Umuzi

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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Die gewildste toneel in Bettina Wyngaard se boek, Troos vir die bebrokenes, is waar die karakter Antie Mina ‘n vroueslaner met ‘n stuk hout moker.

Wyngaard het gister in gesprek met Desmond Painter by die Woordfees gesê sy probeer glad nie om deur hierdie toneel geweld goed te praat nie. Die boek spreek juis die probleem van gesinsgeweld aan. Sy wil egter met die toneel sê dat ‘n mens nie net moet toekyk hoe verkeerde dinge gebeur nie. “Jy moet self intree en ‘n verskil maak,” het sy gesê.

Dít is wat sy as skrywer probeer doen. In haar vorige beroep as prokureur kon sy net een persoon op ‘n slag help. “Skryf is ‘n meer subtiele manier om mense te verander, maar miskien meer ingrypend. Jy laat mense anders dink en anders reageer op situasies.”

As prokureur het Wyngaard dikwels met gesinsgeweld te doen gekry en op haar tuisdorp, Grabouw, het sy die lot van die fabriekswerkers beleef. Dit het haar gedryf om die boek te skryf.

Tog het sy nie oorspronklik ‘n politieke agenda gehad nie. Sy het bloot moeg geraak vir boeke wat nie die realiteite van mense se lewens weerspieël nie.

Wyngaard skryf al van kleins af, maar om regsdokumente te skryf is so anders dat sy heeltemal opgehou het om kreatief te skryf. “Op ‘n dag het ek net besluit: Nou moet ek ‘n plan maak.”

Al skryf Wyngaard baie realisties oor geweld, wou sy nie ‘n neerdrukkende boek skryf nie. “Ons kan so maklik vasgevang raak in die probleme van Suid-Afrika,” het sy gesê. “Maar ons kan dit oorkom.”

Die boek bied aan die einde hoop en troos, maar nie maklike oplossings nie. Die karakters moet werk aan hul toekoms. “Hoe sal ‘n mens lig waardeer as jy nie donker ervaar het nie?”

Wyngaard werk tans aan haar tweede boek, wat verkragting van lesbiërs, met die doel om hulle “reg te ruk”, sal aanspreek

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Boekbesonderhede

• Troos vir die gebrokenes deur Bettina Wyngaard
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781415200834
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If the road to reconciliation runs through a country’s belly, Tannie Evita Bezuidenhout’s new cookbook, Evita’s Kossie Sikelela, is a recipe for peace. In Evita’s Kossie Sikelela, Evita invites the world to her table where everybody can feast on her delectable dishes!

Tannie Evita was a guest on Soli Philander’s Cape Talk show yesterday – and if you didn’t tune in, you missed out! What a hilarious conversation, those two can really wind each other up.

Fortunately for those who missed the show, Evita recorded a special message about her book at the Cape Talk studios:

• Not loading? Watch on Cape Talk

Meanwhile, here’s a clip of the last time that Tannie Evita visited Soli:

• Not loading? Watch on PMB Digital

Don’t miss these terrific photos from the Kossie Sikelela event!

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Book details

• Evita’s Kossie Sikelela by Evita Bezuidenhout, Pieter-Dirk Uys, illustrated by Linda Vicquery
  EAN: 9781415200902
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• Evita se Kossie Sikelela deur Evita Bezuidenhout, Linda Vicquery
  EAN: 9781415200919
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The actor, activist and author of the forthcoming Evita’s Kossie Sikelela has issued a statement about Julius Malema and his ramblings, the upshot of which is – ignore the ANCYL leader!

When a journalist who could not attend Julius Malema’s morning briefing with the media (Feb 22nd) contacted ANC Youth League spokesman Floyd Shivambu about the issue, the answer was: ‘You are out of order. **** off!’

Yes. Let’s.

• Complete statement at TimesLive

Book details

• Evita’s Kossie Sikelela by Evita Bezuidenhout, Pieter-Dirk Uys, illustrated by Linda Vicquery
  EAN: 9781415200902
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!
• Evita se Kossie Sikelela deur Evita Bezuidenhout, geillustreer deur Linda Vicquery
  EAN: 9781415200919
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Photo courtesy TimesLive

Coming this May from Umuzi

The Soldier Who Said No is the new novel by Chris Marnewick, author of Shepherds & Butchers.

When a Bushman arrow is used in an assassination attempt on the New Zealand Prime Minister, South African bush war veteran Pierre de Villiers, who works for the International Crimes Unit in Auckland, seems to be a logical link, but also a suspect.

