South Africa
Tuesday – 16th July 2019
‘The best way to understand a country’s history is through the lives of its people’ – Watch a video interview with Bill Nasson on Illuminating Lives
Bill Nasson explores the people at the heart of his and Vivian Bickford-Smith’s collection of biographical essays, Illuminating Lives: Biographies of Fascinating People from South African History.
Sue Nyathi will be on the patio with Pippa Smith to discuss her books, The Polygamist and The Gold Diggers (20 July)
Sue Nyathi, author of The Polygamist and The Gold Diggers, will be chatting to Pippa Smith of The Book Revue this month.
Monday – 15th July 2019
New book alert! TJ Pheto’s postcolonial Setswana novel Botlhodi: The Abomination
Out now from Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon publishers, Botlhodi: The Abomination – A Postcolonial Setswana Novel by TJ Pheto.
Join Letshego Zulu for the launch of her memoir I Choose to Live: Life After Losing Gugu at Exclusive Books Sandton City (18 July)
MFBooks Joburg and Exclusive Books invite you to the launch of I Choose To Live: Life After Losing Gugu, Letshego Zulu’s much-anticipated memoir of courage, healing and triumph.
The Happiness Bookclub is live! Read Nozizwe Cynthia Jele’s inaugural interview with Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu about The Theory of Flight
Have you followed The Happiness Bookclub (@HappinessBClub) on Twitter yet?
Donate a children’s book this Mandela Day as part of the Siyafunda Donate-a-Book campaign
Donate a book for children this Mandela Day!
The Stellenbosch Mafia – all male, all Afrikaans, and all stinking rich – what influence does this billionaires’ club exert on South Africa?
The Stellenbosch Mafia: Inside the Billionaires’ Club by Pieter du Toit is out in July 2019 from Jonathan Ball Publishers.
Friday – 12th July 2019
Friday Night Book Club: Read an excerpt from Craig Higginson’s The Dream House, a novel of dark wit, a stark poetic style and extraordinary tenderness
The Friday Night Book Club: Exclusive excerpts from Pan Macmillan every weekend! Staying in this evening? Get comfortable with a glass of wine …
Attention all book clubs! Buy 10 copies of If You Keep Digging and receive a 50% discount – PLUS host the author Keletso Mopai at your next event
BlackBird Books has a very special offer to reward book clubs for all the work they do.
Thursday – 11th July 2019
A story of healing and hope: Don’t miss the launch of As if Born to You by Susan Newham-Blake at The Book Lounge (25 July)
Penguin Random House and the Book Lounge invite you to the launch of As if Born to You by Susan Newham-Blake.
Don’t miss the Joburg launch of Yusuf Daniels’s memoir Living Coloured (Because Black and White Were Already Taken) (11 July)
Jacana Media and Exclusive Books invite you to the launch of Yusuf Daniels’s humorous and unique memoir Living Coloured (Because Black and White Were Already Taken).
First-ever book festival on the Cape Flats announced: The Read to Rise Book Festival (31 Aug-1 Sep)
A new book festival to be held in Mitchells Plain has been announced by Read to Rise.
Wednesday – 10th July 2019
Watch the book trailer for No Neutral Ground: Finding Jesus in a Cape Town Ghetto by Pete Portal, shot on location in the Cape Flats
No Neutral Ground is the gripping account of Pete Portal’s move from London to Manenberg, of addicts and gangsters meeting Jesus and being transformed and all the heartbreak and failure along the way.
‘Does any writer have the right to tell any story?’ Lacuna author Fiona Snyckers talks about writing Lucy Lurie, who is ‘not a metaphor’
Pan Macmillan recently chatted to Fiona Snyckers about her highly charged new novel, Lacuna, a response to JM Coetzee’s 1999 novel Disgrace.
I Choose To Live: Life After Losing Gugu – Letshego Zulu’s tragic and inspiring memoir
When Letshego Zulu set off with her husband, South African racing champion Gugulethu Zulu, to conquer Mount Kilimanjaro in July 2016, she had no idea that she would return to South Africa days later with her husband’s body in a coffin.
Tuesday – 9th July 2019
New book alert! Susan Newham-Blake’s As if Born to You – a story of secrets, trauma and finding healing in unexpected places
As if Born to You, the new novel by Susan Newham-Blake, the author of Making Finn, is out now from Penguin Random House.
Is there hope after state capture? Find out in After Dawn by former Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas
From the pen of the former deputy finance minister of South Africa, Mcebisi Jonas, comes After Dawn: Hope After State Capture.
Celebrate Black Girls in Literature and Women’s Month with BlackBird Books and Bridge Books in Joburg (10 August)
BlackBird Books, an imprint of Jacana Media, invites you to a Black Girls in Literature event at Bridge Books in Johannesburg – in celebration of Women’s Month!
Monday – 8th July 2019
2019 South African Book Fair – find out more about the authors and events!
The 2019 South African Book Fair will take place from 6–8 September at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg.
The most dangerous lies are the ones we tell ourselves. A Good Enough Mother by Bev Thomas
An utterly compelling drama with a timebomb at its core, A Good Enough Mother is a brilliant, beautiful story of mothering, and how to let go of the ones we love when we must.