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  Members Titles - December 2009

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December 2009
Author name:
Professor Pieter Scholtz
Publication title:
Milo and the Sunflower
Milo
ISBN Number:
978-0-620-43558-1
Publisher:
Horus Publications
Date of publication:
August 2009
Blurb: Milo and the Sunflower is a story, set in France, about a boy named Milo who is epileptic. His seizures are accompanied by visions, triggered by his immediate experiences.

The reader shares with him the discovery of the connection between life and art, as he makes contact with some of the major impressionist and post-impressionist artists of our time, including Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso and Van Gogh.

However, it is primarily an adventure story which culminates, after several episodes, in Milo assisting a family of struggling gymnasts to develop their act and regain their sense of self-worth.
Book reviews: 'I expected a story well told. What I did not expect was a piece of writing that was so layered.

Throughout there are allusions to other worlds - music, writing, poetry, dance, art and more.

How does one write for a young person? For me it is foreign territory, but here I have an answer that makes sense. Assume intelligence and curiosity and then plant clues to be followed which will lead to unexpected places. Different readers with different histories and interests will make their own individual maps of discovery. And who knows what the outcome will be?

On one level I was intrigued to know where the story was going and so read page after page without putting it down. On another I was delighted to find that, cunningly, the story was but a pretext to take me somewhere else.'

Andrew Verster:

Book launch, Adam’s Bookshop, Durban.
Comments/Other information:
Book launches: Adams Bookshop Durban, Kalk Bay Books CT, Folio Books Newlands, Exclusive Books PMB

Author name:
Harvey Tyson
Publication title:
Blood on the Path - saga of the founding of SA 100 years ago
Blood on the Path
ISBN Number:
987-0-620-43161-3
Publisher:
Springbok Press
Date of publication:
March 2009
Blurb:
"Harvey Tyson puts our history where it should be -- front and centre of our consciousness, front and centre of the idea of a shared South African reality. Unless we recognise where we come from, in all its squalor as well as its glory, it will be harder and harder to imagine ourselves to be one people? By an astute blending of historical with fictional characters (Blood on the Path) puts the story back into history and the people back into the past." - the late Dr Guy Willoughby, historian and playwright.

"Here is a really great South African epic? told in intensely human terms... gripping poignant, deeply researched."- James Clarke, columnist.
Book reviews:
"The writing is sharp and descriptive?Even for readers who know the outlines (of history) there will be plenty that is new."- James Mitchell, The Star

"A whopper of a book?delves deeply into those times but avoids a dry historical account." - Graham Linscott in The Mercury

"An enjoyable, factually-correct history book that's also a rollicking good tale."- Sue Grant-Marshall in Business Day's Weekender

"This historical novel portrays the spirit and atmosphere of the era ? more vividly and authentically than ever portrayed in traditional history books.? words and deeds are true to historical fact?" - André Wessels, academic historian, translated from review in Die Beeld and Die Volksblad.

"At times this entertaining and interesting novel is as lurid as its title suggests -- but who can deny that blood has been shed. It covers a great deal of mostly forgotten historical detail?" - Jane Rosenthal, Mail & Guardian Online.
Links:
Comments/Other information:
The author has written a number of books on South Africa, including two on apartheid and press freedom; two volumes of short stories; two books on birding in SA and has co-edited a compendium of two centuries of SA humour.
Author name:
Hamilton Wende
Publication title:
House of War
House of War
ISBN Number:
978-0-14302-609-9
Publisher:
Penguin Books SA
Date of publication:
October 2009
Blurb:
"Hamilton Wende combines the talents of a master storyteller and a hard-nosed foreign correspondent? A fabulous quest, an adventure, and a love story, this is a narrative of a very high order." Bryce Courtenay

What drove one man to set out to conquer the known world? What madness? What unquenchable desire? What love?

Sebastian Burke, a British academic, has spent his whole life trying to understand the secret life of Alexander the Great and his slave bride Roxane. Now, with the Taliban forced underground, he finally has the opportunity to undertake the journey he has dreamed of for almost his entire adult life, a journey into the heart of Alexander's world, a journey to the lost city of Ay Khanoum in northern Afghanistan. Here, with the help of Claire Finch - a fiercely independent American documentary producer - he hopes to find and expose to the world the contents of the Royal Diaries of Alexander - the last copies of which were kept in the city before its destruction by barbarian invaders from the East. However, from the moment two American servicemen are murdered by Al Qaeda terrorists in the bar of their hotel in Tashkent it becomes clear that there is far more at stake than just Sebastian's reputation as a historian, and what started out as a quest to validate a lifetime of academic study quickly turns into a journey of discovery that will bring Sebastian face to face with his Rhodesian past - a past he has run from for more than thirty years.

"A well-structured novel . . . which held my interest up to the last page." Wilbur Smith

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Hamilton Wende is a freelance writer and television producer, as well as the author of six books. His works have been long-listed for the Sunday Times Fiction Award 2006 (The King's Shillings) and nominated for the 1995 Sunday Times Alan Paton Award (True North: African Roads Less Travelled). He is a regular columnist in The Star, and has contributed to several local and international magazines and newspapers, including National Geographic Traveller, Business Day and The Sunday Times.

"Here is a really great South African epic? told in intensely human terms... gripping poignant, deeply researched."- James Clarke, columnist.
Book reviews:
Links:
Comments/Other information:
Hamilton Wende on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2drt2yfSp8
Author name:
Maya Fowler
Publication title:
The Elephant in the Room
The Elephant in the Room - Maya Fowler 2009
ISBN Number:
9780795702846
Publisher:
Kwela Books
Date of publication:
August 2009
Blurb:
A story of secrets, warped friendships and addiction, and how families guard their secrets to keep up appearances - with disastrous consequences.

Set in Kalk Bay, the Overberg and Plumstead, the story explores the life of a young girl called Lily, and the influence various strong characters have on her - most notably her domineering grandmother and her classmate Vera.

Fascinating and harrowing, this story examines a world that is all too familiar, and shows how those most dear to us can help to create a waking nightmare.
Book reviews:
Women24.com
Shape Magazine, November 2009
Femina, September 2009
Fairlady, September 2009
Links:

 
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