Published in the Witness: 24/09/2018

IMRAAN Coovadia is a writer who can never be pigeonholed – each new book whizzes off in a different direction. We’ve had everything from laugh-out-loud funny to poignant, with all stops in-between. Here we’re in the realms of time-travelling.

But one thing doesn’t change: Coovadia never wants his reader to get too comfortable or to be able to second guess the writer. Here we have to manoeuvre mentally on the slippery footing of a different world, where the hero can shift from the past – 1955 in Marrakech or 1967 in Rio – to the distant future on Jupiter or the year 2271 in Johannesburg or, finally, to the Day of the Dead in 2472.

That was (or is going to be) when a supernova strikes earth. Enver Eleven, the central figure of A Spy in Time, is member of the Historical Agency whose task is to ensure that catastrophe never happens again. When the supernova struck, a small part of the population made it into the mines deep under Johannesburg where they created their own, not entirely brave, new world of spies, robots and fear. But in the past, present and future, there may be those plotting against the Agency, and Enver’s job is to find them, if they exist.

Enver’s world is one where a white skin is reviled and distrusted, where freedom of expression is curtailed and where questions of whether it should be possible, or permissible, to alter the past and thus change the future are important.

Coovadia is on record as having said that the seed for this novel was sown by the Fallist movement at the University of Cape Town, and his post-apocalyptic vision here, with its lack of trust and bubbling undercurrents of anger and lack of pity is a disturbing one. Of course, Coovadia’s writing always contains elements of humour and they are here too, though perhaps less prominent than in some of his earlier novels.

There are moments when the reader will wonder what on earth, or out of it, is going on in this tale. But the telling of it is compelling and the issues it raises, although cloaked in the trappings of science fiction, are pertinent.

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• A Spy in Time by Imraan Coovadia
  EAN: 9781415209677
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Erich Rautenbach, author of the South African memoir The Unexploded Boer, died in Vancouver, Canada on April 18th due to an aggressive relapse of leukemia. He was 63 years old.

Erich was born June 16, 1954 in Swakopmund, Namibia and grew up in Cape Town, leaving South Africa as a fugitive at the age of 21 after escaping from police custody. After some months in Europe and the Middle East as an undocumented refugee, he arrived in Canada where he eventually settled, raising four sons with his wife Mary Ann McKenzie, and returning to South Africa and Namibia as much as possible. He was planning a permanent move back to his home country when his cancer returned.

The Unexploded Boer, described as “a wild story of rebellion and retribution”, was published in 2011 by Zebra Press/Random House. It vividly recreated the hippy/glam subculture of 1970s Cape Town and followed Erich as he tried anything to avoid conscription into the South Africa army, leading to incarceration in infamous prisons including John Voster Square and The Fort. It received strong critical acclaim.

In Erich’s honour, the family is planning to create an annual bursary to be given to a Cape Town High School student who shows promise as a writer. Funds are being raised in Canada and South Africa through a Go Fund Me campaign: https://www.gofundme.com/erich-rautenbach-cths-scholarship

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• The Unexploded Boer by Erich Rautenbach
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Penguin Random House and Love Books invite you to the launch of Change by Jay Naidoo. He will be in conversation with Louisa Zondo.

Event Details

• Date: Wednesday, 05 April 2017
• Time: 6:00 PM for 6:30 PM
• Venue: Love Books, The Bamboo Lifestyle Centre, 53 Rustenburg Road, Melville, Johannesburg | Map
• Guest Speaker: Louisa Zondo
• RSVP: kate@lovebooks.co.za, 011 726 7408
  www.lovebooks.co.za/

Book details

• Change: Organising Tomorrow, Today by Jay Naidoo
  EAN: 9781776091805
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Penguin Books South Africa has revealed the cover for A Thousand Tales of Johannesburg – Harry Kalmer’s new novel – designed by the legendary Joey Hi-Fi.

A Thousand Tales of Johannesburg is the English translation of the critically acclaimed ‘n Duisend stories oor Johannesburg, which was shortlisted for seven Afrikaans literary awards.

