Umuzi

Wessel Ebersohn se aanhangers moes veertien jaar wag vir sy nuutste boek The October Killings om sy verskyning te maak. Mariana Malan het bietjie gaan uitvind hoekom en ook met Ebersohn gesels oor die weg vorentoe.

Veertien jaar was geheel en al te lank om te wag vir Wessel Ebersohn se jongste boek. Gelukkig het sy uitgewer ’n ooreenkoms wat twee boeke insluit met hom gesluit en is hy ook klaar met ’n derde. The October Killings het einde verlede jaar verskyn ná Ebersohn se stilte van meer as ’n dekade. Voorheen het hy sewe boeke geskryf wat in 11 tale vertaal is. As joernalis het hy ook verskeie ­artikels vir plaaslike en inter nasionale publikasies gelewer.“Dit was nooit my bedoeling om so lank te wag nie, maar daar was twee redes daarvoor. My boeke het altyd in Suid-Afrika afgespeel met plaaslike gebeure daarby ingewerk. Twee van my boeke is ­verban. Ek het nie ’n aktivis probeer wees nie. Ek het eerder sake in my boeke verduidelik.

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Boekbesonderhede

• The October Killings deur Wessel Ebersohn
  Boektuisblad
  EAN: 9781415200742
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James Kilgore, author of We are All Zimbabweans Now, recently presented a paper at the University of Illinois’ Centre for African Studies, at which he is a research scholar. Kilgore discussed the background to We are All Zimbabweans Now, including his former hopes for racial reconciliation under Mugabe:

Good afternoon. I’d like to thank the Center for African Studies for inviting me here this afternoon and particularly Merle Bowen for organising this session. This is the first time that I’ve spoken publicly to a group about my book and I’m quite excited about it. I’ll try to keep my excitement in check. I had in mind to do three things. First, I’d like to talk a little bit about the background of the writing of the book. It’s somewhat unusual as I wrote it during my period of incarceration from 2002 to 2009. Second, I assume most people haven’t read the book, so I thought I would give a brief plot summary of the novel. Third, I wanted to discuss what the novel means, what it is I actually wanted to say in this story which I’ve titled ’We Are All Zimbabweans Now’.

There are three forces that drove me to write this book. The first one was a simple factor of the lack of activity options when you’re incarcerated. Since I’m not a big fan of the major social activities in prison – dominoes, weightlifting, card games, and I’m a little bit too old for the daily grind on the basketball court – I needed to find an activity that would keep my mind alive and fill a lot of time. Writing was a good choice.

• Complete article at Pambazuka news

Book details

• We are All Zimbabweans Now by James Kilgore
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  EAN: 9781415200711
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Umuzi and The Book Lounge invite you to an evening with Mike Nicol – the launch of the second book in his Revenge Trilogy, Killer Country.

Killer Country cracks open a world of conspiracies and paranoia, corruption and greed as the new elites get their hands on the spoils.

Don’t miss your chance to meet this “killer” raconteur – or the opportunity to walk away from the do with a free copy of either Killer Country or the first book in the series, Payback: The Book Lounge will be giving out a copy of each on the night. See you there!

Event Details

• Date: Friday, 19 March 2010
• Time: 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM
• Venue: The Book Lounge
  71 Roeland St
  Cape Town | Map
• RSVP: The Book Lounge, booklounge@gmail.com, 021 462 2425

Book Details

• Killer Country by Mike Nicol
  EAN: 9781415201169
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Umuzi congratulates author Jassy Mackenzie for getting a starred review from Publishers Weekly – quite a big deal in the USA, where her book Random Violence has just been released.

Don’t miss Mackenzie’s latest, My Brother’s Keeper, which will keep you as spellbound as her debut!

Set in contemporary South Africa, Mackenzie’s triumphant debut introduces PI Jade de Jong. After roaming the world for a decade, Jade returns home to Johannesburg to take her revenge on the convicted murderer, about to be released from prison, who she believes killed her “highly respected police commissioner” father.

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Book details

• Random Violence by Jassy Mackenzie
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781415200636
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Umuzi is delighted to announce that Jassy Mackenzie’s latest thriller, My Brother’s Keeper, is a finalist in the category for “Best Paperback” at the 2010 International Thriller Writers (ITW) conference, known as ThrillerFest V.