Suffering from cancer and suspended, disgruntled De Villiers has seen similar arrows made by !Xau, a Bushman with whom he had to flee from Angola in 1985 after refusing to follow orders during a Military Intelligence operation. Now De Villiers is forced to return to South Africa to treat his cancer, find the origin of the arrow and face his own uncertain past.

[Shepherds & Butchers is] possibly the most gripping, most gruelling novel I’ve read. – Vivien Horler, Cape Argus

About the author

Chris Marnewick grew up in the northern Bushveld. He obtained law degrees from three universities, including his doctorate from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is Senior Counsel at the Durban Bar, and acting judge and lives in Durban with his wife Ansie. He was admitted to practice in New Zealand and New South Wales and spent 5 years teaching litigation skills in New Zealand.

Shepherds & Butchers (Umuzi, 2008) was longlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize, and shortlisted for the M-Net Literary Award, the M-Net Film Award, and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize First Book, Africa Region. The book won the University of Johannesburg Prize in the Debut Category.

Book details

• The Soldier Who Said No by Chris Marnewick
  EAN: 9781415201084
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

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.

• Read the complete article

Book details

• Random Violence by Jassy Mackenzie
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781415200636
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‘Vladislavić is a rare, brilliant writer. His work eschews all cant. Its sheer verve, the way it burrows beneath ossified forms of writing, its discipline and the distance it places between itself and the jaded preoccupations of local fiction, distinguish it.’ – Sunday Times

Flashback Hotel combines two critically acclaimed collections of Vladislavić’s short stories, Missing Persons (1990) – for which he received the Olive Schreiner Prize – and Propaganda by Monuments and Other Stories (1996).

About the author

Ivan Vladislavić was born in Pretoria. He moved to Johannesburg in the seventies to study at Wits and has lived in the city ever since. One of South Africa’s foremost contemporary authors, his work include The Exploded View (2004) and Portrait with Keys (2006). As an editor, Vladislavić has worked with many of South Africa’s major writers. He co-edited blank_Architecture, apartheid and after (1998) with Hilton Judin and edited T’kama-Adamastor (2000), a book of essays on the painting by Cyril Coetzee. In 2004 he coordinated the Johannesburg exhibition of Second Aid and researched and wrote Willem Boshoff, a monograph on the South African conceptual artist, published in 2005.

Missing Persons (1990), his first volume of short stories, won the 1991 Olive Schreiner Prize. The Folly (1993) won the CNA Prize. Two stories in Propaganda by Monuments and Other Stories (1996) won the English Academy’s Thomas Pringle Award for short fiction. The Restless Supermarket (2001) won the 2002 Sunday Times Fiction Award. Portrait with Keys won the 2007 Alan Paton Award and the 2007 University of Johannesburg Prize for best creative work in English.

Book details

• Flashback Hotel: Early Stories by Ivan Vladislavić
  EAN: 9781415201077
  Find this book with BOOK Finder

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 congratulates renowned South African photographer David Goldblatt, who has received the Henri Cartier-Bresson Award, “a prize to stimulate a photographer’s creativity by offering the opportunity to carry out a project that would otherwise be difficult to achieve.”

Goldblatt was honoured for his latest project, “TJ”, as collected in a forthcoming book, TJ: The Various Names of Johannesburg. As with his earlier work, Some Afrikaners Revisited, which featured contributions from, among others, Antjie Krog, Goldblatt has again teamed up with a writer, in this case Ivan Vladislavic, whose new novel, Double Negative, forms part of the book.

More from Art South Africa:

David Goldblatt has been awarded the prestigious Henri Cartier-Bresson Award (2009), for his project “TJ”, . The award is intended for a photographer of exceptional ability who has an established career and has completed a significant body of work. This award will be followed by an exhibition of David Goldblatt’s essay of Johannesburg photographs at the Henri Cartier-Bresson in 2010.

Goldblatt has been photographing and documenting South African society for over 50 years. Born in Randfontein in 1930 to parents who came to South Africa to escape the persecution of Lithuanian Jews in 1890, he was simultaneously part of privileged white society and a victim of religious persecution and alienation. Motivated by his contradictory position in South African society, Goldblatt began photographing this society, and in 1963 decided to devote all of his time to photography.

• Read the complete article

Book details

• David Goldblatt by David Goldblatt, Lesley Lawson
  EAN: 9780714840512
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• Some Afrikaners Revisited by David Goldblatt
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781415200254
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• TJ: The Various Names of Johannesburg by David Goldblatt (incorporating Double Negative by Ivan Vladislavic)
  EAN: 9788869652189
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!