The book tells the story of a city, its architecture, its history and its diverse communities, from the pre-Johannesburg Highveld of the 1880s to the xenophobia of 2008.

Scroll down for an excerpt!

Kalmer has written 23 plays and six works of fiction, but A Thousand Tales of Johannesburg is his first book in English.
 
 
The author says:

A Thousand Tales of Johannesburg: A City Novel is my first book in English. I wanted it to look special so I asked publisher Fourie Botha to approach Joey Hi-Fi.

The book is set against the backdrop of the xenophobic violence of 2008. However architecture and specifically modernist architecture is central to the book. The postcard-like photo of Commissioner Street in the 1970s features two modernist buildings on the left and on the right, the deco New Library hotel against a Kodachrome blue Highveld sky.

There are so many things I love about this cover. The letters of the title mixing the old and the new. The torn photograph that allows old street maps, pictures and post cards to peak through as if to tell, like the book, the layered, tattered story of a constantly morphing city. Its history from mining camp to European Modernist skyline to the African megapolis it is today.

I chose Joey hoping he would do something as stark, modern and bold as some of his other work. Instead he created a cover that tells its own story before the reading even starts. An additional tale added to the many stories already inside the book.

Joey Hi-Fi describes the design process:

A Thousand Tales of Johannesburg is a moving and intricately interwoven tale about the inhabitants of Johannesburg. It spans more than a hundred years. From the late 1800s all the way through to 2008. The challenge here was to visually capture those stories and the passing of time in an authentic fashion. Something that was true to the characters therein as well as the tone and mood of the novel.

My concept for the cover was sparked by the many references to photographs in the novel. And since photographs are a record of the passing of time, I wondered: What if all the decades spanned in A Thousand Tales of Johannesburg collided in one photograph? And what if that photograph had been torn and worn away to reveal past events? Much like an archaeological excavation, where the deeper you dig the further into the past you go. In a way it is a metaphor for the city itself. The new built upon the old. Scratch beneath the surface and you will unearth some clue to the past.

So I decided to combine typography, illustration and photography in an intricately assembled collage. One photo that incorporated all the decades covered in the novel. I wanted the cover to have a measure of authenticity. To look as much as possible like a photograph of a Johannesburg street scene that has been crumpled, torn and weathered by the passing of time. To do this I redrew old maps of Johannesburg, illustrated and collaged together Johannesburg street scenes (from various decades) and recreated Boer prisoner of war letters. The cover typography is inspired by the lettering found on old maps from the early 1900s. Each element on the cover reflects some event or character in the novel.

Designing this cover was a fascinating deep dive into the rich history of Johannesburg and its people. A history which Harry Kalmer has beautifully captured in A Thousand Tales Of Johannesburg.

About the book

A Thousand Tales of Johannesburg is Harry Kalmer’s spellbinding ode to Johannesburg and its people.

This is the story of Sara, who poses stiffly for a photo with her four children at Turffontein concentration camp in 1901, and of Abraham, who paints the street names on Johannesburg’s kerbs. It is the tale of their grandson Zweig, a young architect who has to leave Johannesburg when he falls in love with the wrong person, and of Marceline, a Congolese mother who flees to the city only to be caught up in a wave of xenophobic violence.

Spanning more than a hundred years, A Thousand Tales of Johannesburg is a novel that documents and probes the lives of the inhabitants of this incomparable African city – the exiled, those returning from exile, and those who never left.

About the author

Harry Kalmer is an award-winning playwright and novelist who has authored six works of fiction and 32 plays. His novel En die lekkerste deel van dood wees was the runner-up in the 2007 Sanlam/Insig Groot Roman competition. Briewe aan ‘n rooi dak, based on the letters of Magdalena Otto, received the Anglo-Gold Aardklop award for best new drama in 2001, and was adapted for television and broadcast. In 2014, his drama The Bram Fischer Waltz won the Adelaide Tambo Award for Human Rights in the Arts. He lives in Johannesburg.

