NB Publishers Fiction: Human & Rousseau Kwela
NB PUBLISHERS is the largest general publisher in the South African book market, and the leader in adult fiction. We also publish nonfiction, and books for children and young people. The company is part of Media24 Books, a division of Media24, which is the largest newspaper, magazine and book publishing group in Africa. Media24 is part of Naspers, the largest media group in the southern hemisphere. We publish fiction under the Human & Rousseau, Kwela, Queillerie and Tafelberg imprints. .
Human & Rousseau Fiction Established in 1959 with the aim to publish mainly Afrikaans books, the fiction section now publishes English titles as well. Amongst the authors on our publishing list are Breyten Breytenbach, André P. Brink, Marié Heese, Deon Meyer, Karel Schoeman, Wilma Stockenström, Marlene van Niekerk and Ingrid Winterbach.
Foreign Rights Contact: Janita Holtzhausen e-mail: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com 40 Heerengracht, Cape Town, 8001 / P O Box 879, Cape Town, 8000 / www.humanrousseau.com Tel: +27 (0) 21 406 3033 / Fax: +27 (0) 21 406 3812
Human & Rousseau Titles Literary Fiction & Classics • Herman Charles Bosman – Mafeking Road and Other Stories • Herman Charles Bosman – The Complete Voorkamer Stories • Etienne le Roux – Sewe dae by die Silbersteins / Seven Days with the Silbersteins • Karel Schoeman – This Life / Hierdie lewe • Karel Schoeman – ’n Ander land / Another Country • Wilma Stockenstrom – The Expedition to the Baobab Tree / Die kremetartekspedisie • Ingrid Winterbach – Die benederyk (The Underworld) • Ingrid Winterbach – The Book of Happenstance / Die boek van toeval en toeverlaat • Ingrid Winterbach – To Hell with Cronjé / Niggie • Ingrid Winterbach – The Elusive Moth / Karolina Ferreira Popular Fiction • Christine Barkhuizen le Roux – Padmaker (The Road Worker) • Douwleen Bredenhann – Bloedwater (Blood Water) • Marie Heese – The Colour of Power • Marie Heese – The Double Crown • Chris Karsten – Abel se lot (Abel’s Fate) • Chris Karsten – Abel se ontwaking (Abel’s Awakening) • Connie Luyt – Reën oor die Serengeti (Rain on the Serengeti) • Connie Luyt – Lang skaduwees in Afrika (Long Shadows over Africa) • Bridget Pitt – The Unseen Leopard • Sue Rabie – Fallout • Sue Rabie – Blood at Bay • Sue Rabie – Boston Snowplough
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Description: Set in the Marico District in the 1920s, Bosman’s storyteller character, Oom Schalk Lourens, introduces us to the Wild West of South Africa, where poor white farmers (Takhaars) compete with the local Tswana people for grazing and water. There are tales of cattle smuggling on the border of Bechuanaland, illegal distilling of peach brandy and mampoer, Boer War veterans, witch-doctors, leopards , ghosts and a man who killed his wife and buried her under the dung floor of his house. Jealousies, hatreds, loves and betrayals – the entire range of human emotions are laid bare in a manner at once humorous, and satirical, romantic and ironic. Bosman reveals to us a world quaint and distant … and yet powerfully familiar. About the author: Herman Charles Bosman remains one of South Africa’s most famous storytellers. Born in 1905 near Cape Town, he was posted to a farm school near Zwingli in the Marico District of the Transvaal. This position was abruptly terminated after he was arrested and convicted for the murder of his stepbrother, for which he spent four years in prison after his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
Mafeking Road and Other Stories Herman Charles Bosman Publication date: 1998 (1969) Pages: 152 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-3902-1 Language: English Rights available: World rights excl. German and US; E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
After his release on parole in 1930 he worked as a journalist in Johannesburg before leaving for London in 1934, where he spent the next six years. It is London that he wrote the bulk of the stories that constitute Mafeking Road. He died of a heart attack in 1951, having seen only three of his works in print: Jacaranda in the Night (1947), Mafeking Road (1947) and Cold Stone Jug (1949), his prison memoir. As a person he had a unique way of seeing life, an intense excitement that he managed to convey in his stories. His books are pre-eminent in the field of South-African literature. His work is still relevant today – German and US editions of Mafeking Road and other stories were published recently.
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Description: Bosman’s Voorkamer stories first appeared in The Forum in 1950-1951 as a weekly column and were considered by his colleagues as his best work. This volume contains all the Voorkamer stories in the order in which they originally appeared, unabridged and uncensored. In these stories, the local farmers gather in Jurie Steyn’s voorkamer, which doubles as the Drogevlei post office, to share the news of the day, comment on world events and tell stories about pretty girls, ghosts and hypochondriacs. The Complete Voorkamer Stories is complemented by a "Bushveld Portfolio" by David Goldblatt: 12 previously unpublished photographs taken in the Marico area. The photographs will be interspersed with the text, printed on the half title pages introducing each section of the Voorkamer Stories.
The Complete Voorkamer Stories Herman Charles Bosman Publication date: September 2011 Pages: 464 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981- 5298-3 Language: English Rights available: World rights; E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
About the author: Herman Charles Bosman remains one of South Africa’s most famous storytellers. Born in 1905 near Cape Town, he was posted to a farm school near Zwingli in the Marico District of the Transvaal. This position was abruptly terminated after he was arrested and convicted for the murder of his stepbrother, for which he spent four years in prison after his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. After his release on parole in 1930 he worked as a journalist in Johannesburg before leaving for London in 1934, where he spent the next six years. It is London that he wrote the bulk of the stories that constitute Mafeking Road. He died of a heart attack in 1951, having seen only three of his works in print: Jacaranda in the Night (1947), Mafeking Road (1947) and Cold Stone Jug (1949), his prison memoir. As a person he had a unique way of seeing life, an intense excitement that he managed to convey in his stories. His books are pre-eminent in the field of South-African literature. His work is still relevant today – German and US editions of Mafeking Road and other stories were published recently.
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Praise: “A work of art … with a humour all its own. A superb comic fantasia …” – Graham Greene “A masterpiece …This is the Cape, but it could be anywhere. It is the world of today.” – Stuart Cloete “It is stirring that a metaphorical novelist should have the humanity and skill to make moments like these concrete.” – The New Yorker Description: Set on a wine estate in the Cape in early 1960s South Africa. The account of the young Henry van Eeden’s initiation into the bizarre world of the Welgevonden estate and the complexities of good and evil when he spends a week there to meet his prospective bride.
Sewe dae by die Silbersteins / Seven Days at the Silbersteins Etienne Leroux Publication date: 1962 Pages: 156 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-2806-3 Language: Afrikaans (English Translation Available Rights available: World rights excl. German and US; E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
Previous foreign editions: Dutch: Bruna (1965) English: London: WH Allen (1968); Boston: Houghton Mifflin (1967)/ New york: World Pub Co (1970) French: Robert Laffont (1970) About the author: Etienne Leroux (1922-1989) was one of the most important exponents of the avantgarde literary group in Afrikaans literature known as the Sestigers. His novels not only brought about a much needed renewal but caused a lot of controversy. His novel Magersfontein O Magersfontein was banned for several years. He was awarded many prizes, amongst others twice the Hertzog Prize.
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles More than 8,000 copies sold in France. Awards: France: Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Best Foreign Book) 2009 South Africa: Hertzog prize, CNA Literary Award Praise: One of the most powerful and moving tales imaginable, stitched with an exquisite, carefully repetitive cadence … hauntingly elegiac … I found it quite beautiful, and strongly recommend that it be read in either language. – Beverley Roos Muller, Cape Argus An overwhelming, moving, lyrical book – Gerrit Olivier If there is something in Afrikaans like a roman pur, a translucent novel, then This Life would be it. – Petra Müller, New Contrast
This Life / Hierdie lewe Karel Schoeman Publication date: 1995 Pages: 228 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-4552-7 Language: Afrikaans or English Rights available: World rights except French (Editions Phébus); E-book rights negotiable
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Description: This Life is a beautifully written, evocative account of the life of a woman who lived in the Roggeveld in the latter part of the nineteenth century. On her deathbed she recalls a life of isolation and loneliness, her role that of a witness. The woman’s hesitant, faltering reminiscing is an attempt to understand the injustices (e.g. the eviction of “coloureds” from land they had occupied for generations), and to unravel the secrets behind the events which led to the death of one of her brothers. About the author: Karel Schoeman is a major Afrikaans novelist. For his 16 works of fiction published since 1965, he has thrice received the Hertzog Prize, the most important award for Afrikaans literature, and a number of other important South African literary prizes – the Helgaard Steyn, CNA, W.A. Hofmeyr, Old Mutual and M-Net Prizes. In 1999 he received an Order of Merit from President Nelson Mandela.
