Category: Fiction

Q&A with Helen Brain

Helen Brain, photo by Patrick McKenna

Note: This post is originally from November 2019. We’re sharing it again because we’re excited to release the second book in Helen’s trilogy—The Rising Tide—on July 13, 2021. Learn more about the book, and order your copy here. You can also enter to win a copy of The Rising Tide at Goodreads. The giveaway runs through July 6.

We’re so excited to add more books for young readers to our catalog. It has always been a part of who we are. We recognize the importance of giving kids and young adults the tools they need to be readers for life. One of the most important tools is giving them books that speak to them and their experiences. Books that value their voices and their concerns. It’s one of the many reasons we’re so proud to publish The Thousand Steps by Helen Brain.

The Thousand Steps is the first in Helen’s futuristic Fiery Spiral trilogy, and is the story of 16-year-old Ebba who has lived her entire life in a bunker deep within Cape Town’s Table Mountain. When she is suddenly elevated from the bunker, she finds that everything she knew about her life, and the world “above,” was wrong. Now shouldering the immense responsibility of her new life, Ebba must fight to save her friends still trapped in the bunker and facing execution any day. Helen’s book deftly explores race, class, and climate change while telling a story that will captivate young readers. School Library Journal praised the book writing, “This novel will draw readers in with its high stakes and well-developed characters.”

We chatted with Helen about her work, why she loves science fiction, and her advice for young writers. The Thousand Steps is out January 3. Continue reading “Q&A with Helen Brain”

This Week in Literary News: Week of May 16

Lots to get into this week, so let’s do it!

On May 22, the Harlem Arts Alliance is hosting “Voices of the Coast,” an online exhibit and panel discussion that will “unite the voices and coasts of visual artists and cultural commentators from Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, and the African Diaspora.”  The companion exhibition is scheduled for later this year.

Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate saw a picture “that would catapult her to global fame — not for what it showed, but for what it did not.” Great article in the New York Times exploring Nakate’s story of erasure, racism, being “a fighter for the people and the planet,” and her new book set for release this November.

MADAME LIVINGSTONE

And, hey, if you’re already at The New York Times, be sure to check out their Globetrotting feature of new and forthcoming international books. We’re thrilled to see our very own Madame Livingstone there!

Prepare to have your mind blown over at New Frame as Rofhiwa Maneta talks to multidisciplinary artist Nolan Dennis about his work a.sun.black, “an online game – or digital essay game, as he refers to it – that shares seminal Black liberation texts in the same fragmented way he was led to Black liberation theory.” Continue reading “This Week in Literary News: Week of May 16”

Q&A with Joanne Hichens

This month, we were proud to release the thriller Divine Justice by Joanne Hichens. Divine Justice is the first book in Joanne’s Rae Valentine series, and we’re excited to introduce readers to this feisty, smart, and tough character.

Rae is a newly-minted PI, recovering addict, and in the middle of healing from a big breakup when she is hired to find a set of missing diamonds. The case sends her deep into the dark and violent world of the white supremacist gang, the Core, whose xenophobic and racist crime spree has been terrorizing Cape Town. And once the gang has Rae in their sights, the case may be more than she can handle. (And be sure to visit CrimeReads to read an essay from Joanne about the ways that the resurgence of white supremacist violence played a role in crafting hers, and other crime novels in South Africa.)

Divine Justice has earned praise from Publishers Weekly, The Mysterious Book Report, LitNet, and authors like David Swinson (The Second Girl and Trigger), who writes, “Divine Justice is a no-nonsense, walloping thriller, with an intoxicating and smart protagonist in Rae Valentine. Be sure to find a comfortable spot before opening the book because once you’re taken on the ride it is hard to get off.”

We chatted with Joanne about her work, how she handled having two books releasing at the same time, and why crime writing was a way for her to “see the baddies get what they deserve.”

Continue reading “Q&A with Joanne Hichens”

Q&A with Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

This month, we were proud to release Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s award-winning novel The Theory of Flight in North America. When it was released in South Africa, the novel was awarded the Barry Ronge Fiction Prize. We are pleased to give even more readers the opportunity to read this beautiful book.

This sweeping epic explores decades of family and national history through the lives of a group of interconnected characters. Through the country remains unnamed in the novel, its history closely mirrors that of Zimbabwe, and the plot centers on Genie whose family and friends struggle to come to terms with her impending death. This novel sketches, through the lives of a few families and the fate of a single patch of ground, a nation’s history – from colonial occupation through the freedom struggle, to the devastation wrought by the sojas, the HIV virus, and The Man Himself. At turns mysterious and magical, but always honest, The Theory of Flight explores the many ways we lose those we love before they die.

The novel has earned praise from Bustle, Full Stop Magazine, and Publishers Weekly where it earned a starred review. Tsitsi Dangarembga, author of Nervous Conditions and the Booker-Prize-shortlisted novel, This Mournable Body also named the book one of her ten favorites in this list at Vulture magazine. (And you can read an essay at LitHub on how Zimbabwean authors like Tsitsi have inspired Siphiwe’s work.)

We chatted with Siphiwe about her work, the difficulties of defining a book like The Theory of Flight, and how fiction helps us “maneuver the often rocky and complicated terrains of the past and present.”

Continue reading “Q&A with Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu”

Coming in 2021: Madame Livingstone

For the next few weeks, we’ll be spotlighting our upcoming releases for the new year. You’ll learn a bit about our 2021 releases, their authors, and information about pre-ordering.

We’re excited to bring another work in translation to our catalog in 2021. Madame Livingstone: The Great War in the Congo by Christophe Cassiau-Haurie, illustrator Barly Baruti, and translator Ivanka Hahnenberger is a thrilling World War I saga set in, what was then called, the Belgian Congo. We’re thrilled to bring this book to readers in June 2021. Although we’ve definitely gotten into the historical fiction graphic novel game before with our King Shaka series, this release marks our first one for adult readers, and we can’t wait for you to see this gorgeously illustrated, beautifully written, deftly translated book this summer.
Continue reading “Coming in 2021: Madame Livingstone”

Coming in 2021: The Rising Tide by Helen Brain

For the next few weeks, we’ll be spotlighting our upcoming releases for the new year. You’ll learn a bit about our 2021 releases, their authors, and information about pre-ordering.

Helen Brain, photo by Patrick McKenna

If you’re like us, Helen Brain’s novel, The Thousand Steps, left you wanting more. The first in Helen’s Fiery Spiral Trilogy, a dystopian fantasy series for young adult readers, introduced us to 16-year-old Ebba. Ebba, like most of the population in the book’s futuristic Cape Town setting, lives in a bunker deep within Table Mountain, far removed from the world “above,” which she and the others believe was destroyed. When Ebba is suddenly elevated to the outside world, she discovers everything she thought she knew was wrong, and that she holds the power to change the world.

Ebba’s story continues in the second book of the series— The Rising Tide, set for release in June 2021.
Continue reading “Coming in 2021: The Rising Tide by Helen Brain”