As a journalist, Kevin Bloom had witnessed and reported on the rising tide of violence in post-Apartheid South Africa. But when his own cousin was killed in a vicious random attack, the questions he'd been asking about the troubling political and social changes in his country took on a sickeningly personal urgency. Suddenly, it felt as though this South Africa was no longer the place he'd grown up in or the place which felt like home. Still stunned by the loss, Bloom begins to trace the pa...

The book behind the major TV series - Secret City - screening on Netflix and Fox.A sticky scandal. A political jam. A prescient tale of creeping Chinese influence, stuttering US strategy and shaky Australian loyalty, by two veteran Canberra insiders.*the Marmalade Files are documents that allegedly exist within the bowels of Foreign Affairs & trade that have been around for a half century.When seasoned newshound Harry Dunkley is sli...

Award-winning author and journalist Peter Godwin writes with pathos and intimacy about Zimbabwe's spiral into chaos—and, along with it, his family's steady collapse—in this unforgettable story of one man's struggle to discover his past and come to terms with his present.After his father's heart attack in 1984, Peter Godwin began a series of pilgrimages back to Zimbabwe, the land of his birth, from Manhattan, where he now lives. On these frequent visits to check on ...

A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK'Nuanced, human and engaging' Nikesh Shukla, Observer'Full of life, characters, gossip and all the richness of the local community' Sir David Jason'A delightful story of growing up "above the shop"' Nigel Slater, Observer'Cleverly links her own memories of shop-bound life with the last 50 years of British history' Spectator'I c...

Ever since Nelson Mandela dramatically walked out of prison in 1990 after twenty-seven years behind bars, South Africa has been undergoing a radical transformation. In one of the most miraculous events of the century, the oppressive system of apartheid was dismantled. Repressive laws mandating separation of the races were thrown out. The country, which had been carved into a crazy quilt that reserved the most prosperous areas for whites and the most desolate and backward for blacks, was re...

A sharply observed new novel about post-apartheid South Africa from the Nobel Prize winnerNadine Gordimer is one of our most telling contemporary writers. With each new work, she attacks—with a clear-eyed fierceness, a lack of sentimentality, and a deep understanding of the darkest depths of the human soul—her eternal themes: the inextricable link between personal and communal history; the inescapable moral ambiguities of daily life; the political and racial tension...

Speaking Volumes Christian Book of the Year 2016In 1992, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow was enjoying a pint with his brother when he got an idea that would change his life – and radically change the lives of others.After watching a news bulletin about war-torn Bosnia, the two brothers agreed to take a week’s hiatus from work to help.What neither of them expected is that what began as a one-time road trip in a beaten-up Landrover rapidly grew to become Magnus’s life’s work...

Every South African has a strong opinion on crime and policing, but most know very little about the lives and experiences of the average cop in the 185 000-strong South African Police Service. This book is composed of excerpts from interviews with current and former members of the service who, for the first time, share their personal experiences of life behind the badge. The book covers a wide range of themes, including reasons for signing up, training, policing under apartheid and transfo...

This is the extraordinary story of a man who led one of the biggest prison exposés in the world. Four prisoners risked their lives to catch warders on film supplying drugs and alcohol, pimping young inmates to older prisoners, and even giving prisoners a loaded pistol to use in an escape. The man behind the exposé, however, a hardened prison gangster, was possibly the least likely to have ever wanted to do it. He ruled prison, and knew its secret anatomy.It reads like a thrilling n...

Helen Zille’s long-awaited autobiography is one of the most fascinating political stories of our time.Zille takes the reader back to her humble family origins, her struggle with anorexia as a young woman, her early career as a journalist for the Rand Daily Mail, and her involvement with the End Conscription Campaign and the Black Sash. She documents her early days in the Democratic Party and the Democratic Alliance, at a time when the party was locked in a no-holds-barred factional...

An essay collection that offers "a fascinating glimpse of post-apartheid South Africa" from the bestselling author of My Traitor's Heart ( The Sunday Times).The Lion Sleeps Tonight is Rian Malan's remarkable chronicle of South Africa's halting steps and missteps, taken as blacks and whites try to build a new country. In the title story, Malan investigates the provenance of the world-famous song, recorded by Pete Seeger and REM among many ...

Mark Thomas has been touring the country for months, getting audiences to come up with policies aimed at sorting out the country's political chaos and taking back the power for the people. Sick to death of bailing out bankers and subsidising MPs homes, the audience vote on the best policy of the night to be included in the brand new People's Manifesto.From the inspiring to the downright hilarious, you'll wonder why these fantastic ideas aren't part of the constitution already. For ...