Sally Andrew was recently interviewed by Nancy Richards for SA FM about her newly published debut Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery.

In the interview, Andrew tells Richards about the authors and influences that affected her choice of genre for this book. She says she was interested in exploring the theme of love, although she doesn’t like to write romance. “I really like the genre of the old-fashioned, cosy, mystery writers,” she says. Her love of “the slow moving writing of Alexander McCall Smith and Herman Charles Bosman” also affected her chosen style.

Andrew says she invented Tannie Maria, the lovable and irrepressible narrator of her novel, to “keep me grounded and laughing, and to teach me how to love … and maybe how to cook!”

Listen to the podcast:

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Related stories:

• Tannie Maria’s Recipe for Murder – Don’t Try it at Home! (Plus: Podcast)
• Recipes for Love and Murder by Sally Andrew Published in 17 Countries – and Counting
• Klein Karoo Comes to Kalk Bay: Sally Andrew’s Recipes for Love and Murder Launched with Sandra Prinsloo
• Read an Excerpt from Sally Andrew’s Recipes for Love and Murder – PLUS a Sample from the Audiobook, Read by Sandra Prinsloo
• ’n Troostante soos min – Sally Andrew gesels oor Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery

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• Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery by Sally Andrew
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  EAN: 9781415207574
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Ivan Vladislavić chatted to Corina van der Spoel on the RSG Skrywers en Boeke show recently.

Vladislavić won the 2015 Windham Campbell Prize for fiction this year, along with Teju Cole and Helon Habila. His most recent book is 101 Detectives.

Vladislavić chats about the very welcome prize money that came with the Windham Campbell Prize, how being a very precise editor has made his writing process more chaotic, and how he has become interested in the writing that does not get published (hence the “deleted scenes” in 101 Detectives).

He also talks about his relationship with Johannesburg, which he describes as “complicated”.

“My affection for Johannesburg has flourished and also withered away over time,” he says. “I find I like the place more, and then I like it less, according to my own circumstances. I still find it fascinating, for some of the same reasons that I like to write: it’s difficult. But it’s not often fun, is it?

“You have to find what’s interesting, and you have to find a way of surviving here, without the city completely diminishing you or grinding you to dust. It’s an ongoing challenge. One can take these challenges as a way of clarifying something for yourself. For me, as a writer, primarily in my work. But Johannesburg also forces you to confront things in the way that you live, and your relationship with other people, that’s maybe a good and necessary thing.”

Van der Spoel asks Vladislavić for his views on the Rhodes Must Fall movement, since his 1996 collection of short stories Propaganda by Monuments pondered similar issues.

Vladislavić says he is glad people have been forced to admit that statues and monuments are not neutral.

“If they are just a bunch of old statues, then why are people so attached to them?” he asks. “These things have value in society, they stand for something, and they don’t stand for the same thing for everybody.

“It has the potential, anyway, to make people think hard about how the society represents itself, what the power is of representing certain ideas in the form of a statue or a monument. I think that’s the positive side of it.

“We need a society and a public domain that’s complex. If we are going to represent anything in our public spaces by the construction of monuments or museums the least one would hope for is that we construct something complex and something that asks questions rather than delivers answers, delivers final position on things. I think there are many more inventive or interesting things to do with a statue than to take it away and put it in a warehouse.

“To live in a society like this you need a sense of irony. You need a sense of irony about yourself and the society, and how it came to be. How we came to be living where we live. I would hope for a broad and open and maybe even amused public space rather than one that declares certain things anathema.”

Listen to the podcast (introduction in Afrikaans):

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Related:

• Read a New Short Story by Ivan Vladislavic, Written in One Hour for Visual Verse

• Ivan Vladislavic’s First and Latest Books, The Folly and 101 Detectives, Hit America

• Vlad the Detailer: Michele Magwood Discusses 101 Detectives With Ivan Vladislavic

• The Magwood on Books Podcast: Ivan Vladislavic Talks About 101 Detectives and What Drives a Writer

• “I’m a Lucky Man”: Ivan Vladislavic on His Distinguished Professorship at Wits and Windham Campbell Prize

