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The Ambassadors Daughter: A Novel Out of Africa by Samantha Ford


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The seven devils


Thesehunprint
    The Petrov family, an ancient pure-blood eastern European family, is forced to flee to Romania while chased by the Ministry of Magic. While waiting for Grindlewald's return, the family has their first daughter, Varya Petrov. Soon after, her parents are killed by Grindleward's enemies. After attending Scholomance, a small magic school hidden in the depths of Transylvania's forests, for four years, she is called to Hogwarts. Dumbledore has a mission that only she will be capable to do: to stop Tom Riddle from succumbing to his darkest desire. Varya only has one wish: to redeem her parents' mistakes and find her place in the wizarding world. She will do anything to achieve it, even if it means changing the devil's fate.

Relentless - An Immigrant Story


Wudasie Nayzgi - 2018
    But her desperate attempts to find help elsewhere are abruptly thwarted by a new outbreak of fighting initiated by an untested government determined to win at any cost. With her husband forced into conscription, her time and options running out, she must make a fateful decision - remain where she is and jeopardize the life of one child, or flee her beloved homeland, leaving her husband and second daughter behind... possibly forever. Relentless is the powerful and inspiring story of an Eritrean woman who faced incredible obstacles, defied a ruthless regime, and became an American immigrant success story, all while never giving up fighting for the only thing that really ever mattered: family. "There is a proverb in my native Tigrinya language,both warning and admonishment.It goes like this:Haki tseraba mot keraba.It means, if you speak the truth, you will gather many enemies." The Dreams of Freedom stories One family, two powerful accounts of love, heartbreak, and determination from one of the world's most isolated and abusive governments in modern history. It's 1991, and a bloody thirty-year conflict with Ethiopia has just ended, earning Eritrea its first taste of freedom in over a century. But peace is a delicate flower, and power is all-too easily corrupting. Soon, the small Horn-of-African nation will find itself at war once again, back in the familiar stranglehold of despotism, except this time it will be at the hands of its own beloved leader and war hero. Families are torn apart, suspicion and desperation grow. Human rights are violated. In the midst of worsening oppression, one man and one woman will risk everything to save their children from this life of violence and give them the future they once imagined for themselves.. ~ Relentless - An Immigrant Story by Wudasi Nayzgi and Kenneth James Howe ~ I Will Not Grow Downward - Memoir Of An Eritrean Refugee by Yikealo Neab and Kenneth James Howe I WILL NOT GROW DOWNWARD - MEMOIR OF AN ERITREAN REFUGEE ONE MAN'S LONG AND PERILOUS FLIGHT FROM AFRICA'S HERMIT KINGDOMTHIRTY YEARS OF BLOODY CONFLICT with a powerful enemy never broke the spirit of the Eritrean people. After winning their freedom from Ethiopia, a young man dreams of starting a new life, building a home, and teaching his children what it means to be the masters of their own fate. But all-too soon, the fighting resumes. Rounded up and forced into conscription, subjected to inhumane treatment, made to serve a despotic leader in an army fighting a war nobody wants, he will have to sacrifice much just for a chance to get back what he lost - his family, his freedom, his birthright. But will it be worth it? Or will he simply lose everything in the end? I Will Not Grow Downward offers an exceedingly rare glimpse inside the highly secretive and brutally repressive regime known as Africa's North Korea.

A Twist of Sand


Geoffrey Jenkins - 1960
    His face turned a sickly green and he pulled out the Luger. "Get back!" he screamed. "Astern, astern!" He groped madly for the telegraph, pitching John, who was at the wheel, on the plating of the bridge. I was afraid of Stein, but I was scared to death of the sand-bars of the Curva dos Dunas. "You bloody fool!" I shouted. As I spun the wheel back I hit Stein across the face with the back of my left hand and he went reeling to his knees... "The reader reaches the last page panting." -Sunday Times

Midlands


Jonny Steinberg - 2002
    It is in the heart of the southern midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, Alan Paton country, and it is true that “… from there, if there is no mist, you look down on one of the fairest scenes of Africa.” Later I will tell you more about that landscape, and of how it changed during the course of my investigations; a spectacular backdrop of giant shapes and colours when I first saw it, a myriad dramas of human anger and violence when I left …’In the spring of 1999, in the beautiful hills of the Kwa-Zulu-Natal midlands, a young white farmer is shot dead on the dirt road running from his father’s farmhouse to his irrigation fields. The murder is the work of assassins rather than robbers; a single shot behind the ear, nothing but his gun stolen, no forensic evidence like spent cartridges or fingerprints left at the scene.Journalist Jonny Steinberg travels to the midlands to investigate. Local black workers say the young white man had it coming. The dead man’s father says that the machinery of a political conspiracy has been set into motion, that he and his neighbours are being pushed off their land.Initially thinking that he is to write about an event in the recent past, Steinberg finds that much of the story lies in the immediate future. He has stumbled upon a festering frontier battle, the combatants groping hungrily for the whispers and lies that drift in from the other side. Right from the beginning, it is clear that the young white man is not the only one who will die on that frontier, and that the story of his and other deaths will illuminate a great deal about the early days of post-apartheid South Africa.Sifting through the betrayals and the poisoned memories of a century-long relationship between black and white, Steinberg takes us to a part of post-apartheid South Africa we fear to contemplate.Midlands is about the midlands of the heart and mind, the midlands between possession and dispossession, the midlands between the past and present, myth and reality. Midlands is a tour de force of investigative journalism.

