Book picks similar to
Star of the Morning by Pamela Jooste


africa
south-africa
fiction
africa-african

Beneath A Colesberg Sky


Jeffrey Whittam - 2015
    From Dakota’s Black Hills to the gold and diamond fields of Southern Africa, Jim O’Rourke and his daughter, Kathleen step from the sailing ship Eudora and take their covered wagon deep inside a vast and ancient wilderness. The land is raw-boned and unforgiving – the men and women who search its heart for wealth, love and adventure, even more so. Smoke from a thousand fires clung to a broken landscape and towering above it, churned from a vast and open wound in the earth’s crust, were those billowing clouds of powdered Kimberlite; as yellow, ochrous fingers they reached upwards for over a thousand feet, deep inside the heart of that darksome Colesberg sky.

निजधाम [Nijdham]


Ratnakar Matkari
    A call from the final adobe, 'Nijdham'; all these short mystic stories have created a new way in the history of Marathi literature.

The Lion and the Leopard (The Lion and the Leopard Trilogy, #3)


Brian Duncan - 2016
    "The Lion and the Leopard" takes place during the Great 1914-18 War when German forces invaded Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia and Portuguese East Africa. Martin Russell ("The Settler") and his step-daughter, Clare, travel to the war front, while the Spaight family (Alan, from "Lake of Slaves", and his son Drew, and daughters Mandy and Kirsty) are also drawn into the conflict. A young British officer falls in love with Mandy, but she finds her true love elsewhere. Kirsty's friend, a Britsh naval reservist, joins the gunboat flotilla on Lake Tanganyika. The Chilembwe Uprising in Nyasaland provides an unwelcome distraction early in the war. The loves and tragedies in the families unfold during the long and bitter campaign.

One Chance: Tales from the African bush


Brian Connell - 2016
    The familiar group of characters appear again, as do a few more waifs and strays. The plight of the rhino takes centre-stage in One Chance, bringing awareness to the risk they face on a daily basis.

The African Trilogy


Peter Rimmer
    Once you have been there, you will never be the same. Read 3 of the most important historical novels that will take you back to some of AFRICA’S most notable and captivating periods. The super addictive trilogy starts here. Ready for the ride? Book 1: Cry of the Fish Eagle Rupert’s family is happy and at peace. But a vulnerable future is ahead. Chaos is coming. The Rhodesian War is looming… Rupert escapes to Rhodesia from the bloody conflict that is terrorising Europe. His mission is not just duty-driven but a promise to look for an orphaned, young girl. It’s a futile search and with time running out he has no choice but to re-join the theatre of war. When peace returns Rupert travels back to Rhodesia to begin anew, to find the orphaned girl and to start a new life. But nothing can prepare him for what is next as we helplessly watch Rupert wade against a chaotic tide of nationalism. Book 2: Vultures in the Wind Luke was close to death. He had been beaten mercilessly and was unrecognisable. They wanted the names of his ANC accomplices. Matthew Gray and Luke Mbeki were born on the same day, spending a brief childhood on an African beach, blissfully ignorant of the outside world. But their youth is severed. Released into the real world, the two now face their future in a country deep in the throes of violent change. Can the rules and discipline of discrimination pull the men apart? Is there any mercy? And what happens when these two eventually cross paths? Book 3: Just the Memory of Love Will he ever find his love again or will she always just be a memory? The war is finally over and for the young and naïve Will Langton, his future is full of exciting adventure and happy dreams. Captivated by a brief, but innocent love affair on the rocks of Dancing Ledge, the romance is shattered in one single moment and she is lost to him. For Will, it's an unbearable pain that he cannot hope to escape from and the only means to assuage his sorrow is to run away… to Africa. “It was as if I was reading my own life, knowing all the areas. I loved it.” “Deeply moving and entertaining read.” “Peter Rimmer writes a very interesting story with good detail on what happened in Southern Africa prior to independence.” “A gripping story that will stay with you long after the end of the book....” Grab your copy today