• JM Coetzee Recommends Ivan Vladislavic in World Literature Today Interview

Book details

• 101 Detectives by Ivan Vladislavić
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  EAN: 9781415206904
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• The Folly by Ivan Vladislavić
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  EAN: 9781415205525
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• Flashback Hotel: Early Stories by Ivan Vladislavic
  EAN: 9781415201077
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• Double Negative by Ivan Vladislavic
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  EAN: 9781415201329
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• The Loss Library by Ivan Vladislavic
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  EAN: 9781415201626
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• The Restless Supermarket by Ivan Vladislavic
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  EAN: 9781415201695
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In In a Different Time: The inside story of the Delmas Four, lawyer Peter Harris relates the real events of the trial of four ANC foot soldiers

Frans “Ting Ting” Masango, Jabu Masina, Neo Potsane and Joseph Makhura became well known for their refusal to participate in their trial, even though they could be sentenced to death. They disputed the legitimacy of the court, on the basis of being soldiers in the just war against the apartheid state.

Masina, who is one of the two surviving members of the group, was recently interviewed Masechaba Lekalake for Power FM about his experiences as a soldier for the ANC, and being involved in “one of the longest trials of the apartheid era”.

Lekalake calls the story of the Delmas Four “one laced with bravery and unshakable resolve”, and regards Masina’s story as an important element of South Africa’s oral history.

Listen to the podcast:

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Book details

• In a Different Time: The inside story of the Delmas Four by Peter Harris
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  EAN: 9781415200490
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Suzette Kotzé-Myburgh het onlangs met Kirby van der Merwe gesels oor sy vertaling van Carol Campbell se romans – My Children Have Faces na Karretjiemense en Esther’s House na ’n Huis vir Ester. “Dit was twee fantastiese boeke om te vertaal,” sê hy.

 
Oor die vertaling van Karretjiemense sê Van der Merwe: “Die boek het my onmiddelik aangegryp, want ek kon die potensiaal vir Afrikaans sien, want die karakters is Afrikaans en dis ‘n Afrikaanse wêreld. Ek kon in haar Engels sien dat sy probeer het om die Engels bietjie aan te pas om die karakter en die tekstuur van die Afrikaans te gee en die kleur van Afrikaans te gee.”

Oor sy vertaling van ’n Huis vir Ester, vertel Van der Merwe dat iemand eendag vir hom gesê het: “Die tweede boek word in Afrikaans vertaal omdat die eerste een so goed gedoen het.”

“Wat Carol doen is sy kies ‘n deel van ‘n wêreld wat ék gedink het ek ken, en sy het dit oopgeskryf met ‘n verskriklike binnekennis,” sê Van der Merwe.

“Toe jy vertaal het, hoe het jy besluit wat maak jy met die taal?” vra Kotzé-Myburgh oor die verskillende variante van Afrikaans. “Ek wou nie vertaal met interessante oulike woordjies nie,” sê Van der Merwe. “Elke individu en gesinne praat heeltemal verskillend van mekaar.” Hy vertel meer oor die woorde en spelling wat hy gebruik en vermy het in die vertalingsproses en hoekom. “Ek kon eintlik daai karakters hoor praat.”

Die gesprek begin om 05:10. Luister na die potgooi:

Suzette Kotze-Myburgh gesels met Kirby van der Merwe oor sy vertaling van Karretjiemense en 'n Huis vir Ester [ 47:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

• Laai dit nie? Luister op RSG

Boekbesonderhede

• Karretjiemense deur Carol Campbell
  EAN: 9781415201855
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• My Children Have Faces deur Carol Campbell
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  EAN: 9781415201831
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• ’n Huis vir Ester deur Carol Campbell
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  EAN: 9781415207413
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• Esther’s House deur Carol Campbell
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  EAN: 9781415207406
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Earlier this year Masande Ntshanga joined Andrea van Wyk in studio to chat about his breakthrough novel, The Reactive, also discussing the perceived whiteness of the South African literary landscape and upcoming voices in local literature.

Ntshanga says that he wanted to write a South African novel, set in Cape Town, “and started realising that it’s a strange country that’s very incoherent when it comes to not only national identity but also personal identity”. The Reactive explores this, along with themes of mortality, which act as the driving force behind the book.

