Book picks similar to
The First Law of Sadness by Nick Mulgrew


short-stories
south-africa
africa
lifestyle-recomends

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

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.

The Upside of Down: How Chaos and Uncertainty Breed Opportunity in South Africa


Bruce Whitfield - 2020
    You are wasting your time.In a world of fake news, deep-fakes, manipulated feeds of information and divisive social-media agendas, it's easy to believe that our time is the most challenging in human history. It's just not true.It is a time of extraordinary opportunity. But only if you have the right mindset. Fear of the future breeds inaction and leads to strategic paralysis. We put off decisions until we can have certainty. We look for signals. We wait. And while we do that, the world moves on around us.Problem-solvers thrive in chaotic and uncertain times because they act to change their future. Winners recognise that in a world of growing uncertainty, you need to resort to actions on things you can control.And the only things over which you have absolute control are your attitude and your mindset. These, in turn, determine the actions you will take and that will define your future.A robust mindset is the one common characteristic Bruce Whitfield has identified in two decades of interrogating how South Africa's billionaires and start-up mavericks think differently. They are not naive Pollyannas. They don't ignore risk or hope that problems will go away. They constantly measure, manage, consider and weigh up opportunities in a tumultuous sea of uncertainty and find ways around obstacles.If, as Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller suggests, the stories we tell affect economic outcomes, then we need to tell different stories amidst the noise and haste of a rapidly evolving world.

Star of the Morning


Pamela Jooste - 2007
    We were colored girls in a white world that didn’t want us."  Born on the wrong side of a racial divide in apartheid-torn Cape Town, young sisters Ruby and Rose exist in a world where they are not welcome. As part of the Cape Colored community, they are considered socially inferior, yet even within their own social group the sisters live in the poor end of town. Their father was killed when they were very small, so when their mother dies after a protracted illness, Ruby and Rose’s fate falls into the hands of Aunt Olive. Ruby knows without being told that their aunt’s home will not be opened up to them – charity does not extend to the poor relations who would cast a smudge on such a respectable house. Aunt Olive condemns her nieces to the local orphanage, relieving her conscience with monthly invitations to Sunday lunch. In the orphanage the girls grow up sheltered from a divided world that they do not yet fully understand, but the day approaches when Ruby and Rose must forge their own paths in life and confront the lessons that apartheid enforces. Like the award-winning Dance with a Poor Man’s Daughter, this beautifully observed novel of sisterly love once again displays Pamela Jooste’s poignant understanding of human nature.

Ministry of Crime: An Underworld Explored


Mandy Wiener - 2018
    It features new revelations about high-profile, unsolved hits and the intricate relationships between known criminals and police officers at all levels. It delves into the current power struggle between opposing factions in Cape Town's security industry and the suspected involvement of state operatives in the bloody standoff.Wiener has gained exclusive access to and on-the-record interviews with key underworld characters and police generals accused of colluding with criminals. These have helped her track the parallel narrative of the capture of law-enforcement agencies and unravel how players with inexplicable political backing have been able to pillage secret slush funds and abuse organs of state for their own benefit.Against this backdrop, prominent underworld figures - Radovan Krejcir key among them - have been able to thrive, setting up elaborate networks with the assistance of police. While crime is flourishing, the top echelons of the police and prosecution have been at war with themselves.The proximity of politics, law enforcement and organised crime over the past decade is frighteningly intertwined. The story of the rise and reign of the Ministry of Crime winds its way from the depths of the underworld, via multiple mysterious unsolved murders, to senior politicians and the very top ranks of the country's police force.

My Father, My Monster: A True Story


McIntosh Polela - 2011
    But behind a dazzling career, Polela’s troubled past haunts him. When he was a child, both his parents disappeared, leaving him and his sister Zinhle to suffer years of abuse. The story of Polela’s journey to uncover the truth, this candid autobiography shares the journalist’s turmoil as he confronts his father about his mother’s brutal death and faces the worst dilemma a son can ever confront: How can he possibly forgive when his father remains a remorseless, cruel, and heartless murderer?

If My Pussy Could Talk


Tamika Smith - 2012
    Makayla Young has over a thousand rules. She has rules about love, life and even sex. When will she ever learn you cannot control and keep a man with rules. Will her rules cause her to loose another man?