Excerpt from A Thousand Tales of Johannesburg

‘What is it like to be back in Johannesburg?’ Meredith’s voice sounded thin over the phone from Seattle.

‘Odd. It’s very different from when I left.’

‘It’s more than forty years, Dad. Places change, time moves on.’

‘I know but it is totally different. It is like an African city.’

‘It is an African city.’

Zweig did not respond. To speak about the emotions he had felt since his arrival in Johannesburg three
hours earlier would have been too difficult. Instead he asked her about work.

He remained seated on the bed with the phone in his hand after the conversation ended and realised how little he and Serenita had told their daughters about Johannesburg. To them it was merely the place where their parents lived before they moved to London.

Zweig felt like some Bach, but his iPod wasn’t charged. He craved a cigarette for the first time in fifteen years. The white telephone on the white bedside table rang. Cherie asked if he wanted white or red wine with his dinner.

Zweig put on clean clothes. A few minutes later Cherie was at the door with a plate of food, a glass and a carafe of white wine. She placed it on a coffee table. Arabic music was playing somewhere in the hotel. Zweig sat down in one of the chairs and poured a glass of wine. The chicken was tasty. It was the first meat he had eaten in a long time.

When he had finished his meal, he once again picked up the copy of Moby Dick but still found it difficult to read.

He undressed and took a photo of Serenita in a standing frame from his shoulder bag.

‘You won’t believe it, Serenita.’ He smiled at the photo. ‘I’m back in Johannesburg. An old man in his vest and his underpants sitting at the edge of a bed.’

He unfolded the back support strut of the frame and placed it on the table.
Then he climbed in under the duvet and turned off the bedside light.

Related news:

• Lauren Beukes and Joey Hi-Fi Win 2014 British Fantasy Awards
• Are Those Books Even About Trees? – Joey Hi-Fi on the African Book Cover Acacia Tree Scandal
• Watch: Lauren Beukes and Joey Hi-Fi Talk Survivor’s Club at New York Comic Con
• Stadslewe vasgevang in ’n Duisend stories oor Johannesburg: ’n Stadsroman deur Harry Kalmer
• Foto’s van die bekendstelling van ’n Duisend stories oor Johannesburg deur Harry Kalmer (Plus: Uittreksel)

Book details

• A Thousand Tales of Johannesburg by Harry Kalmer
  EAN: 9781485903475
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Penguin Random House South Africa (PRHSA) is proud to announce that Professor Tim Noakes will co-write his next Banting book with PRHSA authors Bernadine Douglas and Bridgette Allan.

The Banting Pocket Guide will be published in partnership with The Noakes Foundation (TNF) early in 2017.

Noakes, who started the Banting revolution in South Africa, and TNF are passionate about making the Banting lifestyle affordable and accessible to all South Africans. Douglas and Allan share this objective and have already made the low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet more inclusive with their books The Banting Solution and Die Banting-oplossing, published early in 2016.

 
The Banting Pocket Guide will be user-friendly and provide all the tips and advice readers will need to start, successfully conclude and maintain their Banting diet. It will also offer more affordable solutions and include products that are more accessible to people of all walks of life. The author trio and TNF are also planning further Banting titles in this line with PRHSA.

On his decision to join PRHSA and The Banting Solution authors Douglas and Allan, Noakes says:

The focus of TNF’s Eat Better South Africa! campaign is to take the Banting Revolution to all South Africans. I am very appreciative of the chance to partner with Bernadine and Bridgette to advance our common goal – to help all South Africans understand that what we eat each day is a key determinant of our long-term health. This book provides practical information of how we can eat high-quality, healthy foods, even on a restricted food budget.

PRHSA is thrilled to have TNF on board. The foundation is a non-profit corporation founded for public benefit. Its aims are to advance medical science’s understanding of the benefits of a LCHF diet by providing evidence-based information on optimum nutrition that is free from commercial agenda. Jayne Bullen, manager of TNF says: “We are excited about this new partnership to support dietary changes needed in all populations with a clear message of Ubuntu behind it. Noakes’s proceeds from this book will go towards the TNF’s Eat Better South Africa!”