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Awards: Hertzog Literary Prize, Helgaard Steyn Prize, WA Hofmeyr Prize, Old Mutual Prize Praise: … great achievement … superlative art .. magnificent prose. – JM Coetzee Description: The novel is set at the end of the nineteenth century. Versluis, a middle-aged visitor from the Netherlands, comes to Bloemfontein for his health – he hopes to recover from TB. In his awkward attempts to try to come to grips with this strange country, he eventually gains a new understanding of life. And he prepares for man’s inevitable destiny: death – “another country”. The African landscape is a strong presence in the novel. A masterpiece about living and dying and identity, compared by some to Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain. Previous foreign editions: English: Sinclair-Stevenson, London; French: Robert Laffont, Paris; Dutch: Contact, Amsterdam; German: Albrecht Knauss, Munich
’n Ander land / Another country Karel Schoeman
About the author: Karel Schoeman is a major Afrikaans novelist. For his 16 works of fiction published since 1965, he has thrice received the Hertzog Prize, the most important award for Afrikaans literature, and a number of other important South African literary prizes – the Helgaard Steyn, CNA, W.A. Hofmeyr, Old Mutual and M-Net Prizes. In 1999 he received an Order of Merit from President Mandela.
Publication date: 1984/2006 Pages: 416 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-4511-4 Language: Afrikaans (English translation available) Rights available: World rights except French (Editions Phébus); E-book rights negotiable
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Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Awards: 1988 – Grinzane Cavour Prize for Spedizione al Baobab (Italian translation of Die kremetartekspedisie) Praise: A compelling, richly textured fable. – Christopher Hope It becomes a symbol of a power as strong and stubborn as life itself. – Göteborgs Tidningen A truly remarkable contribution, both for the lyrical quality of its prose and for its boldly imaginative theme. – World Literature Today Description: The narrator of this beautiful novel is an old slave woman who lived in a harbour town on the east coast of Africa and was taken by her fourth owner on a journey inland. After his death she ends up living in a baobab tree. Originally published in Afrikaans.
The Expedition to the Baobab Tree / Die kremetartekspedisie
About the author: Wilma Stockenström is an acclaimed novelist and poet and has won the Hertzog Prize twice – once for poetry and once for prose. She has been living in Cape Town since 1993. She is a well-known actress in South Africa.
Wilma Stockenström English translation by J.M. Coetzee Pub date: 1981/ 2008 Pages: 116 pp ISBN (Eng): 978-0-7981-4939-6 Rights available: World rights except Portuguese, French (Rivages) and Italian; E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Awards: M-Net Book Prize Praise: Classical Winterbach: multifaceted, incredibly interwoven, alienating, ironic, visionary, mysterious. – Henning Pieterse A watermark Winterbach novel. – Louise Viljoen, Rapport The highlight of Ingrid Winterbach’s oeuvre and n novel that one intuitively recognizes as a classic. – Willie Burger, Die Burger Funny, richly painted (both literally and figuratively), with an amazingly tight structure. – Jeanette Ferreira, Beeld Winterbach’s work has become increasingly metaphorically laden, but also more plot driven … With each reading you discover another layer … A great writer changes your perspective on your life and your psychological landscape. This book does just that. – Joan Hambidge, Volksblad.
Die benederyk (The Underworld) Ingrid Winterbach Publication date: April 2010 Pages: 304 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-5147-4 Language: Afrikaans Rights available: World rights; E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
Description: A new novel by this author is an event. This is the story of two brothers – Aaron and Stefaans Adendorff – the one an artist, the other an ex-addict. When Aaron’s gallery owner, Knuvelder, lets him down, Bubbles Bothma, neighbour and friend extraordinaire, suggests various outrageous solutions. And, throughout, Stefaans reports on his time wandering in the dark world of substance abuse, and his quest to establish the descent of their elusive third grandfather ... Apocalyptic and burlesque – vintage Winterbach. About the author: Ingrid Winterbach wrote several novels as Lettie Viljoen: Klaaglied vir Koos, Erf, Belemmering, Karolina Ferreira, and Landskap met vroue en slang. Karolina Ferreira was awarded the M-Net book prize as well as the Old Mutual literary prize. Buller se plan received the W.A. Hofmeyr Prize. Her novel Niggie (2002) was awarded the Hertzog Prize in 2004. Winterbach is also an artist. She lives with her family in Durban.
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Awards: M-Net Book Prize, W.A. Hofmeyr Prize, and the University of Johannesburg Literary Prize Praise: An intelligent literary mystery … Winterbach's characters are rich, her story foreboding and tense, and her prose remarkably lean. – Publishers Weekly A moving book. It deals subtly with subjects such as crime, obsessions, beauty and small, personal histories for which there seems to be no place anymore in a quickly changing South Africa. – Fred de Vries, de Volkskrant, The Netherlands This text is, in all meanings of the word, sublime. – Louis Gaigher, Die Burger In her newest novel, Ingrid Winterbach is at her best: complex, funny, smart, mischievous and without equal. – Thys Human, Die Beeld An unconventional storyteller, often astonishing, simple, clear and funny – Willie Burger, Rapport
The Book of Happenstance / Die boek van toeval en toeverlaat Ingrid Winterbach Publication date: 2008 Pages: 352 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-4929-7 Language: Afrikaans or English Rights available: Dutch (Uitgeverij Cossee) and English World rights (Open Letter) sold; E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
Description: A woman goes to Durban to assist in an Afrikaans language preservation project. Then her cottage is burgled and her beautiful collection of shells go missing. Her determined search for her shells becomes interwoven with her work and the people she gets to know, especially her new friend, Sof. And in the process she also reflects on her life – her childhood, her family, her lovers before her marriage, her ex-husband, her current lover. About the author: Ingrid Winterbach wrote several novels as Lettie Viljoen: Klaaglied vir Koos, Erf, Belemmering, Karolina Ferreira, and Landskap met vroue en slang. Karolina Ferreira was awarded the M-Net book prize as well as the Old Mutual literary prize. Buller se plan received the W.A. Hofmeyr Prize. Her novel Niggie (2002) was awarded the Hertzog Prize in 2004. Winterbach is also an artist. She lives with her family in Durban.
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Awards: 2004 Hertzog Prize for prose for Niggie
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Praise: Powerful, dramatic, and filled with characters one cannot help but like, the novel gains impact in its presentation of big themes which expand beyond its South African setting. – Mary Whipple, Mary Whipple Reviews, USA A raw and painful novel . . . Winterbach's writing sets the mood brilliantly, and she pitches her blend of characters perfectly to create an uneasy, occasionally frightening feel to her narrative. – Andy Barnes, Belletrista, USA . . . I doubt that this book could have been written in the cosy Netherlands. You would have to go to Australia for Patrick White’s Voss, or to the Arizona of Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses. And to South Africa for Niggie (To Hell with Cronje). – Brabants Dagblad, The Netherlands An exquisite book, an essential voice – Antjie Krog
To hell with Cronje / Niggie Ingrid Winterbach
Description: The events in this novel take place during the last few weeks of the Anglo-Boer War in 1902. A group of Boer soldiers departs from the Colony to the Free State to take a traumatised young man back to his home. Two of the men, Reitz Steyn and Ben Maritz, are scientists, and the novel focuses on their experiences. The suffering and hardships of the war left its mark on this little group, and especially Reitz and Ben are increasingly aware of the futility of it all. On their way they are apprehended and held in a strange camp by other Boers. After they have been wounded during the execution of a mysterious assignment Reitz and Ben are cared for by three women on a nearby farm. Their stay with these women offers a chance for healing in more than one respect. An impressive novel on the futility of war, written with understated poignancy and drama.
Publication date: 2007 Pages: 256 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-4832-0 Language: Afrikaans or English About the author: Rights available: Dutch (Uitgeverij Cossee) Ingrid Winterbach wrote several novels as Lettie Viljoen: Klaaglied vir Koos, Erf, Belemmering, and English World rights (Open Letter) Karolina Ferreira, and Landskap met vroue en slang. Karolina Ferreira was awarded the M-Net Book sold; E-book rights negotiable Prize as well as the Old Mutual Literary Prize. Buller se plan received the W.A. Hofmeyr Prize. Her novel Niggie (2002) was awarded the Hertzog Prize in 2004. Winterbach is also an artist. She lives with her family in Durban.
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Awards: The Afrikaans edition of this novel, Karolina Ferreira, was awarded the M-Net Book Prize in 1994, as well as the Old Mutual Award. (It was published under the author’s then pseudonym Lettie Viljoen.) Praise: By far one of the most interesting writers in Afrikaans – Antjie Krog A novel that will haunt the reader – Gerrit Olivier Description: Karolina Ferreira, an entomologist, goes to a small town to do research on the survival strategies of a rare moth species. She stays in the local hotel where she meets up with some fascinating men. During the day, Willie September, a natural healer, introduces Karolina to the mysteries of the drought-stricken veld. At night she is introduced and exposed to the town’s political intrigue and power games, while playing snooker, drinking whisky in the ladies bar, and dancing the tango with a certain mister Kolyn (a police informer?). A beautifully written novel about love and desire.
The Elusive Moth / Karolina Ferreira Ingrid Winterbach
About the author: Ingrid Winterbach wrote several novels as Lettie Viljoen: Klaaglied vir Koos, Erf, Belemmering, Karolina Ferreira, and Landskap met vroue en slang. Karolina Ferreira was awarded the M-Net Book Prize as well as the Old Mutual Literary Prize. Buller se plan received the W.A. Hofmeyr Prize. Her novel Niggie (2002) was awarded the Hertzog Prize in 2004. Winterbach is also an artist. She lives with her family in Durban.
