It’s been an exciting month for Modjaji Books! Stephen Fry loves one of our new titles, our new website is up and running, and accolades keep coming in for our publications.
A celebratory coupon
To celebrate the launch of our gorgeous new website, we have a special offer for all our fans and supporters in South Africa! Until the 31st of October, spend R300 or more (excluding courier) on books from our website and get R100 off with the code weblaunch. Our website also does pre-orders, so you can get your hands on books as soon as they launch.
The Gospel According to Wanda B. Lazarus
Be still, our beating hearts… Stephen Fry loves Wanda!
He says, “The Gospel According to Wanda B. Lazarus is just the kind of novel the world needs right now. Draw a line through The Odyssey, the Decameron, The Canterbury Tales, Don Quixote, Gargantua, The Flying Dutchman and The Confederacy of Dunces, sprinkle over all with good kosher salt and you only scratch the surface of this big, bountiful novel. Just what the world needs – a fizzing, fulsome and fiercely funny heroine worlds away from the anaemic, lifeless puppets that populate so much fiction today, and a novel that is charged with music, energy, bounce, juice and joy.”
We’re dancing with joy! You can preorder the novel from our website here or from any good bookstore in South Africa. It will be in stores by the end of October.
Cover reveal: 69 Jerusalem Street
We’re so excited to bring you the cover reveal for 69 Jerusalem Street, the debut collection of short stories from Lindiwe Nkutha.
In this, her sparkling debut collection, she takes us through the minds of people you may overlook on an ordinary day: The wayward neighbour you vaguely remember seeing every day as a child until the day he vanished. The face you see every weekend at the local drinking hole, you exchange a polite nod but know little about, not even her name. The young woman who is caught between her faith and her love for a woman. Their lives are untidy, tainted with the pain, joy and violence as they share with us stories they wouldn’t share with anyone else. Nkutha’s words weave in and around the weights we drag behind us from one place to another, with a sensitivity and wit required for such vulnerabilities and intimate moments.
Preorder the book here.
Cover reveal: The Summer We Didn’t Die
Christine Coates is bringing out her third collection of poems with Modjaji, and we’re thrilled to share the cover with you. The Summer We Didn’t Die is an assured, tender collection that offers the reader a way to think about the mysteries at the heart of what it means to be human, in this place and time. Kobus Moolman described the collection as “poems of finely observed memory, poems of journeying and encounter – both inward and outward – to the mysteries of the heart, the mysteries of change and connection.”
Preorder the collection here.
Grace
Barbara Boswell’s debut novel, which follows a young girl growing up in a home plagued by domestic violence, won the UJ Debut Prize for 2018. Now, three years after its publication, it’s still racking up accolades. Grace was recently included in IOL’s “Ultimate SA: 10 must-read books from South African authors” list. Grab a copy today to see what the fuss is about!
Fool’s Gold
An anthology of Modjaji short stories, Fool’s Gold was published last year to critical acclaim. Now it has been selected as one of The South African’s “five must-read fiction books by SA female authors” for Women’s Month. If you haven’t got your copy yet, what are you waiting for?
You may have missed…
La Bastarda, the first novel by an Equatoguinean woman to be translated into English, was published by Modjaji in 2018 but continues to rake in awards both for the novel itself, written by Trifonia Melibea Obono, and its translation by Lawrence Schimel. To date, it has been named as an honour title for the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative Translated Young Adult Book Prize, shortlisted for the 2019 LAMBDA Literary Awards, and listed in World Literature Today’s Notable Translations of 2018. Why not pick up a copy today?
Hands-On Books
Hands-On is an imprint of Modjaji Books which has recently published the Collected Poems of Bernard Levinson, a South African psychiatrist and sexologist whose poetry has been widely anthologised. At 94, this is his fifth book – proof that you’re never too old to publish!
Hands-On is also bringing out Keith Gottschalk’s Cosmonauts Do It In Heaven, a collection of odes to space and the people who explore it both physically and in thought. Find these titles and Hands-On’s other publications at the African Books Collective, or order by emailing info@dna945.dnaclient.co.za .
Modjaji writer Tiah Beautement will be at a retreat in Mossel Bay from 16 to 18 October. The retreat offers a chance to unwind from the stress of 2020 in a tranquil environment.
This October, take a chance to restore yourself through the power of word, art, food and nature. A coastal break bringing together in creative collaboration: writer – Tiah Marie Beautement, artist/photographer – Amelda von Tonder, wellness expert/health food shop owner – Chantel von Berg, hosted by Andrea Bradfield at her beautiful Villa Palmera in Mossel Bay. A consciously crafted retreat to regroup before the end of 2020.
https://villapalmera.co.za/