Tennis and the Masai


Nicholas Best - 1987
    Drop him into a ghastly Kenya prep school in the middle of Rider Haggard country. A school where cricketing news comes by carrier pigeon, leopards are assaulted with a red-hot poker, and runaway boys are hunted down with spearmen and a pack of foxhounds... For Martin Riddle, the experience is unforgettable. For the riding mistress, Lady Bullivant, it is all part of the day's work. And for the headmaster, a disreputable ex-Guards officer, it is simply a means of staving off bankruptcy for a few more weeks. As for the Masai, tennis may be on the curriculum at Haggard Hall, but midnight meetings with naked warriors definitely are not! 'The funniest book I have read since David Lodge's Small World' - Sunday Times 'Wickedly funny' - Daily Mail 'Less savage than Evelyn Waugh, Best is every bit as sharp... an immensely enjoyable book' - Evening Standard 'Very good entertainment' - Sir Alec Guinness (Sunday Times book of the year) Nicholas Best's books have been translated into many languages. He was the Financial Times's fiction critic for ten years and was long-listed in 2010 for the Sunday Times-EFG Bank 30,000 award, the biggest short story prize in the world. For more details, see www.nicholasbest.co.uk

Bitches' Brew


Fred Khumalo - 2007
    Focusing on the epic love affair between a former amateur musician—who happens to be a bootlegger, mercenary, and killer—and a shebeen queen, this South African love story traces the couple's lives and loves through the interweaving of history and memory in the tradition of village storytellers.

The Widow Makers:Strife


Jean Mead - 2012
    The eldest Standish boy, Tommy, was something of a changeling: he desired a different life and ruthlessly went in pursuit of his dream of the grandeur and riches of the landowners' class.His ambitions realised, Tommy, is intent on higher profits even though it risks the lives of the quarrymen. Joe, his father, fights for a union to secure fairer conditions for the men. The quarrymen are close to becoming victims as the war between father and son escalates.

Shades


Marguerite Poland - 1993
    You will sacrifice our rights in order to secure your peace with the Boers and shrug us off. It is for this expedience that men like Tom and Reuben and Sonwabo Pumami are dead. There will be thousands like them in the time to come. ' Against a backdrop of drought, the rinderpest pandemic, the South African War, the burgeoning gold-mining industry and the complex birth of the exploitative system of recruiting migrant labour, Shades explores the growing tensions between cultures in South Africa at the turn of the twentieth century and the deepening awareness of the black mission-educated elite, empowered by the printing press, of the need to articulate their political and spiritual beliefs. Set within the microcosm of an isolated Eastern Cape mission, Shades is not only a love story and the chronicle of a family but a sensitive and perceptive insight into the country's wider conflicts. It explores the slow but inexorable destruction of the fabric of a community, the assault on its traditions and the struggle to reconcile two faiths: the Christian and the traditional beliefs of the amaXhosa in their ancestral shades. It is the story of those far-sighted enough to seek convergence and those destined to undermine its wisdom. Primarily, Shades is an intimate tale of love, friendship, acceptance and profound loss: of life, of faith and of belonging.