Publication date: 2005 Pages: 196 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-4562-6 Language: Afrikaans or English Rights available: World rights; E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
More than 7000 copies sold in South Africa.
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Reviews: The author’s discipline as a poet becomes apparent … she understands the power of suggestion … A book that can be read on many levels… the reader looking for a good story won’t need knowledge of psychology or literature to understand or, even more important, enjoy it. – Stephanie Nieuwoudt, Rapport The poet returns with both lyrical passages … and burning irony. An intelligent, enjoyable, even touching, reading experience. – Jeanette Ferreira, Beeld A considered, sensitive, well-polished novel. – Adéle Dempers
Padmaker (The Road Worker) Christine Barkhuizen le Roux Publication date: March 2010 Pages: 352 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-5096-5 Language: Afrikaans Rights available: World rights; E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
Description: When her elderly mother disappears, Katrien sets out on a journey along the roads that her father helped build when she was a child. It becomes a journey into the past, as she travels through the towns where they lived in temporary camps close to the road works. It is there that her father, operator of a road grader, taught her and her brother about life with his stories about the road works. And where her mother fought a bitter war against the poverty of the camps, suffering from an endless list of illnesses and complaints. As Katrien tries to patch together the past, she realises the truth of her father’s words “to know where you are going, you must first know where you are coming from”. About the author: Christine Barkhuizen le Roux has published two poetry collections, dimensie (2000) and roset (2006) and a short story collection, Waar koek en wyn ontbreek (2006). Several of her poems have been published in Dutch publications and South African anthologies of poetry. Padmaker was part of her MA in Creative Writing at UCT, which she completed cum laude.
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Description: When Woudstra Bosman calls Adriana in the Netherlands, she is sure that he is calling about her mother. She made it clear that she didn’t want any further contact except in an emergency. But now, years after she ended all contact with him and her family after they broke off their engagement, he asks the impossible: She must return to South Africa to look after her younger sister, the sister he had to marry in a shotgun wedding. And who is now addicted to the drug “tik” (crystal meth). A story of love, loss, betrayal and the devastation wreaked by tik addiction. About the author: Douwleen Bredenhann is an ordinary wife and mother living in Somerset-West. In 2010 she touched the hearts of many South Africans with her account of her and her family’s struggle for survival after the murder of her nine year old daughter in Living without Liesl.
Bloedwater (Blood water) Douwleen Bredenhann Publication date: September 2011 Pages: 288 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-5559-5 Language: Afrikaans Rights available: World rights; E-book rights negotiable
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Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Praise: A marvelous tale of the grandeur of the past, a story of one woman’s passion for life, a woman who lived beyond the requirements of her times; and it is told in Technicolor … It’s history writing at it’s best. – Cape Times Description: Subtitle: A story of Theodora, Empress of Byzantium An unputdownable novel about the Empress Theodora, considered by many the most influential and powerful woman in the history of the Byzantine Empire. The reader follows her journey from her humble beginnings, the loss of her father, the compromises she must make between her personal sense of honour, faith and survival, and we watch with fascination as this strong woman fights her way through the ranks, from public entertainer and high-class prostitute to empress, to rule alongside her husband, Emperor Justinian. Heese unwinds a story of immense intrigue and historical detail.
The Colour of Power Marié Heese
About the author: Marié Heese is the author of several works of fiction, some in English and others in Afrikaans. She is especially well known in South Africa as the author of Die uurwerk kantel, a novel, which was first published in 1976 and republished as a classic in 2006. This novel has been adapted for the radio and for the stage, and was voted one of the best books of the 20 th century by library readers in the Western Cape. Her previous novel, The Double Crown, won the Commonwealth Prize (Best Book: Africa) 2010.
Publication date: May 2011 Pages: 368 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-5280-8 Language: English Rights available: World rights; E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Awards: Winner of the 2010 Commonwealth Prize for Best Book in the Africa region Praise: [Marié] is a literary stylist with commercial chops; I found her novel an illuminating, utterly unputdownable read. – Dan Lazar, Marié’s agent at Writers House, New York Heese weaves the intriguing facts … into a gripping novel, brilliantly negotiating between the many conflicting interpretations of Hatshepsut’s life . … a vividly imagined portrait of an extraordinary woman. – Karina M. Szczurek, The Sunday Independent
The Double Crown Marié Heese Publication date: June 2009 Pages: 384 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-5036-1 Language: English Rights available: World rights; E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
Description: A novel about Hatshepsut, a female Pharaoh, who ruled over Egypt for two decades around 1500 BC. Hatshepsut tells her story in a series of scrolls because she fears, quite rightly, that her name will be expunged from her temples and obelisks if those who plot her death should succeed. Her loyal scribe, Mahu, reads the scrolls before he hides them. His voice adds balance and insight to Hatshepsut's story. The novel’s biggest asset is the well-rounded, beautifully crafted character of Hatshepsut. And in particular her descent into utter, weary, loneliness. (As Elizabeth the First undoubtedly also discovered, power and love do not make good bedfellows.) About the author: Marié Heese is the author of several works of fiction, some in English and others in Afrikaans. She is especially well known in South Africa as the author of Die uurwerk kantel, a novel, which was first published in 1976 and republished as a classic in 2006. This novel has been adapted for the radio and for the stage, and was voted one of the best books of the 20 th century by library readers in the Western Cape.
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Praise: Few authors manage to penetrate into the heart of a murderer with such precision and disturbing realism as Karsten does. You are horrified and bewitched at the same time. – Leon van Nierop The creator of one of the creepiest serial killers yet in Afrikaans fiction might seem gentle, but his pen is sharp as a knife. – Deborah Steinmair, Huisgenoot The main character is the book’s strongest point, and with that, Karsten’s writing style. He would be able to write a gripping telephone directory. – Francois Bloemhof, Rapport Description: The second book in the Abel trilogy: Outside a marketplace in Burundi the body of a Belgian plastic surgeon with dubious credentials is found. His face and his passport is missing. According to a note on his computer, he has left the country indefinitely to attend to personal matters. In Johannesburg, Ella Neser is on compulsory sick leave after her close encounter with Abel Lotz’s scalpel. Between therapy sessions and harp lessons, she ponders over the photographs of Abel’s four victims, dead set on catching him before he kills again.
Abel se lot (Abel’s Fate) Chris Karsten Publication date: July 2011 Pages: 352 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-5292-1 Language: Afrikaans Rights available: World rights; E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
Milo and Kaya Boonstra are orphans of the war in Sarajevo, adopted by a South African diplomat and his wife, hoping to heal the trauma of war with love and care. When their adopted mother dies in a botched burglary, Ella Neser returns to duty to catch the murderers. But she is not the only one on their trail. Has Abel Lotz returned, or is there a new killer in Dorado Park? About the author: Chris Karsten started out as a crime journalist and spent years working for several of the big daily and weekly papers in South Africa. He recently took early retirement to devote himself to writing fiction. His first three novels were well-received by critics and the market alike. Karsten now lives in Canada with his Canadian wife and son.
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Film rights sold to SA filmmaker Johnny Breedt (production designer of Hotel Rwanda). Praise: The creator of one of the creepiest serial killers yet in Afrikaans fiction might seem gentle, but his pen is sharp as a knife. – Deborah Steinmair, Huisgenoot The main character is the book’s strongest point, and with that, Karsten’s writing style. He would be able to write a gripping telephone directory. – Jaybee Roux, Rapport Description: The first book in the Abel trilogy: Abel Lotz still lives on the smallholding outside Johannesburg where he spent most of his life with his disturbed mother and his grandmother with her memories of the South African War. He harvests and treats the skins of small animals to trade for the authentic African and South American masks and tsantsas sold in his gallery in the city. For his fiftieth birthday he wants a new face for himself, one for special occasions.
Abel se ontwaking / Abel’s Awakening Chris Karsten Publication date: July 2010 Pages: 336 pp ISBN: 978-07981-5130-6 Language: Afrikaans, English translation available Rights available: World rights; E-book rights negotiable
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Inspector Ella Neser is eager to handle her first murder as investigating officer. She has the best mentor possible: superintendent Silas Sauls – unpopular with criminals and senior staff alike because of his bulldog-like nature. Ella’s first body is that of a young woman with a piece of skin missing from her shoulder. About the author: Chris Karsten started out as a crime journalist and spent years working for several of the big daily and weekly papers in South Africa. He recently took early retirement to devote himself to writing fiction. His first three novels were well-received by critics and the market alike. Karsten lnow lives in Canada with his Canadian wife and son.
