fill up.

Not to Mention is part diary, part memoir, part lovehate letter to the mother who fuelled her daughter’s addiction as steadily as the world ostracised her. The destructive power of shame and society’s harsh judgement of people who are ‘different’ is matched by the immense courage of a young woman who is determined to be heard.

Vivian de Klerkis Professor Emeritusof Linguistics at Rhodes University, where she devoted 30 years to teaching and research before becoming dean of students in 2008. She received the vice chancellor’s Senior Distinguished Research Medal and, in 2019, was the recipient of the Kraak Writing Grant. Not to Mention is her first novel.

SECURE YOUR RETIREMENT BY BRUCE CAMERON AND WOUTER FOURIE

Pensioners are facing a major fallout from South Africa’s downgrading to junk status and the plummeting of the rand as a result of government corruption. On top of this, the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic lockdown have hit retirement savings hard, and their effects will continue for a long time. Secure Your Retirement unpacks the challenges facing pensioners, and outlines what they can do to improve their situation. The book explains how to avoid the pitfalls that cause pensioners to run out of money. It provides guidance about selecting the right pension products and offers other solutions to guide pensioners to better financial outcomes. It gives advice for women, who are particularly at risk, and it deals with the rising costs of healthcare and the increasing threat of dementia. Written by awardwinning author Bruce Cameron and leading financial planner Wouter Fourie, and based on research by the country’s largest pension fund administrator, Alexander Forbes, as well as life companies Just SA and Sanlam, this book is essential for anyone concerned about their financial future in this worrying time.

A LIFE ON OUR PLANET BY DAVID ATTENBOROUGH

I am David Attenborough. At time of writing, I am 93 years old. I’ve had an extraordinary life. It’s only now that I appreciate how extraordinary. As a young man, I felt I was out there in the wild, experiencing the untouched natural world – but it was an illusion. The tragedy of our time has been happening all around us, barely noticeable from day to day – the loss of our planet’s wild places, its biodiversity. I have been witness to this decline. A Life on Our Planet contains my witness statement, and my vision for the future – the story of how we came to make this, our greatest mistake, and how, if we act now, we can yet put it right. We have the opportunity to create the perfect home for ourselves and restore the wonderful world we inherited. All we need is the will to do so. •