Welcome to 2021! We hope that this year is filled with good things for you, including – of course – lots of Modjaji titles.
Some sad news…
As you may have heard, our website was hacked in early December 2020. We have had it restored by security experts, and measures to safeguard the site in future are in place.
We emailed our customers in December advising them that if they use the same password on Modjaji’s website elsewhere online, they should change them and make sure that they always use unique, strong passwords or use a password manager.
As a precaution, we are going to reset all customer passwords. Customers will receive a link via email to reset their password to something they choose. The link is only valid for a day, but if you miss it or find the link is invalid, simply use the “Forgot Password” option when logging in.
If you have any trouble with this process, please feel free to email webmaster@dna945.dnaclient.co.za for assistance.
And some happy news!
As a celebration of our site being back up, we are running a sale on all books purchased from the website until the end of January. Use the code happy2021 for 20% off! This is limited to South Africa only.
69 Jerusalem Street
Lindiwe Nkutha’s fantastic debut collection has finally hit the shelves! Don’t miss out on this exploration of the lives of everyday people, which nevertheless manages to highlight the special in the mundane.
Buy the collection here.
Do Not Go Gentle in French!
We’re so excited to see the French edition cover of Do Not Go Gentle by Futhi Ntshingila, a Modjaji title from 2014! Our Francophone readers can now look forward to this fabulous book, translated into French by Estelle Flory as Enrage Contre la Mort de la Lumière. It comes out in around two months.
Pre-order the French edition here.
Do Not Go Gentle has sold very well overseas, whether in the Mozambican Portuguese version (available at African Books Collective) or in the US or Brazilian versions. Why not take this chance to get your hands on a copy?
Shop the Mozambican Portuguese edition here.
Shop the Brazilian Portuguese edition here.
Shop the English edition here.
The Pride of Noonlay
Shanice Ndlovu’s sparkling debut collection of short stories has received many wonderful reviews, not least this one from Smangaliso Simelane in Grocott’s Mail. He writes “Featuring a collection of short stories that are varied in their themes yet congruent in their formation of a bewitching fantasy world, The Pride of Noonlay offers an escape into the lives of unforgettable characters. For fans of fantasy and those craving a fresh African voice, this is sure to satisfy.”
Read the full review here.
The Pride of Noonlay also made the Sunday Times’ Best Books of 2020 list! The nomination by Xabiso Vili reads “This is a tour de force of African fantasy. Published by Modjadji Books, this collection of short stories does something magical in the way it crafts a whole new world rooted in the familiar. Ndlovu manages to transport the reader away from stark reality to a place of magic and spells that play just out of the reader’s eyeline. The stories merge in a way that makes your heart skip with a feeling of déjà vu. Reading this book left me feeling like I had been here before, in a dream or a memory of a past life. The characters stay with you long after reading; you’ll start to recognise them on the street, they’ll linger at the corner of your eye or, if you’re like me, you might just find them in yourself.”
Read the full list here.
We’re also proud to announce that the US rights for The Pride of Noonlay have been sold to The Ishmael Tree Publishers in New York City.
Buy the collection here.
Wanda-ring around the world
The Gospel According to Wanda B. Lazarus is going global! Check out this fabulous review from The Times of Israel, where Benji Shulman writes “Take Jewish history and mix in some ancient Greek, add a dash of groundhog day and a splash of the pythonesque, include some classic themes and some contemporary criticism and drive it all forward with a feisty, fabulous, female, feminist character and you will start get to get a sense of the rip, rollicking, ride that is The Gospel According to Wanda B Lazarus.”
Read the full review here.
Buy the book here.
Three exciting new books!
2021 is shaping up to be a great year for Modjaji readers, as we’ve already got three exciting new books lined up with many more to come. Here’s a sneak peek of those three…
Uvile Ximba’s Dreaming in Colours is a tender meditation on what it means to live as a queer person in modern-day South Africa. By turns intimate, joyful, raunchy and heartbreaking, this is a powerful story about women determined to heal and find their way forward.
Michelle Edwards’ Go Away Birds tells the story of Skye, who is desperately seeking normality in a very un-normal world. Home isn’t normal; her mom isn’t normal. Her brother, beloved as he is, isn’t quite normal, either. Her marriage was kind of normal and now it’s a dumpster fire. And look at South Africa—entirely NOT normal.
She tries to anchor herself to tangible things: to her cooking, to her neighbour’s children, to sex. But as she relives her past and tries to plan her future, she feels increasingly dislocated. Skye escapes when things get overwhelming, and realises almost too late that she’s about to make everything worse.
The School Gates, by Fiona Snyckers, tells the story of Ella Burchell. Burnt out after years as a professional dancer, she moves to a small town on the KwaZulu Natal north coast hoping to rebuild her life. Things look up when she gets a job teaching dance to children at a for-profit private school.
But Ella hasn’t reckoned with the cabal of private-school mums who run the Pines Academy as their own personal fiefdom. Circling into cliques at the school gates every morning, the mums are a force to be reckoned with.
Soon Ella is too busy fielding their demands to concentrate on her own troubles. Distraction arrives in the form of an attractive cricket coach, but Ella hardly has time to pay attention.
Fun, fast-paced and hilarious, this novel by an award-winning author skewers the world of private-school privilege
Until next time, stay safe and keep reading.