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Awards: Reën oor die Serengeti has been short-listed for the ATKV romantic novel award. Description: Connie Luyt’s seventh novel is set in East-Africa and Germany. Gretchen Schmidt wants to put her life in East Germany behind her and meet the man who indirectly caused her daughter Gardi’s suffering. Her Afrikaner grandfather once lived on the Serengeti plains, and she hopes to find some kind of peace there. John Barklin wants to make a new beginning with his safari camp at Ngaro Sero, but he struggles to deal with what he sees as his father’s betrayal. Now he has a strange German woman in his safari and Sam and his daughter Emma who lost her mother in a hijacking. And there are elephant poachers in the area. About the author: Luyt is the author of Boekarest se blomme (The flowers of Bucharest) and various popular romantic novels. She often accompanies her husband on journeys abroad and she lives in Pretoria. Her previous novel, Lang skaduwees oor Afrika, has done well in the Dutch market.
Reën oor die Serengeti (Rain on the Serengeti) Connie Luyt Publication date: November 2009 Pages: 196 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-5097-2 Language: Afrikaans Rights available: World rights except Dutch (Uitgeverij Mozaïek); E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Awards: Short-listed for the Afrikaans Language and Culture Organization (ATKV) romantic novel award. Praise: So much comes together in this novel: a phenomenal talent for storytelling and accurate research; women and Africa; bitterness and reconciliation; past and present … three unforgettable life stories. – Jaybee Roux, Die Burger Description: Luyt’s sixth novel tells the stories of a grandmother, a mother and granddaughter.
Lang skaduwees in Afrika (Long Shadows over Africa) Connie Luyt Publication date: November 2007 Pages: 196 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-4792-7 Language: Afrikaans Rights available: World rights except Dutch (Uitgeverij Mozaïek); E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
The novel starts in 1903, when (grandmother) Francine, with some other Afrikaners, trekked to Kenya after the Anglo-Boer War. Her daughter, Maia, experiences the opulence of colonial Kenya as well as the horror of the Mau Mau murders, and returns to South Africa. The last journey is that of Francine’s granddaughter, Christine, to their former farm Tene-na-Tene in Kenya. What she finds here is not what she has come to look for or even expected in her wildest dreams: for the Swahili word “Tene-na-Tene” means “for ever and ever”. Luyt combines love, history and intrigue that will captivate the reader. About the author: Luyt is the author of Boekarest se blomme (the flowers of Bucharest) and various popular romantic novels. She often accompanies her husband on journeys abroad and she lives in Pretoria. Lang skaduwees oor Afrika has done well in the Dutch market.
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Praise: For me the most memorable aspect is the wry ironical view on everything … Written with conviction and emotional depth. The language control is magnificent. – Joan Hambidge, Die Burger on Unbroken Wing Pitt has a competent command of language, and her fluid text is peppered with welcome flashes of humour. She reveals the complex ironies of a single woman and political revolutionaries living and loving in turbulent times. – Sharon Sorour-Morris, Femina on Unbroken Wing Description: I killed your sister after all, which is hardly endearing … So begins James McIntyre’s devastating account of his role in the death of Melissa Campbell, a young doctor living on her Eastern Cape family farm and working in the rural clinic where James is conducting research.
The Unseen Leopard Bridget Pitt Publication date: August 2010 Pages: 264 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-5223-5 Language: English Rights available: World rights; E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
Three years after Melissa’s death, her sister Samantha can barely function. She survives by suppressing painful memories and focusing on raising Melissa’s little boy. But an initiative to incorporate the family farm into a biosphere reserve forces her to embark on a journey that will confront the past and uncover painful truths surrounding her sister’s life and death. About the author: Bridget Pitt was born in Harare in 1958. She taught English in high schools on the Cape Flats until her anti-apartheid activities cost her her job. In 1987 she received a British Council Scholarship to study media at London University. Afterwards, she freelanced for various NGO’s and drew a cartoon strip for the Weekly Mail (later the Mail & Gaurdian). She published her first novel, Unbroken Wing, in 1997. She has also published short stories and non-fiction.
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Awards: Sue’s first two novels, Boston Snowplough and Blood at Bay, were short-listed for the Commonwealth Book Prize in the Africa region. Praise: Rabie is really beginning to hit her stride as a thriller writer. – Margaret von Klemperer, The Witness Description: David Roth’s family life is far from perfect. And now it’s about to get worse. When David is taken from his home in the middle of the night and forced into the search for his missing uncle, Julian Harper, he begins to understand who Julian really is and what he actually does for a living. The first question David has to ask himself while he is running for his life, is why two separate government agencies are after him and why they don’t seem too concerned about keeping him alive. The second question is, how the hell he’s going to survive the fallout ...
Fallout Sue Rabie Publication date: July 2011 Pages: 256 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-5273-0 Language: English Rights available: World rights; E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
A fast-paced thriller that uncovers an arms-smuggling operation involving high ranking South African officials, African arms dealers and Somalian pirates. David’s search takes him across South Africa to the Swaziland wilderness and the Mozambican coast line. About the author: Sue Rabie has a Masters degree in Fine Arts from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She is head of culture and librarian at St Charles College, a private boys’ school in Pietermaritzburg. Her first novel, Boston Snowplough, was short-listed for the Commonwealth Prize for a First Book in the Africa region.
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Awards: Short-listed for the 2011 Commonwealth Prize for Best Book in the Africa region. Praise: An edgy thriller – Margaret von Klemperer, The Witness Description: David Roth is trying to live an ordinary life, but he seems to attract trouble wherever he goes. When he delivers machine parts at the Umvoti sugar mill in KwaZulu-Natal, he finds that a gruesome accident has taken place. An auditor at the mill claims foul play and asks David’s help, only to end up dead as well. Soon after, David is attacked on his uncle’s yacht in Durban harbour and he becomes involved in a race against time to expose the truth before becoming the latest in a series of “accidents”. Somehow it is all linked to the deaths of several workers and their family members some months ago. But evidence and witnesses seem to have a way of disappearing at the Umvoti mill. And it is the workers who will lose the most if the mill had to be closed down.
Blood at Bay Sue Rabie
About the author: Sue Rabie has a Masters degree in Fine Arts from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She is head of culture and librarian at St Charles College, a private boys’ school in Pietermaritzburg. Her first novel, Boston Snowplough, was short-listed for the Commonwealth Prize for a First Book in the Africa region.
Publication date: March 2010 Pages: 224 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-5112-2 Language: English Rights available: World rights; E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Back to Human & Rousseau Titles Awards: Short-listed for the 2010 Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book in the Africa region. Praise: A real page turner – Margaret von Klemperer, The Witness Description: The small town of Boston in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands is cut off from the outside world by an unprecedented snow storm. Into this crisis drives a woman in a sports car and a bus full of local people heading for Harrismith. Their saviour is David Roth, a recent arrival in Boston and the owner of a grader, the only vehicle that can negotiate the snow-clogged roads. He saves the stranded travellers, but now they are trapped in town. Amongst them are two killers, desperate to get back to the stranded bus and the money they stole from the man they murdered. David plays the hero, believing that he is doing penance for his own painful secret, something so unforgivable that it would surely banish him from town if it ever came to light. But soon he is fighting for his life and the lives of his friends.
Boston Snowplough Sue Rabie
About the author: Sue Rabie has a Masters degree in Fine Arts from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She is head of culture and librarian at St Charles College, a private boys’ school in Pietermaritzburg.
Publication date: August 2008 Pages: 224 pp ISBN: 978-0-7981-4977-8 Language: English Rights available: World rights; E-book rights negotiable
Human & Rousseau An imprint of NB Publishers
Contact: janita.holtzhausen@humanrousseau.com
Kwela Books is a small but well-known publisher in South Africa. We specialise in African writing – fiction and non-fiction. Authors that have published with us include the Booker-nominated Achmat Dangor (for Bitter Fruit, published by Kwela in 2001), well-known South African poet and writer Antjie Krog, Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah, K. Sello Duiker, Rayda Jacobs (author of Confessions of a Gambler) and many more.
Kwela’s aim is to broaden the scope of Southern African literature, and to document stories that have not been told yet. Several of our authors have been published internationally – Achmat Dangor, AHM Scholtz, Rayda Jacobs, Antjie Krog, Mary Watson, Niq Mhlongo and Elbie Lötter, to name a few. About 70% of the work we publish is in English, and the rest is in Afrikaans.
Kwela Books was formed in 1994, the same year in which South Africa was declared a democracy. It forms part of a large publishing house, NB Publishers (which includes other imprints Tafelberg, Human & Rousseau, Queillerie, Pharos and Best Books), which is owned by Naspers, the largest media group in Africa.
Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
Contents
•
Homemaking for the Down-At-Heart (2011) by Finuala Dowling
• Counting the Coffins (2011) by Diale Tlholwe
•
The Lazarus Effect (2011) by HJ Golakai
• Ancient Rites (2008) by Diale Tlholwe
•
Eve (2011) by Sandra Charles
• Marriage Vows (2008) by Gail Schimmel
•
Light Across Time (2011) by Tom Learmont
•
Young Blood (2010) by Sifiso Mzobe
•
Happiness Is a Four-letter Word (2010) by Cynthia Jele
•
The Lost Boy (2009) by Aher Arop Bol
• Siegfried (2007) by Willem Anker
•
The Book of the Dead (2009) by Kgebetli Moele
• Twins (2009) by Tobea Brink
•
Room 207 (2006) by Kgebetli Moele
• grond/Santekraam (2011) by Ronelda S Kamfer
•
The Elephant in the Room (2009) by Maya Fowler
• Sapphire Press
•
Small Moving Parts (2009) by Sally-Ann Murray
• Background to Kwela
•
It’s me, Anna (2005) by Elbie Lötter
• Dog Eat Dog (2004) by Niq Mhlongo • After Tears (2007) by Niq Mhlongo
Praise: “Finuala Dowling is a warm and insightful writer, chronicling her characters’ lives with great skill, humour, and exquisite sadness . . . A beautiful and deeply satisfying book.” – John Maytham Description: Margot is a late-night talk radio host – the perfect job for an outspoken insomniac. Unsurprisingly, she finds there is little opportunity for peaceful slumber when she arrives back home from work in the early hours of the morning. By that time Curtis is getting ready for his dawn run along the seafront; her teenage daughter, Pia, is anxiously anticipating her father’s capricious weekly visit; and Mr Morland, the family hanger-on, is preparing for his various psychic consultations of the day. There’s also her mother, Zoe, once the acclaimed author of a quirky self-help volume titled Homemaking for the Down-at-Heart, but now entering the late stages of dementia. And at the centre of it all is Margot, longing for silence and solitude, away from her home’s seemingly endless needs.
Finuala Dowling Homemaking for the Down-At-Heart Pub. date: May 2011 Pages: 256 Binding: Soft cover Format: 152 x 222 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957-0320-1 Barcode: 9780795703201 Rights available: World rights, including e-book
In this deeply moving new novel by the award-winning poet and novelist Finuala Dowling, the author examines the fleeting and often so complicated moments of happiness in any household. About the author: Finuala Dowling’s first poetry collection, I Flying, won the Ingrid Jonker Prize. Her second collection, Doo-Wop Girls of the Universe, was joint winner of the Sanlam Prize for poetry, and her third, Notes from the Dementia Ward, won the Olive Schreiner Prize. She has read at the Aldeburgh Festival, at Snape Maltings, and at all major South African literary festivals. Her first novel was What Poets Need, followed by Flyleaf. Her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in several anthologies. She has also written comic skits and plays, winning the Spier/PANSA Audience Award. She has an M.A. from the University of Cape Town and a D.Litt. et Phil. from the University of South Africa. Formerly an English lecturer, she now freelances as a poetry teacher and writer. She lives in Kalk Bay with her daughter.
Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
Praise: “What a wonderful debut. It’s brimming with intelligence, wit, and real heart. Enormously entertaining.” – Deon Meyer Description: Voinjama Johnson, 28, is an ambitious investigative journalist at the Cape Town magazine Urban. Her life is messy, and to top it all, Vee’s been seeing things: a teenage girl in a red hat, more specifically, an unsettling hallucination that goes hand-in-hand with debilitating episodes Vee is loath to call ‘panic attacks’. When Vee spots a photograph of the girl from her visions at a local hospital, she quickly launches an investigation, under the pretext of an article about missing children in Cape Town. She’s soon delving into the secrets of the fractured Fourie and Paulsen families, with the help of her assistant Chloe Bishop, another young woman who isn’t quite what she seems. What happened to Jacqui Paulsen, who left home two years ago and hasn’t been seen since? The Lazarus Effect is a gripping new addition to the Cape Town crime genre from a very talented debut author.
HJ Golakai The Lazarus Effect Pub date: July 2011 Pages: 352 Size: 213 x 137 mm Format: Softcover ISBN-13: 978-0-7957-0319-5 Bar code: 9780795703195 Rights available: World rights, including e-book
About the author: Hawa Jande Golakai is from Liberia and was born in 1979. As a result of political and economic unrest she moved around a great deal with her family and lived in many African countries, including Togo, Ghana and Zimbabwe, before coming to Cape Town as a student in 2003. Hawa trained and worked as a medical researcher in immunology at local academic research institutions. She writes from her experiences as a refugee, foreigner, scientist and contemporary African nomad, a life which has helped foster an intense passion for crime and thriller fiction. The Lazarus Effect is her first novel.
Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
Praise “Searing, sad and beautifully triumphant – this novel will stay with me long after many other stories have disappeared from memory.” – Chris van Wyk, bestselling author of Shirley, Goodness and Mercy Description: Eve’s first memory is when she’s four years old; they’re playing under the mulberry tree in the back yard of her grandmother’s house in Kensington. When she laughs at her father’s jokes, he and his friends chortle with her. Until he tells her to fetch his belt from the bedroom.
Sandra Charles Eve Pub. date: September 2011 Pages: 416 pp Binding: Soft cover Format: 152 x 222 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957-0399-7 Barcode: 9780795703997 Rights available: World rights, including e-book
So begins Eve’s story – her exploration of men, and the mixed messages they send. Her curiosity gets the better of her; first with the Babi around the corner who gives her her first pasella sweets, then Mr Davids, the Jewish shopkeeper who likes to watch her try on dresses in the fitting room, his hands in his pants. It’s all light-hearted fun, until she crosses a line with Mr Simon, her standard-five art teacher. Playing Lolita is a dangerous hobby, she learns. And no one would believe in her innocence, least of all herself. About the author: Sandra Charles was born and raised in Kensington, Cape Town. In 1975 she left for Brazil and opened a beauty salon there at the age of nineteen. Three years later she moved to Austria, where she still lives today, and started a business as a make-up artist. After her fourth child was born in 1986, she began to expand her business to include photoshoot production. It was at this point that she started to playfully scribble on Eve.
Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
Praise: “This work is unprecedented, and an immensely enjoyable, satisfying and even mind-broadening read – possibly doing for evolution what Sophie’s World did for philosophy.” – Reader “It is a very unusual book which can make the current conditions in South Africa into opportunities for fresh delight in the details of the daily scene.” – Reader
Tom Learmont Light Across Time Pub. date: June 2011 Pages: 256 Binding: Soft cover Format: 152 x 222 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957-0332-4 Barcode: 9780795703224 Rights available: World rights, including e-books
Description: In this compelling and entertaining new novel, Alan Stevens and Melanie Austin are London-based journalists, newly dating. They meet Elemer Urban, a charming older man full of intriguing, if far-fetched, anecdotes. Elemer insists that the X-crystals on his strange grey and black ring are linked to time travel and challenges Alan and Mel to take up a quest of his devising. The lovers firmly believe that Elemer is a crackpot charlatan, and they set out to prove it, but they soon find themselves on an adventure in London, Johannesburg, the Free State – and the deep, deep past – that reveals to them a world they could never have imagined. Light Across Time is a genre-bending Science Fiction romance – with a liberal splash of Nabokov – and should win Tom Learmont a dedicated following. About the author: Tom Learmont was educated in Scotland and then-Rhodesia. He taught French to schoolboys for a short while, before buying a typewriter and commencing living by his wits. He wrote a book about cycling, many scripts and translated TV drama. He has worked for a variety of publications, as editor, columnist, feature writer, sub and teaboy, and currently works as a newspaperman in Johannesburg, where his natural habitat is the Radium Beer Hall.
Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
Awards: Winner of the 2011 Sunday Times Fiction Prize Winner of the 2011 Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English Fiction Praise: “The book has an admirable vitality to it. Its prose is lively and original and its use of the slang of the criminal underworld is masterly.” “The reader is taken into the dangerous, amoral society of the township criminals, where cars are stolen to order, where designer labels are de rigueur and where life can be brutally short. The scenes of street racing, car theft and hard partying are vividly described.”
Sifiso Mzobe Young Blood
Description: Sipho is a “young blood”, a young man of the school-going generation caught up in a world of money, booze and greed. He lives in Umlazi, Durban – he is seventeen, has dropped out of school and helps out at his father’s mechanic shop during the day. But odd jobs underneath the bonnets of wrecked cars do not provide the lifestyle his friend Musa has, with his BMW, designer clothes and beautiful girls always hanging on his arm. Pretty soon Sipho’s love for fast cars and fast money leads him into a life of crime that brings him close to drugs, death and prison time. A fascinating look into the emotional landscape of car hijackers – by a fantastic, vibrant new voice in South African literature.
Pub. date: June 2010 Pages: 256 Binding: Soft cover Format: 222 x 152 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957- 0293-8 Barcode: 9780795702938 Rights available: World rights, including e-books
About the author: Sifiso Mzobe was born in Umlazi Township, Durban, where he also went to school. After attending St Francis College, he studied Journalism at Damelin Business Campus in Durban. He currently works for a community newspaper as a journalist.
Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
Awards: Winner of the 2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for the Best First Book, Africa Region Winner of the 2011 M-NET Film Award Short-listed for the 2011 Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English Fiction Praise: “Reading this book is like eavesdropping on a heart-to-heart conversation between stylish sistas sitting next to you at a restaurant.” – Lebo Mashile Description: Four friends’ lives seem to be crashing before them: Just as Nandi’s final wedding arrangements are put in place, her ex-fiancé, a man who bankrupted her heart and bank account, makes a re-appearance. Zaza, the “trophy wife”, waits for the day that her affair comes to light and her husband gives her a one-way ticket back to the township. On the other hand, all Tumi needs to fulfil her perfect life is a child of her own. Then a stranger shows up claiming to be pregnant with her husband’s child. Tumi’s trust and beliefs in her marriage are put to the test. For Princess, growing up in an abusive home has taught her to never let men take her for a ride. Until this feisty feminist meets Theo, a Zimbabwean painter, who seems to touch all the right buttons. Then Princess discovers she’s pregnant and Theo goes AWOL, with half her belongings.