In response to the complex #LitApartheid debate, Ntshanga says: “I suppose the literary landscape as an institution is not something that’s kind of separate from how the country’s economy works in general. For me, it’s more something that’s symptomatic of where the country is, where we still find a lot of people being excluded – the majority in fact – the minority being in spaces that have access to resources.”

There is a lot of merit to the argument, the young author says, but he calls on people to remember the fact that being a published author in this country is not an entirely negative experience.

Listen to the podcast:

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For more on The Reactive and Ntshanga follow these links:

• Cover Revealed for the North American Edition of Masande Ntshanga’s The Reactive

• The Reactive Author Masande Ntshanga Reflects on the Different Reality of Ordinary People

• Masande Ntshanga: I Find the Category “South African Writer” More Fitting than “African Writer”

• The Guardian to 2015 Caine Prize Shortlistees: “What Does it Mean to be an African Writer?”

• Why Does The Reactive Appeal to International Readers? Author Masande Ntshanga Reflects (Video)

• “I’m the One Who’s Supposed to be Dying”: Excerpt from The Reactive by Masande Ntshanga

Book details

• The Reactive by Masande Ntshanga
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  EAN: 9781415207192
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Umuzi has shared an excerpt from Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery, the debut novel by Sally Andrew, and a sample chapter from the audiobook, read by Sandra Prinsloo.

Murder and intrigue in a small Karoo town marinated in secrets …

Bestselling author of the The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith, praised the novel as “vivid, amusing and immensely enjoyable … a triumph”, while legendary author and poet Christopher Hope comments: “Miscreants, moskonfyt and murder are all on the menu … Recipes for Love and Murder is a delightful debut.”

• More about the book

 
Listen to Chapter 3 of Recipes for Love and Murder:

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This chapter has been taken from the audiobook edition of Recipes for Love and Murder by Sally Andrew, narrated by Sandra Prinsloo. It is published by Whole Story Audiobooks and is available to order in South Africa from Booktalk Pty Ltd.

Read an excerpt from Chapter 1 to Chapter 3 of Recipes for Love and Murder:

Excerpt from Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery by Sally Andrew by Books LIVE

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• Recipes for Love and Murder: A Tannie Maria Mystery by Sally Andrew
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  EAN: 9781415207574
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Rahla Xenopoulos was featured as the first guest on the new CliffCentral book show, Book Worm with Nikki Temkin. She told listeners more about her latest novel, Tribe, and opened up about the things that drive her as a writer.

Temkin summarises the premise of Xenopoulos’ novel: “We are born into tribes, and then we choose our own tribes”. She goes on to say, “We make tribes, we choose them, we are born into them, but in a way it’s the one that you’ve chosen that can really sustain you.” Tribe is a compelling story of six friends who have to navigate the connection that they have made with each other. It explores the fault lines of human connections in search of common ground. The characters are all trying to “connect with each other in a very disconnected world, because we are all ironically disconnected,” the author explains.

“A lot of the characters are borrowed from people around me, from friends and relatives and little aspects of people I know,” Xenopoulos says, explaining that Tribe is in no way biographical. She shares more about the small biographical elements which are inevitably present in the novel, and chats about her first book which was pure biography – A Memoir of Love and Madness.

Xenopoulos also reveals how it came to be that Red Hot Chilli Peppers drummer Chad Smith wrote the shout on the cover of her book ,“The Less Than Zero of 2015”. Listen to the podcast to hear the original quote and find out why it was deemed slightly inappropriate (despite the fact that it was extremely positive):

• Not loading? Listen on iono.fm

Book details

• Tribe by Rahla Xenopoulos
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  EAN: 9781415203965
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Image courtesy of CliffCentral

Mike Nicol was recently featured on BBC4′s Front Row radio programme to discuss his most recent crime novel, Power Play (available in Afrikaans as Woes).

An inventive retelling of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, Power Play is set on the Cape Flats of South Africa and tells a riveting tale of gang warfare. Nicol explains that after reading this well-known play for the first time he thought to himself, “Oh my goodness, this is actually something that could be set on what are called the Cape Flats”. He goes on to explain to the British audience that this is an area just outside Cape Town, a forced removal area where mixed-race South Africans were “dumped” during the 1960s and 70s.