Douglas and Allan feel very privileged to have Noakes and his foundation involved in their next book. Allan said: “With the involvement of Tim and his fantastic team I am tremendously excited at the potential that The Banting Pocket Guide has to improve health across South Africa.” Douglas added: “It’s an absolute honour to have Prof. Noakes and The Noakes Foundation on board to take a healthy lifestyle to the next level.”

PRHSA is also looking forward to publishing the follow-up to Noakes’s Challenging Beliefs in 2017. The new book will include more on the LCHF diet and the highly controversial HPCSA trial.

Book details

• The Banting Solution: Your Low-Carb Guide To Permanent Weight Loss by Bernadine Douglas, Bridgette Allan
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  EAN: 9781776090211
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• Die Banting-oplossing: Jou laekoolhidraat-gids vir permanente gewigsverlies by Bernadine Douglas, Bridgette Allan
  EAN: 9781776090365
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Penguin Random House will be publishing Marita van der Vyver’s 13th novel, You Lost Me, early in 2017 in English and Afrikaans.

The author, who lives in France, will be in South Africa to promote the novel in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria in March and May 2017. Readers will also have the opportunity to see her in Stellenbosch during Woordfees, and at the Franschhoek Literary Festival.

You Lost Me is the story of Willem Prins, a disillusioned South African writer who, after little success, finds himself in Paris to promote an erotic novel he wrote under a pseudonym – to his great embarrassment. It’s here that he meets Jackie, a young South African who works in the city as au pair. The two of them happen to be together on the night that the Paris terror attacks strike.

You Lost Me is contemporary and thrilling; wickedly funny yet poignant. The novel reinforces Van der Vyver’s position as one of the country’s best-loved writers since the publication of her first novel, Entertaining Angels.

 
Related stories:

• Marita van der Vyver’s A Fountain in France Launches at the Alliance Francaise in Cape Town
• “My Imagination is Like a Bed of Glowing Embers”: An Interview with Marita van der Vyver
• Marita van der Vyver’s new novel – ‘full of pitch-black humour’ – to be published by Penguin Random House
• This week’s interview live with Marita van der Vyver in France

Photograph by Robert Hamblin for Vrouekeur

Book details

• Swemlesse vir ‘n meermin by Marita van der Vyver
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  EAN: 9780624071044
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• A Fountain in France by Marita van der Vyver
  EAN: 9780143538950
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• Olinosters op die dak by Marita van der Vyver, illustrated by Dale Blankenaar
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  EAN: 9780624069171
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• Die coolste ouma op aarde by Marita van der Vyver
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  EAN: 9780799367164
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• Winter Food in Provence by Marita van der Vyver
  EAN: 9780624057772
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• Winterkos in Provence by Marita van der Vyver
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  EAN: 9780624057758
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Mark Winkler’s third novel, The Safest Place You Know, is set in the 1980s in South Africa. Much of the action takes place on a wine farm in the Cape – a vast estate owned by a wealthy heiress.

Today South Africa’s wine industry enjoys international recognition and is a significant player on the world stage; back then, things were very different. The author discusses the state of the wine industry in South Africa in the 1980s, and considers how things have changed over the past thirty years:

In the 1980s, the South African wine industry focused on selling its product on price rather than quality. International sanctions had begun to have a severe effect on the South African economy, and the result was a surplus of mediocre and unsalable product, referred to as a “wine lake”. Millions of litres were dumped into rivers and dams in the attempt to reduce supply and to push up demand. Only the most visionary of grape farmers, like the fictitious Oliver Maidenstone Basset, had begun to concern themselves with quality. They introduced new technology and innovative, if controversial, techniques, such as the green harvest practised on the Basset estate. Though not immediately profitable at the time, such initiatives would become the norm, raising the international reputation of South African wines.