Cynthia Jele Happiness is a Four-Letter Word SA Pub. date: April 2010 Pages: 256 Binding: Soft cover Format: 222 x 152 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957- 0295-2 Barcode: 97807957 02952 Rights available: World rights, including e-books
Happiness is a Four-letter Word is a riveting tale that will make you want to laugh out loud and one minute after, reach for the tissues. Think Sex and the City, Sandton . . . About the author: Cynthia Jele is a thirty-something-year-old South African-born writer. She grew up in a small border town in Mpumalanga. Cynthia’s claim to fame was winning 1st and 4th prize in the 2008 BTA/AngloPlatinum Short Story Competition. She also holds a BA in International Business from North Central College, Illinois, and is currently employed as a management consultant. She lives in the northern suburbs of Joburg.
www.kwela.com Happiness is a Four-Letter Word is Jele’s debut novel.
Praise: “One of the most extraordinary authors in the history of African literature.” - Alex Duval Smith, The Guardian “This story stays with me . . .” – Antjie Krog “It is a story that speaks of the inistence by young people such as Aher Arop Bol to be heard across Africa.” – Dr Mamphela Ramphele “An extraordinary story of triumph over adversity; an intimate portrayal of a political crisis which has caught the world’s interest; and an engaging portrait of an impressive, sympathetic young man, in some ways unfortunate but in other ways blessed with fortitude, faith, dignity, and an abiding belief in the goodness of others, despite the savagery and hardship around him.”
Aher Arop Bol The Lost Boy Pub. Date: April 2009 Pages: 192 Binding: Soft cover Format: 213 X 137 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957-0278-5 Bar Code: 9780795702785 Rights available: World rights ex Italy (El Piemme), Germany (Brunnen Verlag), Spain (Ediciones Destino) Catalan (La Campana), Korean (Taurus Books), Romanian (RAO), Polish (Wydawnictwo ). E-book rights negotiable.
Description: Aher Arop Bol is a boy of three or four when his uncle carries him from the bush into an Ethiopian refugee camp. It is the 1980s and they are fleeing the civil war in Sudan. This remarkable account tracks Bol’s boyhood through one camp after another, through good times and bad, until he begins a vast journey through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and Zimbabwe which finally ends in South Africa some ten years later. By the time Bol reaches Pretoria, he is in his early twenties, and for the first time finds himself without a purpose. Hoping to lift his spirits, he starts studying English at a school for refugees. He recounts his life experiences to a teacher, who suggests he writes it all down. The result is this book. About the author: Aher Arop Bol was born in a Dinka village in the Bahr el Ghazal region of Southern Sudan. The journey described in The Lost Boy is the author’s own. Bol now lives in Pretoria. He runs a spaza shop which enables him to pay his UNISA fees (he is studying law) and maintain his two brothers, with whom he has been reunited, at a boarding school in Uganda.
Awards: Winner of the 2010 K. Sello Duiker Memorial Literary Award Short-listed for the 2010 Sunday Times Fiction Prize Praise: “. . . A highly promising piece of writing.” “A very vital and unimaginable work. “ Description: Khutso grows up poor in Masakeng. He studies hard, despite many distractions, and goes to the University of the North where he meets Pretty. Although she is scarred by her past relationships with men, the two fall in love and get married. Soon after, their son, Thapelo, is born. But there is no happily ever after here. Even with her successful career, surrounded by beautiful things in her big house, Pretty is lonely. Their son seems to favour his father and Thapelo and Khutso seem to have their own secret club that she is not a part of. So Pretty has an affair. She contracts HIV and, filled with grief and despair, she commits suicide, leaving her husband infected with the disease.
Kgebetli Moele The Book of the Dead Publication date: August 2009 Pages: 224 Binding: Soft cover Format: 222 x 152 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957-0288-4 Barcode: 9780795702884 Rights available: World rights ex Italian (Epoché). E-book rights negotiable.
Devastated, Khutso abandons his beloved son to the care of his family. He cuts all ties with his old life and sets out on a quest for vengeance that further destroys his soul and quickly fills his little black book of revenge with names. An explosive new novel from the author of Room 207. About the author: Kgebetli Moele has been a writer since he started high school. He currently lives in Pretoria, and is studying through Unisa. Moele’s debut novel, Room 207, was published by Kwela Books in 2006. It was short-listed for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best First Book (Africa) in 2007. It was the joint winner of the Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English fiction as well as joint winner of the University of Johannesburg Prize for Creative Writing in the debut category. Room 207 also received honourable mention in the English category of the MNet Book Prize. It has been translated into French and Italian.
Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
Awards: Short-listed for the 2007 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book, Africa region Joint winner of the Herman Charles Bosman Prize 2007 Joint winner of University of Johannesburg Debut Prize for Fiction 2007 Received honourable mention by the judges of the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa 2007 Praise: “Room 207 is gritty, vivid, in-your-face story-telling and is recommended as a highly contemporary South African read.” – Cape Times “This is a fascinating and impressive first novel . . . an exciting contribution to contemporary South African literature.” – The Witness Description: Room 207 is set in and around a dilapidated building in Hillbrow. For more than ten years, six guys live in room 207 of this block of flats: they are Matome, Molamo, Zulu-boy, D’nice, Modishi and the nameless narrator. By day, they are hustlers – they hustle production companies, they have their own music company, they survive. At night, they party, and they’re pushing corruption, as the narrator would say. They are conmen, and they are streetwise. By day, and by night, women flock around them.
Kgebetli Moele Room 207 Pub. date: September 2006 Pages: 256 Binding: Soft cover Format: 152 x 222 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957-0234-1 Barcode: 9780795702341 Rights available: World rights ex Italy and France Rights sold: Epoche(Italy), Editions Yago (France). E-book rights negoitiable
Room 207 is a startling novel – the prose is dense and some of it reads like poetry. It paints a vivid, engrossing picture of six friends in Hillbrow, and their sense of hopelessness – despair in fact – of having to compromise their lives. They are artists, these men, but they have to make a living. Otherwise, fate would call them back home – not driving their own BMW, but leaving the way they arrived in the ‘dream city’: in a taxi, with empty pockets, and nothing to show for their years in Jo’burg. About the author: Room 207 is thirty-two year old Kgebetli Moele’s debut novel. He started writing to have an outlet for his thoughts and a place of refuge from his high school peers, but only really honed his writing skill while at film school. Kgebetli is currently studying communication science parttime with UNISA. He lives in Pretoria.
Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
Awards: Short-listed for the 2010 Herman Charles Bosman Prize. Praise: “Maya Fowler is an author to watch.” Description: A story of secrets, warped friendships and addiction, and how families guard their secrets to keep up appearances – with disastrous consequences. Set in and around Cape Town, the story explores the life of a young girl called Lily, and the influence various strong characters have on her – most notably her domineering grandmother and her classmate Vera. Lily’s girlhood friendships are characterised by shifting alliances and are influenced by the girls’ immature understanding of womanhood. As Lily grows up, her friendships contribute to the creation of a brittle self-esteem and dysfunctional notions of the body – and the development of an eating disorder that will take over her life. Fascinating and harrowing, this story examines a world that is all too familiar, and shows how those most dear to us can help to create a waking nightmare.
Maya Fowler The Elephant in the Room
About the author: Maya Fowler was born in Cape Town in 1980. She started her schooling in Stellenbosch, but went on to spend most of her childhood in the Karoo town of Graaff-Reinet, where drought and a harsh landscape taught her to appreciate that beauty comes in many forms and resides in the tiniest things. Maya holds a BA and an MA (Linguistics) from the University of Stellenbosch. This is her first novel.
Publication date: August 2009 Pages: 288 Binding: Soft cover Format: 152 x 222 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957-0284-6 Barcode: 9780795702846 Rights available: World rights, including Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com e-book
Awards: Winner of the 2010 M-Net Prize for Fiction Winner of the 2010 Herman Charles Bosman Prize. Short-listed for the 2010 Sunday Times Literary Awards’ Fiction Prize. Short-listed for the University of Johannesburg Prize for Creative Writing in 2010. Praise: “Halley Murphy’s life is explored with loving detail and a poet’s ear for sonorous language. We fall under the spell of Halley’s memories and imaginings, losing ourselves in Murray’s lush, vivid prose.” – Anne Landsman, author of The Rowing Lesson Description: Halley is a smart girl growing up poor in Durban, close to the bustling docks. Trying to make ends meet is her mother, Nora, who pares herself to the bone to provide. Halley’s sister is bored of everything, but she’s not a regular girl anyway, she’s a princess. Halley finds a way to live that’s more than making do. She finds that a little love and imagination can take you pretty far, and that they certainly help to hold the curious bits and pieces together. It’s an unusual package, but what more, she wonders, could anyone want from life, or from a long, lovely story?