This is Jassy’s second nomination from ITW. In 2008, she was a semi-finalist in the category for “Best First Novel” with Random Violence.

ITW is an organization for thriller writers and hosts the largest community of thriller writers in the world. ThrillerFest V is ITW’s annual celebration of the thriller world. It will take place from 7 – 10 July 2010 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City, where the winners will be announced. Special guests will include Ken Follett, David Morrell, Harlan Coben, Gayle Lynds, Lisa Scottoline, Mark Bowden, and Brad Meltzer.

My Brother’s Keeper tells the story of Nick Kenyon – a Joburg paramedic who unintentionally gets caught up with a gang of cold-blooded robbers who are planning their biggest-ever heist. However, what Nick doesn’t know is that his own brother, Paul, is the gang leader and has an old score to settle… The countdown to the heist begins, and the Kenyon brothers are pitted against each other in a deadly battle where there can be only one survivor.

Best of luck to Jassy!

Book details

• My Brother’s Keeper by Jassy Mackenzie
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781415200780
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Random House Struik and Umuzi are delighted to announce that We Are All Zimbabweans Now by James Kilgore (Umuzi, 2009) has been shortlisted for potential screen adaptation at the Berlin International Film Festival.

The work is one of 10 pre-selected novels chosen by Books at Berlinale, the co-production arm of the festival, taking place this February. Each novel will be pitched to international arthouse producers by the representatives holding the film rights.

We Are All Zimbabweans Now occupies an important place amongst the fictional chronicles of post-independence Zimbabwe. It is an accomplished and compelling novel and deftly analyzes the complex struggles for power in post-independence Africa.

The Berlin International Film Festival is one of the world’s top international film events, where approximately 20,000 filmmakers, industry professionals and film buffs from over 100 countries, come together for 11 days in February. With more than 270,000 tickets sold to the public, the ‘Berlinale’ is the largest audience festival in the world.

“Books at Berlinale” was introduced in 2006 in conjunction with the Frankfurt Book Fair with the goal of bringing the book and film worlds closer together. The programme also includes an information session for publishers and literary agents into the “film producing and financing world” as well as a case study on a literary adaptation screening.

About the Author

James Kilgore first made news in South Africa when he was arrested in Cape Town in 2002. He had been living under the alias Dr. John Pape and had become a respected academic at the University of Cape Town. US authorities extradited him to California where he served six and a half years in prison for his involvement in political activities in the volatile San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s. He was released on the 10th of May 2009.

Book details

• We are All Zimbabweans Now by James Kilgore
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781415200711
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Image courtesy Screen Australia.

Umuzi is delighted to announce the return of Mike Nicol – and Mace Bishop – in this riveting sequel to the critically-acclaimed crime novel, Payback.

Mace Bishop and Pylon Buso offer guarding services to the rich in Cape Town, but they want out: tired of the egos and of being shot at, they invest dirty money in a property deal. Obed Chocho is their ruthless opposing bidder and his lawyer, Sheemina February, is as manipulative as he.

Part of her agenda concerns her past with Mace. In this mix is Judge Telman Visser, the head of a commission of inquiry into an arms deal scandal, and a son worried that his aging parents aren’t safe on their farm.

Mace is hired to protect them, taking his daughter along for the ride. But Chocho and February send a hitman, Spitz, to take out Visser’s parents. In the second part of the novel Mace and Pylon, well used to taking matters into their own hands, try to track down the killer and play judge and executioner in an attempt to right wrongs. But they have not factored into the intrigue the role of Sheemina February. Or her wrath.

It’s a Killer Country Mace and Pylon live in. Will they survive?

Book details

• Killer Country by Mike Nicol
  EAN: 9781415201169
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Joburg thriller writer par excellence Jassy Mackenzie recently met with aspiring writers at the Writers Write event for crime fiction. Aspiring writers were given an inside look at how Mackenzie selects her plots and creates her narratives. Check out the author of My Brother’s Keeper’s tips:

Waves of Plot

Jassy likens the plot of a novel to waves in a sea. The deeper the lead character ventures into the ocean, the higher the waves become, the faster they come at him. “There must a rising challenges for him,” she says, “and as you get to the end of the novel, they must be bigger and more dangerous. They must come at him so fast; he hardly has time to catch his breath.”

