Jonathan Ball Publishers and the Book Lounge invite you to the launch of To the Volcano: And Other Stories by Elleke Boehmer.

This thrilling new collection of short stories tracks lives across continents from the perspective of the southern hemisphere – its light, its seas, its sensibilities.

Boehmer will be in conversation with Barbara Boswell at the launch.

‘These assured, accomplished stories are reports from a world in which unacknowledged dark energies undermine and render hollow our bright, rational self-understanding. With passion and intelligence, and rare moral insight, Elleke Boehmer traces the scars left on the psyche by the tortuous histories of the South.’ – JM Coetzee

Event details

Date: Tuesday 25 February 2020
Time: 17:00 for 17:30
Venue: The Book Lounge, 71 Roeland Street, Cape Town
RSVP: 021 462 2425 or booklounge@gmail.com
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About the book

These are stories of people caught up in a world that tilts seductively, sometimes dangerously, between south and north, between ambition and tradition, between light and dark. Characters are poised to leave or on the point of return; often caught in limbo, haunted by their histories and veering between possibilities.

An African student in England longs for her desert home; a shy Argentinian travel agent agonises about joining her boyfriend in New York; a soldier is pursued by his past; a writer’s widow fends off the attentions of his predatory biographer.

From story to story we walk through radically different worlds and journeys packed with hopes and ideals. Sharp, tender, and always arresting, these exquisitely written pieces crackle with luminous insights as characters struggle to come to terms – with their pasts, with one another, and with themselves.

Categories Fiction International

Tags Barbara Boswell Book events Book launches Cape Town Elleke Boehmer Jonathan Ball Publishers The Book Lounge To the Volcano