Sally-Ann Murray Small Moving Parts Pub. date: August 2009 Pages: 416 Binding: Soft cover Format: 152 x 222 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957-0286-8 Barcode: 9780795702868 Rights available: World rights, including e-book
Playfully post-modern, this is a story about ordinary, day-to-day life: the bad choices, the conflicts, the random happenstances that can, and do, change destinies. About the author: Sally-Ann Murray is a practising poet, an indigenous gardener, a lover of junk, coastal cities and other restless identities, and a mother of two young children. She is an associate professor in the Department of English at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where she presently lectures in literature and journalism, literary tourism, postmodernisms, and creative writing. She won the Sanlam Award for her first poetry collection, Shifting (1992), as well as the Arthur Nortje/Vita Award. She also makes more tactile forms of ‘collected poems’, toying with words as three dimensional art. As an invited performer at Poetry Africa in 2006, she presented the installation Circumstanzas, an assemblage of ‘odd-boxes’ which plays with the relationships between poetry as found object and crafted artifact.
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Praise: “I read this book in one night and cried my way through chapter after chapter. It’s a raw, harrowing story told with such honesty, it’s impossible not to be drawn to it.” – Marie Claire “. . . an eloquent, deeply disturbing and courageous book which relentlessly exposes the sordid underbelly of familial sexual abuse . . . It takes profound courage and a generous heart for anyone to reveal to all the extent of their childhood sexual abuse; that Elbie Lötter has done so unflinchingly and with grace, makes this disturbing book a memorable, humbling experience.” – Radio 702
Elbie Lötter It’s me, Anna Pub. date: July 2005 Pages: 224 Binding: Soft cover Format: 137 x 213 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957-0202-0 Bar Code: 9780795702020 Rights available: World rights except Dutch, Thai, Slovene, Finland, UK. E-book rights negotiable
Description: She called herself Silent Anna because she couldn’t tell anyone what happened between her and her stepfather. Now, many years later, she breaks the silence to reveal the sexual abuse she suffered, its impact on her life and how she has finally managed to overcome it. It’s me, Anna is based on a true story. The original title in Afrikaans, Dis ek, Anna, has been reprinted twelve times since publication in June 2004. Although the author’s identity was kept secret, Dis ek, Anna is consistently on the Sunday Times topten list for non-fiction and won the Booksellers Choice Award in 2005. This book is a must read. Not only because it tells the story of a young girl’s determination to survive and to overcome her traumatic childhood, but also because the story is told with such sincerity and honesty. The combined sales figures for the English and Afrikaans editions of this book exceed 80 000 copies since initial publication in 2004, a remarkable figure in South African literature. About the author: Elbie Lötter is a pseudonym of author Anchien Troskie, who has since published two novels in Afrikaans, Nooit is ‘n lang, lang tyd, and Die besoeker.
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Description: With a beautiful wife and newborn baby daughter, private eye Thabang Maje seems to have everything. But after the car crash that took his unborn son’s life Thabang is seeking revenge, and he knows just who to target – Sandile Ngidi, ruthless businessman and father of the drunken teenage boy who caused the crash. With the help of his old journalist buddy Tolo, he starts asking uncomfortable questions about some very powerful men that finally lead him to uncover a seedy underground world of illicit drug dealings and human trafficking. Fuelled by his need for vengeance, Thabang won’t stop until Sandile pays. The exciting second novel by the author of Ancient Rites.
About the author: Diale Tlholwe was born in 1961 in Meyerton. He began his law studies at the University of Fort Hare in 1980 but these were interrupted by continuing student upheavals, and after one of the mass expulsions at the University, he did not return. He obtained a diploma in journalism from the Argus Journalism Cadet School that was run by The Star. He later became a client and local government liaison officer for a consultancy company. He now lives in Spruitview in Ekurhuleni (East Rand).
Diale Tlholwe Counting the Coffins Pub. Date: April 2011 Pages: 256 Binding: Soft cover Format: 213 X 137 mm ISBN: 978-0-7957-0294-5 Rights available: World rights, including e-book Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
Awards: Winner of the 2010 SALA Award for a First-Time Published Author. Praise: “ A brilliant debut, an exciting new crime fiction voice – with perfect pitch. Ancient Rites is filled To the brim with the sights, sounds and smells of Africa, beautiful writing, absorbing characters, subtle plotting, and a unique noir texture. Mark my words: Diale Tlholwe is going places.” – Deon Meyer Description: Thabang Maje, retired school teacher and part-time private eye, is contacted by Regional Education Director J. B. M. Motau to solve the case of a missing school teacher, Mamorena Marumo. There are two complicating factors: firstly, Thabang was in love with the elusive and bewitching Mamo when they were both teenagers; and, secondly, to complete his task, he’ll have to enrol as an under-cover primary-school teacher in the far-flung village of Marakong- a-Badimo, near Mafikeng.
Diale Tlholwe Ancient Rites Pub. Date: September 2008 Pages: 160 Binding: Soft cover Format: 213 X 137 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957-0271-6 Bar Code: 9780795702716 Rights available: World rights, including e-book
It doesn’t take long before he is affected by the strange atmosphere of the village: the villagers are secretive, there are kinship ties he cannot fathom and bonds of loyalty that stretch far back into the mists of time. Rumours of serial murders of prostitutes on the Botswana highway complicate his task, but it is not until he hears the history of the village from an old, old man that he realises how far out of his depth he really is. And then there is that mesmerising drumming coming from far away in the mountains . . . A bewitching detective story slowly unravels a tale of ancient African rites. About the author: Diale Tlholwe was born in 1961 in Meyerton. He began his law studies at the University of Fort Hare in 1980 but these were interrupted by continuing student upheavals, and after one of the mass expulsions at the University, he did not return. He obtained a diploma in journalism from the Argus Journalism Cadet School that was run by The Star. He later became a client and local government liaison officer for a consultancy company. He now lives in Spruitview in Ekurhuleni (East Rand).
Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
Praise: “This is a well-written and sophisticated manuscript, which stayed with me long after I had put it down. Jordi Gordon is utterly convincing – the many details that flesh her out are extremely well chosen, from the complication of her married name to her tangible disappointment at receiving a food processor for her birthday. She leaps from the page.” Description: It’s Jordi Gordan’s 55th birthday and she receives, as she has for every birthday for the last twenty-five years, a message from Nico. While her husband, Hal, cooks her a birthday breakfast, she cries over her message from Nico – because Jordi is a woman with a secret. During the course of the day, the reader follows Jordi around: to the traditional family breakfast and the handing out of gifts, then to a visit with her elderly mother, to Thrupps for some groceries. The reader follows her home as she makes the final arrangements for a business dinner party that evening (an unfortunate miscalculation of dates that has robbed her of a special night with Hal). As she goes about her preparations, we meet Jordi’s friends and family – and we get to see how her life is carefully constructed to screen all of them from her secret.
Gail Schimmel Marriage Vows Pub. date: August 2008 Pages: 288 Binding: Soft cover Format: 152 x 222 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957-0270-9 Barcode: 9780795702709 Rights available: World rights, including e-book
Slowly, Jordi begins to tell us about Nico – how, for almost thirty years, she and Nico have been sidestepping each other – in London, in New York, even in Jo’burg. As evening approaches, she puts Nico to the back of her mind and readies herself for her guests. The dinner party is a success and the atmosphere is laid back and casual. Then, while she is taking a break from the table, Jordi overhears two of her guests talking about her. Back at the table she confronts the women in an amiable kind of a way, but it becomes clear that something is not quite right. The conversation grinds to a halt before Moira, Jordi’s poisonous sister-in-law, blurts out a shocking truth. About the author: Gail Schimmel has been writing stories since she could put pen to paper. In 2007 she published a children’s book, Claude & Millie, under the name Gail van Onselen. Gail is an attorney specialising in advertising law, and is currently a partner at one of the biggest law firms in Africa. She was born in 1974 and lives in Craighall Park with her husband, Paul, and their two children.
Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
Awards: Recipient of the Cervantes Award in 2006 for the Spanish translation of Dog Eat Dog Nominated for the K Sello Duiker Memorial Literary Award in 2007 Praise: “Niq Mhlongo is one of the most high-spirited and irreverent new voices of South Africa’s post-apartheid literary scene.” – The New York Times “. . . a great, page-turning read. Occasionally it made me cry, more often it made me laugh . . . I’m looking forward to Mhlongo’s next book.” – Cape Argus “Mhlongo’s work is witty and clever and has no pretensions . . . it reverberates.” – Sunday Independent
Niq Mhlongo Dog Eat Dog Pub. date: April 2004 Pages: 224 Binding: Soft cover Format: 137 x 213 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957-0179-5 Bar Code: 9780795701795 Rights available: World rights except Spain, Italy Rights sold: Morellini, Italy; El Cobre, Spain ; Ohio University Press, USA. E-book rights negotiable.