The Zulus of New York


Zakes Mda - 2019
    For EmPee, it is love at first sight, but the caged woman is not free to love anyone back: she is the property of Monsieur Duval, proprietor of Duval Ethnological Expositions. And so begins one of Zakes Mda’s most striking stories, one that depicts terrible historical injustices and indignities, while at the same time celebrating the vigour and ingenuity of the creative spirit, and the transformative power of love.In an already-great pantheon of Mda love stories and classic gems, this may be his most powerful work yet.Fourie Botha, publisher of local fiction for Penguin Random House, says: ‘A new novel by Zakes Mda is always a glorious event. We are honoured that Prof. Mda will publish this wonderful and important book with Umuzi.’A recipient of the Order of Ikhamanga, Zakes Mda was born in the Eastern Cape in 1948. He is the author of the famous novels Ways of Dying and The Heart of Redness, among many others, and his work has been translated into 20 languages. He spent his early childhood in Soweto, and finished his school education in Lesotho, where he joined his father in exile. Mda has studied and worked in South Africa, Lesotho, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and is a prolific writer, not only of novels, but also of plays, poems, and articles for academic journals and newspapers. His creative work includes paintings, and theatre and film productions. He is based in Athens, Ohio, in the United States, where he spends his time writing and teaching. His memoir, Sometimes There Is a Void, was published in 2011 and his most recent novel, Little Suns, won the Barry Ronge Fiction Prize.

Cold Stone Jug


Herman Charles Bosman - 1949
    Its rise to classic status has been unstoppable, and it is now widely considered the founding text of all South African prison writings. As readable as ever, it is now hailed as Bosman's masterpiece of irony as well, vivid and unforgettable.

A Sin of Omission


Marguerite Poland - 2019
    But on his return to South Africa, relegated to a dilapidated mission near Fort Beaufort, he had to confront not only the prejudices of a colonial society but the discrimination within the Church itself.Conflicted between his loyalties to the amaNgqika people, for whom his brother fought, and the colonial cause he as Reverend Mzamane is expected to uphold, Stephen’s journey to his mother’s home proves decisive in resolving the contradictions that tear at his heart.

The Hunter's Wife


Katherine Scholes - 2008
    Three years later, their safari lodge is in trouble - and so, too, is their marriage.When a Hollywood movie crew descends to film on location, Mara knows this could be the lodge's salvation. She thrives on her sudden responsibility and independence, but she also finds herself dangerously attracted to the film's leading man.From an internationally bestselling author comes this poignant love story set against the breathtaking backdrop of Tanzania. The Hunter's Wife is a powerful and moving story of a young woman's heartfelt struggle to reconcile duty and desire.

I Know Where You Live


Pat Young - 2018
    Yet no one should know where she lives. Penny seizes the chance of a new life for her family when her husband is offered a job in Europe.At the airport they meet charming Sophie, fluent in French and looking for work as an au pair. Penny, struggling to cope in France, offers Sophie a job and she soon becomes an important part of the family’s life. But Sophie is hiding something.Then Penny’s toddler son, Ethan, is abducted and an international hunt for the child begins. The police beg Penny and her husband to take part in a television appeal but the couple refuse. Unknown to the police, Penny and Seth have new identities and are determined to lay low and protect them. But it may be too late for that.Who has taken Ethan and why?Are the couple’s true identities linked to the abduction?And who has been watching them?To save her son Penny may have to put her own life on the line.

My Wife's Husband


E.H. Davis - 2019
    After saving a man from a bear attack in the New Hampshire mountains, Jens decides to step away from his popular but formulaic mystery series to begin a new cycle, featuring a female protagonist devoted to saving kidnapped children. Unbeknownst to him, a convicted murderer has been released from prison after twenty years. A killer who is vengeful, angry. A killer who used to be married to Jens' wife! Writing about killers is one thing, but outwitting them in real life is another. How far would you go to protect your family? An intelligent thriller about a writer who has to fight for everything he's ever cared about -- because of his wife's hidden past.