• Also read: The man behind the character: True-life inspiration in Mark Winkler’s The Safest Place You Know

 
The Safest Place You Know follows a young man who, after his father’s violent death, leaves the family farm in the drought-stricken Free State with no plan, and with no way of knowing that his life will soon be changed for ever by two strangers he encounters on his journey south: a mute 12-year-old girl who bears a striking resemblance to his late niece, and a troubled lawyer who detests the Cape wine estate she’s inherited from her cruel and arrogant father. As they become entwined in each other’s lives and secrets, it becomes clear that the enigmatic little girl will play more of a role in their redemption than anyone suspects.

About the author

Mark Winkler is the author of the critically acclaimed novels An Exceptionally Simple Theory (of Absolutely Everything) and Wasted, which was longlisted for the 2016 Sunday Times Barry Ronge Fiction Prize. His short story “When I Came Home” was shortlisted for the 2016 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and “Ink” was awarded third place in the 2016 Short Story Africa competition.

 
 
 
 
Related stories:

• Exclusive: Read Mark Winkler’s ‘Ink’, which won 3rd place in the 2015 Short Story Day Africa Competition
• Secrets and Make-believe Family Trees: Mark Winkler Chats about His Gritty New Novel, Wasted
• “Writing Isn’t so Much About Place as It is About State of Mind”: Mark Winkler on the Ins and Outs of Writing Wasted
• How to Get Published – Mark Winkler and Louise Grantham Share Tricks of the Trade at SABF 2015
• The Books that Built Me, by Mark Winkler

Book details

• The Safest Place You Know by Mark Winkler
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  EAN: 9781415209097
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• An Exceptionally Simple Theory (of Absolutely Everything) by Mark Winkler
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  EAN: 9780795704505
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After much interest in the United Kingdom, publisher Jacaranda Books have acquired the rights to publish Masande Ntshanga’s acclaimed literary novel The Reactive in the UK and across the Commonwealth.

An American edition of the novel was published earlier this year, and German translation rights have also been sold.

The Caine Prize-shortlisted author’s debut novel is a poignant, life-affirming story about secrets, memory, chemical abuse and family, and the redemption that comes from facing what haunts us most.

Contracts were negotiated by Aoife Lennon-Ritchie of the Lennon-Ritchie Agency.

The Reactive was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize and longlisted for the Etisalat Prize for literature.

A recipient of a Fulbright Award, a Mellon Mays Foundation fellowship, and a Civitella Ranieri fellowship, Ntshanga also won the 2013 PEN International New Voices Award.

 
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• From Brooklyn to Chicago – News from Masande Ntshanga’s US book tour
• North American edition of The Reactive by Masande Ntshanga reviewed by Minneapolis Star Tribune
• Read ‘Space II’ – a new story by Masande Ntshanga‎
• Cover Revealed for the North American Edition of Masande Ntshanga’s The Reactive
• “I’m the One Who’s Supposed to be Dying”: Excerpt from The Reactive by Masande Ntshanga
• Excerpt from Masande Ntshanga’s “Expedition of Writerly Daring”, The Reactive
• Second International Book Deal for Masande Ntshanga’s The Reactive
• Masande Ntshanga Wins the PEN International / New Voices Award 2013
• Winners of the 2015 Artists In Residency Programme announced – including Masande Ntshanga
• An Honest Imagining: 2015 Barry Ronge Fiction Prize Shortlistee Masande Ntshanga Talks About Writing The Reactive
• 2015 Caine Prize for African Writing Shortlist Announced: Includes South Africans Masande Ntshanga and FT Kola
• “Writers Can’t Control Everything Related to Their Work”: Interview with Masande Ntshanga, Author of The Reactive
• 12 writers from 6 African countries converge in Zambia for the Caine Prize Workshop

Book details

• The Reactive by Masande Ntshanga
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  EAN: 9781415207192
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• The Reactive: US Edition by Masande Ntshanga
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  EAN: 9781937512439
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Umuzi has shared an exclusive excerpt from their much anticipated new release Tannie Maria and the Satanic Mechanic by Sally Andrew.