Description: Dingz is a young university student caught between two worlds – that of university and the township – and scheming hard to make his way in both. A quirky, complex character with a wry sense of humour, Dingz finds himself on a wild taxi-ride of emotion set against the backdrop of the 1994 election. Dog Eat Dog is an explosive debut from one of the most exciting new voices in black South African fiction. About the author: Niq Mhlongo was born on 10 June 1973 in Soweto. He has a BA from the University of the Witwatersrand, with majors in African Literature and Political Studies. Dog Eat Dog was published by Kwela in 2004 and was translated into Spanish under the title Perro Come Perro in 2006. Besides writing novels and short stories Niq has also written a screen play for the animated children’s TV series Magic Cellar and scripts for a comic magazine called Mshana, the first issue of which appeared in February 2007.
Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
Awards: Short-listed for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize 2008 Received honourable mention by the judges of the Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English Literary Writing and Autobiography Nominated for the K Sello Duiker Memorial Literary Award in 2007 Praise: “Mhlongo’s work is witty and clever and has no pretensions of being a new work for a new democracy – it simply is. A tale that emerges from the heart of his disconsolate being, it reverberates.” – Sunday Independent “Well written and at times profound.” – Sunday Times Lifestyle “After Tears has all the ingredients of a rollicking read: humour, colourful characters and sobering social relevance. Mhlongo does not preach, he takes you by the hand and helps you eavesdrop on his characters as they dream or fight. Now, that’s what I call good storytelling.” – Sunday Times
Niq Mhlongo After Tears Pub. date: September 2007 Pages: 256 Binding: Soft cover Format: 152 x 222 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957-0256-3 Barcode: 9780795702563 Rights available: World rights ex France Rights sold: Edtions Yago, France; Ohio University Press, USA. E-book rights negotiable
Description: Bafana is a young man with a weight on his shoulders. After flunking his law studies at UCT he now has to find a way to either admit the truth to his family, or somehow find a position that will allow him to continue fooling them. Back home in Soweto he has already told a belly full of lies to hide his shame . . . A very humorous novel by the author of Dog Eat Dog. About the author: Niq Mhlongo was born on 10 June 1973 in Soweto. He has a BA from the University of the Witwatersrand, with majors in African Literature and Political Studies. His first novel, Dog Eat Dog, was published by Kwela in 2004 and was translated into Spanish under the title Perro Come Perro in 2006. Besides writing novels and short stories Niq has also written a screen play for the animated children’s TV series Magic Cellar and scripts for a comic magazine called Mshana, the first issue of which appeared in February 2007.
Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
Awards: University of Johannesburg debut prize for 2008 Jan Rabie/Rapport Prize for Innovative Afrikaans Literature for 2008 Praise: “This novel continuously silenced me, surprised, amazed and astonished me.” “Our literature has long been waiting for such a novel – dense, yet accessible. Willem Anker has a singular, remarkable insight into the human condition.” Description: Siegfried Landman is a thirty-something mentally retarded man who has lived his entire life with his father on a desolate farm in the Karoo. Siegfried, with his webbed hands and feet, believes that his mother is a mermaid, and that his only other living relative, his uncle Ben Fischer, lives in an Atlantean world beneath the waves of Cape Town. When his father dies, Siegfried, accompanied by a sixty-something drunk, Wilhelm Smit, travels to Cape Town in search of his uncle.
Willem Anker Siegfried Pub. date: August 2007 Pages: 256 Binding: Soft cover Format: 152 x 222 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957-0254-9 Barcode: 9780795702549 Rights available: World rights, including e-book Language: Afrikaans English translation available
But, the pair are separated on the train, and Siegfried has to find his own way to his destination . . .
About the author: Willem Anker is the author of two dramas, Slaghuis and Skroothonde, a site-specific production staged in a scrap yard. Skroothonde won the Aartvark prize for innovative theatre at the 2004 Aardklop Arts Festival and Slaghuis won the Sanlam Prize for Afrikaans Theatre in 2006. In 2006 Anker also co-authored Sielsiek, another site-specific theatre piece. Anker lectures creative writing at the University of Stellenbosch. Siegfried is his first novel.
Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
Awards: The Afrikaans version of this book was short-listed for the Jan Rabie/Rapport Prize for Innovative Afrikaans Literature 2008 Praise: “This book will make people read.” – Marita van der Vyver, award-winning author from South Africa Description: Anna has a handicapped twin brother and they are very close. They are Anna-Adam, and always have been, although there are times when Anna just wants to be her own person. As the years pass, Anna starts to find her feet in the adult world, always acutely aware of her responsibility to Adam. She is his sister, his twin, his other half. And it is surely not possible that Adam could have a secret that he did not share with her. Twins gives a deeply unsentimental and moving perspective on the complex experience of living with an intellectually disabled family member. An exceptional piece of writing by Tobea Brink.
Tobea Brink Twins Publication Date: March 2009 Pages: 128 Binding: Soft cover Format: 125 x 196 mm ISBN-13: 978-07957-0269-3 Barcode: 9780795702693 Rights available: World rights except Dutch. E-book rights negotiable.
About the author: Tobea Brink grew up on a farm in the southern Cape. Her qualifications include a BA Hons in Afrikaans (cum laude), a multi-disciplinary post-graduate diploma in African Studies and a Masters degree in Jungian Studies at the University of Western Sydney, Australia.
Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
Description: With this new collection of poetry, Ronelda S Kamfer re-asserts her position as a major poet in Afrikaans. These poems feature various landscapes: Skipskop and the fictional world of Klippenkust, and also the characters Klippie Klip-kop and Sara-Slim-meisie, and Herrij Autshumao and Van Riebeeck. A remarkable collection of poetry, again shifting boundaries in the context of Afrikaans (and South African) poetry. About the author: Ronelda Sonnet Kamfer was born on 16 June 1981 in Cape Town. She spent her chilhood in Blackheath and Grabouw, and matriculated from Eersteriver Secondary School in 1999. She has worked as a nurse, a waitress and an administrative assistant at a marketing company.
Ronelda Kamfer grond/Santekraam Pub. date: July 2011 Pages: 64pp Binding: Soft cover Format: 137 x 213 mm ISBN-13: 978-0-7957-0365-2 Barcode: 9780795703652 Rights available: World rights, including e-book Language: Afrikaans
Her poetry has been published in Nuwe stemme 3, My ousie is ‘n blom, and in Bunker Hill. Her debut collection, Noudat slapende honde, was translated into Dutch in 2010. In 2009 Kamfer received the Eugène Marais Prize, sharing it with poet Loftus Marais.
Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
•30 000 words each •Authors from South Africa/Botswana •Local South African romance – pure Mills & Boon
Contact Publisher Nèlleke de Jager at kwela@kwela.com or www.kwela.com
Recent awards and nominations •Cynthia Jele’s Happiness is a Four-Letter Word won the 2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for the Best First Book, Africa Region and the 2011 M-NET Film Award. It was short-listed for the 2011 Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English Literature and the Booksellers Choice Award. •Sifiso Mzobe’s Young Blood won the 2011 Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English Literature and the Sunday Times Fiction Prize 2011. •Kgebetli Moele’s The Book of the Dead was short-listed for the 2010 Sunday Times Literary Awards’ Fiction Prize. •Maya Fowler’s The Elephant in the Room was short-listed for the 2010 Herman Charles Bosman Prize. •Sally-Ann Murray’s Small Moving Parts was short-listed for the University of Johannesburg Prize for Creative Writing in 2009 and the 2010 Sunday Times Literary Awards’ Fiction Prize. She was also the winner of the 2010 Herman Charles Bosman Prize, and the 2010 M-Net Book Prize for Fiction. •Diale Tlholwe’s Ancient Rites has won the 2010 SALA Award for a First-Time Published Author. •Dawn Garisch’s novel, Trespass was short-listed for the 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book, Africa Region •Niq Mhlongo’s After Tears was short-listed for the 2008 Sunday Times Fiction Prize and for the M-Net Prize and received honourable mention by the judges of the Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English Literary Writing and Autobiography in 2008. It was also nominated for the 2009 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Mhlongo also received the Cervantes Award for the Spanish edition (2006) of his debut novel, Dog Eat Dog, published in 2004. He was nominated for the K Sello Duiker Memorial Literary Award in 2007.
•Tobea Brink’s novel, Die hemelklip, published in 2008, was short-listed for the Jan Rabie/Rapport Prize for Innovative Afrikaans Literature for 2008. •Willem Anker’s Siegfried has won the University of Johannesburg Debut Prize for Creative Writing 2008 as well as the Jan Rabie/Rapport Prize for Innovative Afrikaans Literature for 2008. • Rustum Kozain won the Ingrid Jonker Prize in 2006 and the Olive Schreiner Prize in 2007 for his debut poetry collection, This Carting Life. •Kgebetli Moele’s novel Room 207, was short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for the Best First Book in Africa in 2007, joint winner for the Herman Charles Bosman Prize as well as the University of Johannesburg Debut Fiction Prize in 2007. It was also one of the four titles that received honourable mention by the judges of the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa in 2007. • Mary Watson received the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2006 for the short story “Jungfrau” in her debut short story collection titled Moss, published in 2004.
Nèlleke de Jager Publisher Kwela Books kwela@kwela.com www.kwela.com