Ivory, Apes & Peacocks: Animals, Adventure and Discovery in the Wild Places of Africa


Alan Root - 2012
    He began his career making films for the TV series "Survival," which started wildlife film-making as we know it, and is responsible for numerous groundbreaking documentaries and natural history discoveries -- from being the first person to film hippos and crocodiles underwater and the wildebeest migrating to observing that hyenas hunt. His friends and colleagues have included George and Joy Adamson and David Attenborough; he showed Dian Fossey her first mountain gorilla. His wife and long-term collaborator was Joan Root, who was tragically murdered in 2006 in retaliation for her environmental campaigning in Kenya. In "Ivory, Apes & Peacocks," Alan tells the story of his life's work, from his arrival in Kenya as a young boy (furious at having to leave behind Britain's birds) to his game-changing films, which looked at whole ecosystems (baobab trees, termite mounds) rather than the Big Five animals. Along the way we encounter Sally the pet hippo and Emily the house-proud chimp as well leopard and snake bites, ballooning adventures and amphibious cars. In this extraordinary memoir we look at Africa's wonders through the eyes of a visionary, live through hair-raising adventure and personal tragedy and also bear witness to a natural world now largely lost from view.

Under Dark Waters


Bernadette Calonego - 2007
    Officially, she’s tracking down the German author Else Seel, who had left Berlin in the 1920s to marry a Canadian trapper and homestead in the wild woods of British Columbia. But the real reason for her trip is much more difficult to face: three years before, her husband took off to this part of the world on one of his usual mountain-climbing adventures, and never returned. Only after the police brought her word of his death—and the mysterious circumstances in which they found him—did Sonya discover the simultaneous disappearance of her beautiful best friend, Odette, and the possibility that her husband had been lying to her all along.Now, haunted by sorrow and jealousy, Sonya sets out on a dangerous mission to discover the truth, and to try to put back together the pieces of her broken heart.

Friends Like Us


Siân O'Gorman - 2016
    Perfect for fans of Marian Keyes and Amanda Prowse. Life for school friends, Melissa, Steph and Eilis, hasn’t quite worked out the way they once imagined it might. Melissa may be professionally successful but inside she’s a mess of insecurities. Steph is lonely and lost, balancing the fragile threads of family life and walking on eggshells around her philandering husband and angry teenage daughter. Finally, Eilis, a hardworking A&E doctor, utterly exhausted by the daily pressures of work and going through the motions with her long-term partner Rob. It’s crunch time for all the friends... What readers are saying about FRIENDS LIKE US: 'A very enjoyable and emotional read. One of those books that I could not put down' 'heartwarming and heartbreaking' 'The jacket caught my eye and the story didn't let me down.' 'Perfect escapism on a dreary day' 'an emotionally uplifting story of the power of friendship and togetherness through the bleakest of times and how ultimately good triumphs over pain.'

More From the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency: Blue Shoes and Happiness / The Good Husband of Zebra Drive


Alexander McCall Smith - 2008
    1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series featuring Botswana’s best-loved detective. Life is good for Mma Ramotswe as she sets out with her usual resolve to solve people’s problems, heal their misfortunes, and untangle the mysteries that make life interesting. And life is never dull on Tlokweng Road. A new and rather too brusque advice columnist is appearing in the local paper. Then, a cobra is found in the offices of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Recently, the Mokolodi Game Preserve manager feels an infectious fear spreading among his workers, and a local doctor may be falsifying blood pressure readings. To further complicate matters, Grace Makutsi may have scared off her own fiancé. Mma Ramotswe, however, is always up to the challenge. And Blue Shoes and Happiness will not fail to entertain Alexander McCall Smith’s oldest fans and newest converts with its great wit, charm, and great good will.The Good Husband of Zebra DriveIn the eighth installment of Alexander McCall Smith's endlessly enjoyable, bestselling series, the judicious Precious Ramotswe comes to discover what is true, stable, and genuine in an ever-shifting world. There is rarely a dull moment in the life of Precious Ramotswe, and on Zebra Drive and Tlokweng Road many changes are afoot. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni wants be put in charge of a case involving an errant husband, and Mma Makutsi is considering leaving the agency, taking her near perfect score on the Botswana Secretarial College typing exam with her. Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe has been asked to investigate a series of unexpected deaths at the hospital in Mochudi. Along the way, she encounters other tricky mysteries, and once again displays her undying love for Botswana, a country of which she is justly proud.

The Wall of the Plague


André P. Brink - 1984
    Travelling with Mandia, a fellow South African and Black activist, helps Andrea put into perspective the more hedonistic elements of her new life. As the story unfolds in a landscape evoked with a breathtaking mastery, Andrea and Mandia confront the uneasy relationships which develop between themselves and their lovers. Their difficulties form an allegory for those faced by two disparate continents, as they undertake the process of reconciling Europe's past and Africa's present.