“Titus is really about a turf war,” Nicol says, before elaborating on the relevance of the Elizabethan play to his story in contemporary South Africa. He shares more about the rise of strong female characters in crime fiction, the brutal violence he wrote in the book, the international power play at work in the novel and his views on the so-called new South Africa.

Nicol also reveals how he did research, or almost did not even need to, for this non-touristy reflection of the Mother City, “a city which has a lighter and a darker side to it – that’s what makes it such a good city in which to set crime fiction”.

The interview starts at 21:11. Listen to the podcast:

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Book details

• Power Play by Mike Nicol
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  EAN: 9781415207314
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• Woes by Mike Nicol
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  EAN: 9781415207307
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In an interview about their work, Bradley Beaulieu and Gregory Wilson – fantasy authors and co-hosts of Speculate! The Podcast for Writers, Readers, and Fans – mentioned that their 2013 interview with Lauren Beukes was one of their all-time favourites.

Beukes chatted to them about what was then her most recent novel, the award-winning thriller The Shining Girls, and shared more about her books, writing process and the role fantasy plays in her writing. Of the interview Beaulieu and Wilson said: “All in all, this is one of the more intriguing interviews we’ve had the chance to do, and we hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we did.”

Listen to the three-part interview to see why Speculate! chose this triptych as one of their favourites of all times:

• Episode 80 of Speculate! — Lauren Beukes Novel Review (The Shining Girls)

• Episode 81 of Speculate! — Lauren Beukes Author Discussion

• Episode 82 of Speculate! — Lauren Beukes Writing Discussion

 
Read the SCy-Fy interview with Speculate!’s Beaulieu and Wilson:

SCy-Fy: The most popular show you’ve presented? Your personal favourite?

BB: I think the most popular one we’ve had (Greg, correct me if I’m wrong), was Episode 24, our video interview of Pat Rothfuss a few years back. Looking at our guests lists, you might have been able to predict that…

Personal favorite? We’ve had a lot of fun shows, but if forced to pick one, I’d probably say Episode 102, where Peter V. Brett and Brent Weeks talk comics. It was a fun show because all four of us are into comics, and it was cool getting a behind-the-scenes look at some of the projects they had cooking.

GW: Yep, I think Episode 24 was the most popular, though there have been a host of others which got lots of attention—our interview with Jim Butcher, or the chats we had with Brent Weeks and Brandon Sanderson were particularly popular. As for my favorite, I think it might be a tie between Episodes 87-88, our interview with Scott Lynch (a really interesting, witty guy), Episode 81, our interview with Lauren Beukes (who had some really fascinating things to say about her identification with her characters and the search for justice in her fiction), and Episode 23.5, our video interview with Ed Greenwood (whose enthusiasm is infectious).

• Episode 82 of Speculate! — Lauren Beukes Writing Discussion

Beukes’ most recent novel is Broken Monsters – where a disturbed killer is trying to remake the world in his own image.

• Lauren Beukes’ Broken Monsters Launched with Rebecca Davis at The Book Lounge

• Another DC Comic from Lauren Beukes and Joey Hi-Fi – with Ryan Kelly: Vertigo to Publish Survivors’ Club

Book details

• Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes
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  EAN: 9781415202005
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• The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
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  EAN: 9781415202012
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Image courtesy of American Book Center

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Jenny Crwys-Williams and Redi Tlhabi recently interviewed Damon Galgut on The Book Show for Cape Talk and 702 to chat about him winning the 2015 Barry Ronge Fiction Prize for his latest novel, Arctic Summer.

On the evening of the announcement, while the levels of excitement were still very high, Galgut said to Crwys-Williams and Thlabi, “I hope this has broken the drought”. During the interview he explains this comment and says that winning this title was quite a shock, as it was the first time he has ever made it out of the shortlist onto the winner’s podium for any big award.

When asked what he plans to do with the R100 000 that comes with the prize, Galgut says “the act of living is an expensive exercise” and concludes by joking that he has “never been known as a dandy”. He reveals that he is “almost tinkering with something” where a new book is concerned.

Listen to the podcast for more about Arctic Summer, the man that inspired it (EM Forster) and the author who wrote this incredible book:

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Also read:
 

Book details

• Arctic Summer by Damon Galgut
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  EAN: 9781415207598
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