Andrew’s bestselling debut, Recipes for Love and Murder, won the coveted Booksellers’ Choice Award and Kirkus Best Book of 2015, and was given the thumbs up by the Wall Street Journal and the Oprah Book Club.

The book was published in 17 countries (and counting) and is being translated into 11 languages.

• Read an excerpt from Sally Andrew’s Recipes for Love and Murder – PLUS a sample from the audiobook read by Sandra Prinsloo

The follow-up, Tannie Maria and the Satanic Mechanic, is being released locally this month. Scroll down for an excerpt!

About the book

Everybody’s favourite agony aunt and crime fighter Tannie Maria needs some counselling advice of her own. Lingering troubles from a previous marriage still sit heavy on her, while fresh worries about Slimkat, a local man whose fighting for his people’s land threatens his life, keep her up at night.

Tannie Maria seeks out counsellor, jokily known to all as “the satanic mechanic”. Straight out of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and from hot-as-hell Hotazel, Ricus fixes both cars and people.

But Maria’s counselling tune-up switches gears when a murder flings her straight into Detective Henk Kannemeyer’s investigation. Not only is she dating the dashing Henk, she now has to work beside him: a potential recipe for disaster.

Blending an intriguing mystery with characters as lovable as the setting of the rural Klein Karoo, this book is Sally Andrew’s delightful, warmhearted sequel to Recipes for Love and Murder.

About the author

Sally Andrew lives in a mud-brick house on a nature reserve in the Klein Karoo with her artist partner, a giant eland, and a secretive leopard. She also spends time in the wilderness of southern Africa and the seaside suburb of Muizenberg. She has a master’s in Adult Education from the University of Cape Town. Before settling down to write full time, she was a social and environmental activist.
 

Read an excerpt:
 

We heard a car backfiring as it parked in Eland Street.

‘That’s probably them now.’ She got up and stood at the door, and I put on the kettle.

I heard Slimkat before I saw him, his voice quiet but strong as he spoke to Jessie. She led him into the office, and he intro¬duced his cousin, Ystervark. Then he shook my hand.

‘This is my colleague, Tannie Maria,’ said Jessie. ‘She does the “Love Advice and Recipe Column”.’

His hand was warm and dry, but I hardly felt it, because it was his eyes that filled me with feeling. They were big and black, like a kudu’s, and they looked right into me. It was very strange … I felt like he could see me. Really see me. Not only my body but all of me. It was as if my eyes were windows without curtains, and he could just look inside. He saw everything. Including the things I kept hidden, even from myself.

I looked away.

‘Coffee?’ I offered, fiddling with the cups.

‘Rooibos tea?’ he asked.

I nodded.

‘Black,’ he said, ‘but with lots of sugar for Yster.’

Ystervark was looking at all the pouches on Jessie’s belt and frowning. Like Slimkat, he was a small man, but while Slimkat was relaxed, Yster’s whole body was tense. His hands were tight fists, and I recognised him from the newspaper photograph. Ready to fight. Ready to kill, maybe. He looked at Slimkat, then at Jessie’s belt and at Slimkat again.

‘Sorry,’ said Slimkat. ‘We don’t mean to be rude. But could you show us what you are carrying on your belt? We’ve had some … incidents, and Ystervark likes to be careful.’

‘Sure,’ said Jessie, and emptied all the things from her pouches onto her desk. They made quite a pile and included her camera, notebook, pen, phone, torch, string, knife and pepper spray.

Ystervark grabbed the spray and the knife and looked at Slimkat as if to say, ‘I told you so.’

‘Sorry,’ Slimkat said again. ‘He’ll give them back when we go. We can’t stay long.’

Jessie set up two chairs for the visitors, but Ystervark stood at the office door. Then he walked towards the street and back again, with the knife and the pepper spray in his hands. He put them in his pockets when I handed him his tea and rusk. I gave the others their hot drinks and beskuit too.