Sex, Lies & Stellenbosch


Eva Mazza - 2019
    Written as fiction to protect the innocent, the book exposes the explosive dark truths of the Winelands' elite. All is revealed through the eyes of stay at home mom, 49-year-old Jen, who is the wife of John, a renowned wine farmer and businessman. Jen, like many of her privileged friends, lives a charmed life provided by her husband, in exchange for conjugal sex and obligatory wifely gratitude. When Jen stumbles upon her playboy husband in a compromising position with his sexy employee, things fall apart. Jen is forced to choose between leaving her marriage, jeopardising her standing and stability in the community or turning a blind eye to his infidelity. The book follows Jen's passage to self-discovery and self-fulfillment, while other characters' perspectives move the story forward as each is privy to (and eventually reveals) at least one 'truth' or 'lie' which Jen must face. Jen's exposition of her husband's infidelity inadvertently mirrors the underbelly of the patriarchal and often duplicitous community of the seemingly perfect Stellenbosch. Led by prominent wine farmers, international businessmen and renowned academics, business and private interests, even if ethically compromised, are staunchly guarded. The unfolding chapters irreverently explore both the emotional growth of the protagonist, Jen, as well as the moral ambiguities of the other players in the book. Characters like Lee, John's childhood friend and unknown ally to Jen, and marriage wrecker, Patty, blur lines between right and wrong and what is decent and moral. The alluring opulence of the rich and privileged setting of the famed Cape Winelands is complemented by the very real, often funny and indeed relatable crises that Jen is forced to confront. Sex,Lies & Stellenbosch is a page turner - sexy, fast-paced and entertaining.

A Summer All Her Own


Rosanne Keller - 2006
     The roles of celebrity wife and mother satisfied Anna Sandoval completely-until her husband, a famed international journalist, suffered a fatal heart attack. Now, a year later, still young and with her children grown, Anna seeks an interlude from grief and a fresh start on the timeless isle of Crete. In a small Greek community of ancient hills soaked in sun and surrounded by sea, Anna adapts to a slower pace and simpler lifestyle. Gradually, she rediscovers a passion for drawing and becomes protégé to a local artist and his sage wife, whose combined insights help Anna transform life into art-and take charge of her destiny. But when two very different men invite her into their lives, she must decide not just what kind of love she wants, but whether love itself is worth risking everything she's gained.

Into The Lion's Den


Martin Chimes - 2015
    Ben will stop at nothing to save his son, but what awaits him is an evil, more dangerous and insidious than he could have ever anticipated. Into the Lion’s Den is a fast-paced action thriller, a compelling saga of the love of family and the indomitable will to survive in the face of an implacable malevolence.

The Young Lions


Tony Maxwell - 2013
    Her long dark auburn hair cascaded over her shoulders and her pale, attractive face, wide set eyes and full sensuous lips took his breath away. Robert could not help staring at her in frank amazement. He found it difficult to equate this alluring woman with the tall, awkward girl he vaguely remembered while a young boy at Fairlee Manor in Scotland.* * *Action, adventure and erotic entanglements loom large in young Robert Hamilton’s future as he seeks to make his fortune in the rough and tumble world of the Johannesburg goldfields in the closing years of the nineteenth century.Robert’s business interests and adventures in the wilds of South Africa, bring him into close contact with the Boer peoples of the Transvaal Republic. As the threat of a British invasion looms large over the country, his support for the Boer cause finds him on the opposing side to his fellow uitlanders – foreigners. He is dismayed to discover that both of his brothers have enlisted in Canadian regiments ready to fight on the side of Britain in the Anglo-Boer War.

Some of My Best Friends are White: Subversive Thoughts from an Urban Zulu Warrior


Ndumiso Ngcobo - 2007
    Crossing various controversial, amusing and downright confusing racial divides, the title delivers a healthy dose of black – and white – humour as it explores some of the rainbow nation's defining characteristics, its many colourful characters and its myriad mysterious idiosyncrasies.

Her Dirty Little Secrets


Tanasia Thomas - 2015
    However, Her Dirty Little Secrets 2 will be released on May 1st! *** Pierce is young, beautiful, intelligent and seemingly perfect. A promising young medical student with a passion for helping others, she's trying desperately to forget the abuse of her past by selflessly serving others. Her life is going as planned until she meets Gabe, a handsome street-smart businessman who sweeps her off her feet. In the midst of their love affair, the pair soon learn that blood is thicker than water, lust is a weapon more deadly than any bullet, jealousy is a potent poison and money is truly the root of all evil. They each hold secrets of their own that could ruin their relationship and change their lives forever. As friends become foes, the past comes back for a second chance and secrets are revealed, can their love pass the test when skeletons start to come out of the closet?