The difference between a thriller and mystery, she explains, is that in a mystery the identity of the antagonist is hidden and the detective has to unravel the clues. In a thriller, we often know the villain upfront. “From there on there is a cat-and-mouse game with the detective,” she says. “There’s usually time limit for the case to be solved, so pacing is so important.”

• Read the complete article at Biz Community

Book details

• Random Violence by Jassy Mackenzie
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781415200636
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

• My Brother’s Keeper by Jassy Mackenzie
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781415200780
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

The increasingly celebrated SA crime author Jassy Mackenzie has a treat for you: she’s posted two short stories to her website, which are guaranteed to give you thrills and chills. Here are tasters of “Tough Love” and “On The Run” – we recommend that you click through!

from “Tough Love”:

Timothy Littlewood lowered himself down onto the wedge of cardboard. Worn and brittle from months of use, it offered his knees no protection from the rough surface beneath.

He dunked the brush into the metal bucket, shivering as his hands plunged into the icy water. He lifted it out, slippery with soap, and bent to scrub the floor.

A whistling sound warned him, and he cringed as the whip lashed across his shoulders. He knew better than to cry out, but his breath escaped him in a silent, shuddering sigh.

“Go faster, you slacker. Think you’ve got all day down here?” Her voice was harsh, with a strong South African accent.

• Read the complete short story

from “On the Run”:

She couldn’t believe they had caught up with her. Here, in this dusty little town in the middle of nowhere, with veld and farmland stretching to the horizon in every direction, thousands of miles away from where it all began.

Still, she had worried. With the Internet and satellite TV, news travelled as fast around the world as gossip through a village. She was sure that there was a computer or a satellite dish in some of the cottages on what was optimistically called Main Street – the only tarred road in town. All it would take was a few inquisitive taps on a keyboard, or the wrong choice of channel at the wrong time, and they would know. She had hoped that nobody would be curious enough to make the effort. She had hoped that in this remote part of South Africa, people perceived the UK as boring and far away, much too English to worry about.

• Read the complete short story

Book details

• My Brother’s Keeper by Jassy Mackenzie
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781415200780
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

• Random Violence by Jassy Mackenzie
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781415200636
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

James Kilgore first made news in South Africa when he was arrested in Cape Town in 2002. He had been living under the alias Dr. John Pape and become a respected academic at the University of Cape Town. U.S. authorities extradited him to California where he served six and a half years in prison. He was released 10 May 2009. (See Remembering James Kilgore in Cape Town.)

Kilgore grew up in California and lived in the volatile San Francisco Bay Area during the late 60s and early 70s. He became immersed in left-wing politics, eventually linking up with the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). His involvement with the SLA led to an indictment for possession of explosives in 1975. Kilgore then fled the law for 27 years, living in Zimbabwe, Australia and South Africa. He abandoned the politics violence, focusing on a career as an educator. He resided in Harare, the site of his novel, We Are All Zimbabweans Now, from 1982-91. There he met his wife, Terri and also wrote a doctoral dissertation on the history of domestic workers in Zimbabwe.

Here’s the first print interview with the author to appear since the book’s release, conducted by the Sunday Times‘ Aubrey Paton:

Q: You were a revolutionary, an academic fugitive, a prisoner and, finally, a published author: did you ever dream you would have such an eventful life?

A: When I was a child, I dreamed of becoming a famous baseball or basketball player. Obviously those dreams didn’t quite pan out. Dream of becoming a writer? Never. If I even had even a faint inkling of a future as a writer, it would have been as a sports journalist.

Q: The main character, Ben Dabney, is naive, politically blinkered and idealistic: how much of your youthful self do you see in him?

A: There’s a certain naiveté in all political activism, a certain naive belief in the ability that your actions can change the world, regardless of the odds. I had that naiveté, still have some of it. But my naiveté was very different to Ben’s. I was an activist, a person of action. He was a scholar, a person of reflection. And I never believed in Mugabe the way Ben did, though I also never dreamed Mugabe could descend to his current depths.

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