‘Would you like me to go?’ I asked Jessie.

‘No,’ said Slimkat. ‘Stay,’ and he fixed me with those eyes again.

I spilt my coffee on my desk. I rescued the letters, but the coffee got all over last week’s Gazette.
Jessie picked up her notebook. ‘I know you don’t like to sing your own praises,’ she said, ‘but you must be feeling good about the victory over big business. Diamond miners and agribusiness are used to getting their way. Yet you won the fight.’

‘I am sad,’ said Slimkat. ‘It was not right to fight.’

‘What do you mean?’ said Jessie. ‘It belongs to you, that land. Your ancestors have lived there for tens of thousands of years. You could not just let the companies steal it from you.’

‘No,’ said Slimkat. ‘You are wrong. The land does not belong to us. We belong to the land.’

Jessie blinked, and her mouth opened and closed. It was not often that I saw Jessie without words.
She found them again. ‘But surely,’ she said, ‘if you do not fight, then injustice will be done. Again and again.’

‘That is true,’ he said. ‘Some people like to fight.’ He took a sip of his tea and glanced at his cousin, who stood at the door with his back to us. ‘I do not. Fighting can make you bitter. But sometimes it must be done. If you have to fight, then you must do so with soft hands and a heart full of forgiveness.’

He dipped his rusk into his tea and took a bite. Then he smiled and looked at me.

I mopped at the Gazette with a napkin. There was a brown stain over the pink advert offering relationship help.

‘I hear there have been death threats?’ Jessie said.

 
Related stories:

• Sally Andrew, Penguin Random House and The Book Lounge the big winners at 2016 Sefika and Booksellers’ Choice Awards
• Tannie Maria’s Recipe for Murder – Don’t Try it at Home! (Plus: Podcast)
• Murder and Romance in the Karoo – Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery by Sally Andrew
• The Magwood on Books Podcast: Sally Andrew chats about her runaway hit Recipes for Love and Murder
• Recipes for Love and Murder by Sally Andrew Published in 17 Countries – and Counting
• Oprah’s Book Club and the Wall Street Journal give Sally Andrew’s Karoo novel the thumbs up
• Klein Karoo Comes to Kalk Bay: Sally Andrew’s Recipes for Love and Murder Launched with Sandra Prinsloo
• Read an Excerpt from Sally Andrew’s Recipes for Love and Murder – PLUS a Sample from the Audiobook, Read by Sandra Prinsloo

Book details

• Tannie Maria and the Satanic Mechanic: A Tannie Maria Mystery by Sally Andrew
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  EAN: 9781415207673
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South African crime writer Jassy Mackenzie will contribute a book to James Patterson’s imprint BookShots.

Patterson, who is one of the best-known and biggest-selling writers of all time, with sales in excess of 325 million copies worldwide, will be writing, collaborating on, or personally curating every title published by the new imprint.

BookShots, which will produce page-turning, novella-length stories, aims to change the way readers consume books.

“BookShots are designed to help people fit reading into their busy lives,” Patterson says. “They’re stories that you can devour in an hour or two, and that will keep you engaged throughout. People will want to pick one of these up because they won’t be intimidated by the length, or ever bored by the plot.”

Each title will be under 150 pages, competitively priced at R59.95, and available in a new compact paperback format, as ebooks and in audio.

Mackenzie is the author of five thrillers, all published in South Africa by Umuzi, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Her other books include Folly, Switch and Breathless. She is published in the United States and in Germany, and has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and an International Thriller Award.

Mackenzie’s BookShot will be titled 26 Degrees South and is set in Johannesburg, where she lives. A publication date has yet to be fixed.

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• Breathless by Jassy Mackenzie
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• Switch by Jassy Mackenzie
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• Pale Horses by Jassy Mackenzie
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  EAN: 9781415201640
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• Cross Justice by James Patterson
  EAN: 9781780892672
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• Truth or Die by James Patterson, Howard Roughan
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• Hope to Die by James Patterson
  EAN: 9781780890166
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