The Concept


Kevin Wignall - 2012
    Everyone thinks he's a laughing stock now, including his ex-wife and even his agent. When it seems things couldn't get any worse, a chance encounter results in Robinson moonlighting as a hitman. But that's when things take a surprising turn, because the more people he kills, the more the art world seems to fall back in love with him. This blackly comic short story was first published in "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine" in August, 2005.

Who Killed the Kaneez?


Vijay Kakwani - 2019
     Farzana is one of the prostitutes at Begum's kotha and Ramakant Bannerjee, the writer, loves her deeply. He's promised to marry her once he has enough money. He's currently writing his most ambitious novel, the story of Kaneez. As the story of Kaneez unfolds, so does the intriguing life of Farzana. What fate does she meet? Read on to find out.

Secrets of the Wild


Dustin M. Hoffman - 2019
    Hoffman, however, things are not quite as ordinary as they seem. Quickly, these scenarios are flung down a surreal rabbit hole filled with bizarre taxidermy museums, and an outrageous relationship involving a silverback gorilla. Yet, amid all of its convention-smashing glee, Secrets of the Wild reveals a generous and moving portrait of a family, a family doing their best to keep it together—to play-act at normalcy, even sanity—in an American landscape slipping into madness.

Her Unexpected Husband


Chandra Priya - 2020
    He told her he would make her his wife and protect her. In her state of haze, she agreed.The stranger was her savior and she was thankful but was he really her husband? How did the handsome, charming man end up becoming Her Unexpected Husband?Note: This is a short and sweet romance with a happy ending.

Take Me By Surprise


Emma Scarlett - 2017
    Lisa hears a knock at the door. When she opens it, she finds a mysterious man in need of shelter. He got caught out in the storm while hunting, unaware of the storm that was bearing down on the small town. Lisa gives him shelter, happy to have some company to ride out the storm. Both people are there for their own reasons and as they get to know each other, the storm outside is matched by the one inside the small cabin. Late at night, Will goes to Lisa and the two find something to keep themselves warm during the long, cold night.

Rogue: The Inside Story of SARS's Elite Crime-busting Unit


Johann van Loggerenberg - 2016
    The unit, the reports claimed, had carried out a series of illegal spook operations: they had spied on President Jacob Zuma, run a brothel, illegally bought spyware and entered into unlawful tax settlements.In a plot of Machiavellian proportions, head of the elite crime-busting unit Johann van Loggerenberg and many of SARS’s top management were forced to resign. Van Loggerenberg’s select team of investigators, with their impeccable track record of busting high-level financial fraudsters and nailing tax criminals, lost not only their careers but also their reputations.Now, in this extraordinary account, they finally get to put the record straight and the rumours to rest: there was no ‘rogue unit’. The public had been deceived, seemingly by powers conspiring to capture SARS for their own ends.Shooting down the allegations he has faced one by one, Van Loggerenberg tells the story of what really happened inside SARS, revealing details of some of the unit’s actual investigations.

Scatterling of Africa: My Early Years


Johnny Clegg - 2021
    Suspended for a few seconds, they float in their own space and time with their own hidden prospects. For want of a better term, we call these moments “magical” and when we remember them they are cloaked in a halo of special meaning.’For 14-year-old Johnny Clegg, hearing Zulu street music as plucked on the strings of a guitar by Charlie Mzila one evening outside a corner café in Bellevue, Johannesburg, was one such ‘magical’ moment. The success story of Juluka and later Savuka, and the cross-cultural celebration of music, language, story, dance and song that stirred the hearts of millions across the world, is well documented. Their music was the soundtrack to many South Africans’ lives during the turbulent 70s and 80s as the country moved from legislated oppression to democratic freedom. It crossed borders, boundaries and generations, resonating around the world and back again. Less known is the story of how it all began and developed. Scatterling of Africa is that origin story, as Johnny Clegg wrote it and wanted it told. It is the story of how the son of an unconventional mother, grandson of Jewish immigrants, came to realise that identity can be a choice, and home is a place you leave and return to as surely as the seasons change.