The Theory of Flight
January New Releases
This has been a busy month for us! We’ve started the new year with three new releases (plus ended the last year with one, which is also included here). All of these are available at your favorite booksellers and right here at our site.
The Thousand Steps by Helen Brain
The first book in Helen’s Fiery Spiral series for Young Adult readers, The Thousand Steps 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.
Dark Video by Peter Church
The next installment in Peter Church’s Dark Web Trilogy, Dark Video is set in the early days of internet video sharing. A group of wealthy people are willing to pay any price for unimaginable videos. Cape Town college student Alistair Morgan is lured deeper and deeper into this sinister underground world where reality blurs and morals.
Cape Town: A Place Between by Henry Trotter
The first in our Intimate Geographies Series — short books of around 100 pages— which aim to help readers go beyond the surface of fascinating places. Cape Town: A Place Between weaves the history of city’s intersecting histories and cultures with Henry’s own experiences as an American living, working, and building a life there for nearly twenty years. While not a traditional travel guide, Cape Town invites readers into the city with hopes of sparking first-hand exploration with its mix of travel narrative and literary non-fiction.
Unmaking Grace by Barbara Boswell
Released in December
Unmaking Grace is a story an intimate portrayal of the legacy of inter-generational violence set in Cape Town in the 1980s. In this gripping novel, we meet Grace whose life is forever altered by her father’s violence. In her efforts to break the cycle in her own life, she finds a measure of peace in the stability of her middle-class lifestyle—complete with loving husband and baby. But when a figure from her past returns, Grace realizes that breaking free will be more difficult than she imagined.
Q&A with Barbara Boswell
Huge congratulations to Barbara Boswell! Her novel Unmaking Grace is out now in the US! Released in South Africa under the title Grace, Barbara’s novel about one woman’s journey to break the cycle of intergenerational violence earned her the 2017 Debut Prize from the University of Johannesburg Prizes for South African writing. Here in the US, her novel has been praised by Kirkus Reviews as “A smart, compassionate portrayal of one woman’s quest to end the cycle of violence.”; author Yewande Omotoso (Bom Boy, The Woman Next Door) calls it “a deeply compelling and important story”; and Ms. Magazine included it in their list of must-reads for December. We couldn’t be prouder to publish this thoughtful and moving book.
You can order the book online from IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, here on our website, and, of course, you can pick up a copy at your favorite local bookstore! We chatted with Barbara recently about her writing, Unmaking Grace, and the writers who shaped her life and work. Continue reading “Q&A with Barbara Boswell”
What to Expect When You’re Expecting (to Read a Book from Catalyst Press)
2020 is just around the corner (which, is simply unbelievable. Wasn’t it just summer?!), so we wanted to give you a preview about some of the great books we’ve got planned for the new year. This post will cover, roughly, the first half of 2020 (with one book that’s set for release in late 2019), and part two, covering the rest of the year, is coming soon.
Many of these books are ready for pre-order right now, so if someone (you) were looking to add a few books to the to-be-read pile, someone (you) would be in luck. All right, onward! Continue reading “What to Expect When You’re Expecting (to Read a Book from Catalyst Press)”
Outside the Lines
Q&A with Max Annas
The residents of The Pines, a community in East London, South Africa, put up walls and gates to protect themselves from the dangers of the outside world. But what happens when the thing that’s meant to keep people safe, becomes someone’s biggest threat? That’s the question posed in Max Annas’ upcoming release The Wall, out on May 21 (paperback, digital, and audio versions). In this taut, fast-paced thriller, Max tackles issues of race, class, exclusion, and violence, but with a light touch that makes The Wall a surprisingly humorous book. This is Max’s first book in English (and you can learn more about Rachel Hildebrandt Reynolds, the book’s translator, here).
We chatted with Max about his influences, The Wall, and the magic of seeing his book “living in another language.” Pre-order your copy of The Wall through IndieBound. This Q&A first appeared in our monthly newsletter. If you want to be the first-to-know about events, sales, and fun extras like these author Q&As, be sure to subscribe! Continue reading “Q&A with Max Annas”
Shaka Rising Named an Honor Book by the Children’s Africana Book Awards
Shaka Rising: A Legend of the Warrior Prince was named an Honor Book for Older Readers by the Children’s Africana Book Awards! The awards, presented by Africa Access, a non-profit that celebrates and promotes African literature for young readers. The Children’s Africana Book Awards are an annual award honoring “authors and illustrators of the best children’s and young adult books on Africa published or republished in the U.S.” We couldn’t be more excited that Shaka Rising was among the honorees!
Shaka Rising is the first in our African Graphic Novel Series, and the first release from our collaborative imprint, Story Press Africa. You can read about Shaka Rising author/illustrator Luke W. Molver in this Q&A. And you can learn more about the awards, and the other winners and honorees here.
Q&A with Yewande Omotoso
Last year was quite a year for Yewande Omotoso. Her most recent release, The Woman Next Door, earned Yewande a spot on the shortlist for the Dublin Literary Award, and a Hurston/Wright Award nomination. We’re betting that readers will want to read more from this talented author in 2019, and so we couldn’t be more excited to be the North American publisher for her novel Bom Boy.
First released in South Africa, this novel of loss and belonging earned Yewande the South African Literary Award First Time Author Prize, and it was also shortlisted for the Etisalat Prize for Literature. She has revised the novel for its North American release on February 26. Pre-order your copy today!
We chatted with Yewande about her process, writers she admires, and what it felt like to revisit to Bom Boy after many years. This Q&A is the full version of the excerpt from our newsletter. Learn about Catalyst events, authors, giveaways, and read more author Q&As like this by subscribing to our newsletter! Continue reading “Q&A with Yewande Omotoso”
From the Editor’s Desk: 2018 Reflections
This comes from our newsletter series, From the Editor’s Desk, where Catalyst founder/publisher, Jessica, gives you a peek behind the Catalyst curtain. Subscribe to our newsletter to get more looks inside Catalyst HQ, author Q&As, giveaways, and more!
I have to tell you the truth, I’m feeling kind of tired. But it’s a good tired! 2018 was a whirlwind year (following 2017, its own kind of whirlwind) and included many firsts. For this Editor‘s Desk column, I thought I’d tell you what some of those firsts were–all of them worthy of celebration. And hopefully I’ll find some time to do just that this month–celebrate all the firsts of 2018. Continue reading “From the Editor’s Desk: 2018 Reflections”
