January’s Spotlight Author: Chanette Paul

Chanette Paul

New year, new spotlight author! In November, we introduced our Author Spotlight feature, which highlights a book from our catalog—not a new release, not an upcoming release—just a fantastic book we think you’d love. That month, Reneilwe Malatji, author of the short story collection Love Interrupted hit the spotlight. Because of our #ReadingAfrica campaign in December, we didn’t have our spotlight feature, but we’re roaring back in the new year! January’s spotlight author is Chanette Paul!

Chanette is the best-selling author of over 41 novels. Crime, romance, thrillers— Chanette’s got you covered! We’re proud to be the publisher of her first English-language novel and her US-debut, Sacrificedtranslated by Elsa Silke. Part thriller, part family drama, Sacrificed is a era-and-border crossing novel that introduces readers to Caz Colijn. A phone call from her long-estranged sister sends Caz on an intense journey to unravel the truth behind her mysterious past. The New York Journal of Books called this gripping thriller “a page-turner that will keep you reading long past the moment the midnight oil burns out,” and noted that it “places Chanette Paul among the classiest thriller writers of our day.” We couldn’t agree more.

All January long, Chanette’s novel will be 50% off! This price is only through January, and only here at our website. Want to learn more about Chanette? Check out this Q&A we did with her, or this interview at The Big Thrill. And be sure to read this Q&A with Elsa Silke, the novel’s translator, here.

Order Sacrificed

Q&A with Elsa Silke

This has been a really great Women in Translation Month so far. We’ve been clicking on that #WiTMonth tag and finding some great reads (because when your to-be-read piles looks like the ones at Catalyst HQ, what’s one more?). There are a wealth of amazing voices all over the world waiting for readers. We have a few of our voices to spotlight this month, so be sure to check out our other posts from this, and WiTMonths past, to read about our authors, our translators, and how you can continue to add more world literature by women to your bookshelves.

We’re continuing our celebration by chatting with translator Elsa Silke. Elsa was the translator for Chanette Paul’s continent-hopping thriller Sacrificed. She is an accomplished translator who has translated works by Ingrid Winterbach, Irma Joubert, and in 2006, she was awarded the SATI/Via Afrika Prize for outstanding translation in fiction for her translation of This Life by Karel Schoeman. We talked to Elsa about her background, translating Sacrificed, and how translated works enrich readers. (Check out this three-chapter excerpt (PDF) from the novel!) Continue reading “Q&A with Elsa Silke”

Q&A with Chanette Paul

We’re re-posting some of our author interviews that we’ve featured in our newsletter. Consider these just a little taste of all of the great things we send straight to your inbox every month. Keep up-to-date with all of the Catalyst Press goings-on by subscribing to our newsletter! We’re fun and our authors are amazing. It’s a win-win.

This Q&A is with author Chanette Paul. Her North American and English-language debut thriller Sacrificed was released in October 2017. The New York Journal of Books praised the novel and Chanette calling it “a page-turner that will keep you reading long past the moment the midnight oil burns out,” and hailing Chanette as “among the classiest thriller writers of our day.” We chatted with Chanette back in October right before the release of Sacrificed, a thriller fusing politics, race, and family drama. Read an excerpt here (PDF), and you can order the novel via our website or IndieBound. Continue reading “Q&A with Chanette Paul”

Chanette Paul Guest Posts at Crime Thriller Hound

Chanette Paul’s newest release, the continent and era spanning thriller Sacrificed was featured as the book of the week at the site Crime Thriller Hound, a site promoting “the best in crime and thriller fiction.” She was also invited to write a guest post for the site on her experiences of writing and place.

Some highlights:

On writing about Belgium:

Once I started writing, it dawned on me that I wasn’t so much a novelist attempting to set a story in a foreign European country, but rather a novelist from Africa writing from an African perspective.

On bridging the gap between South African and foreign readers:

The historic and political context needed clarification to an international audience without stunting the flow of the story –which is difficult enough – but I also had to avoid boring my South African readers.

On writing about her home:

I learned to look through intercontinental eyes and rediscover the mystery and uniqueness of the continent I live on and love.

Head over to Crime Thriller Hound to read her full essay

#WritingCrime Wrap-up

On October 10, we hosted a Twitter conversation between Brussels Noir editor Michel Dufranne ( and our own Chanette Paul (). These two great writers were talking all things #WritingCrime. We’re hoping that this first of many author conversations we host. If you missed their chat, here are a few highlights:

On what makes Belgium such an intriguing setting for their work:

SacrificedChanette: As my Mom was Dutch I’ve always had a great interest in the Low Countries and understand the language. That made it easier to try and figure out how Belgians think, how they see the world. The parallels between the Belgian Congo and South Africa’s apartheid years made a perfect background for my story. The parallels between the Belgian Congo and South Africa’s apartheid years made a perfect background for my story. South Africa’s current problems strongly echo the consequences after the Belgian Congo became independent.

Michel: Brussels is a concentrate of diversities: a city as large as a village, 1 million inhabitants capital of EU and NATO, a French-speaking city in the heart of Flanders, a city made up of a multitude of communities. Like any cocktail the mix can be indigestible and explosive. Perfect for

On bringing social issues into crime writing:

Chanette: I want to entertain, not to educate. If something can be learned from my books it is a bonus. However, it would please me if Sacrificed gives insight into the complicated and conflicted life we live in South Africa/Africa. If it draws attention to the grey areas between white and black, good and evil, good intentions and bad intentions.

Michel: [I’m tired] of hearing the international media say “Brussels decided…” Brussels can’t be summarized in its role as the capital of the EU. Brussels is my city. Brussels is complex.

On love of place:

Chanette: Sacrificed explores to a great extend how one can still deeply love a country that has turned inside out. How you can love a country that has been become so dangerous the free live barricaded behind bars? But it also explores what happens when one feels a country has been stolen from you, how you view descendants and accomplices of the thieves that stole your country and mistreated its inhabitants. It explores one’s inexplicable emotional entanglement with your place of birth.

Michel: I have the right to criticize my mother, but anyone who wants to criticize her must be wary because I will defend her!

On Diversity in Crime Fiction and Beyond

Michel: It’s a recent and social fight. Most of the time heroes are white people. For young readers some projects integrate more diversity of society (e.g. Seuls), but it’s the same for all “archetypes;” There’s no fat heroes, there are few women…

Advice for young female writers entering the genre:

Chanette: Be brave! Write and believe in yourself and what you have to say.

————

Sacrificed is available for purchase now at Amazon and IndieBound. Visit Akashic Books for more information on Brussels Noir, and their entire Noir series.

 

 

 

Women in Translation Month, Chanette Paul

In her post introducing this year’s Women in Translation Month, the event’s creator

People learning about the publishing imbalance in translation between men and women. People seeking out new and diverse literature by women writers from around the world. And people doing it not out of any sense of obligation or guilt, but because there are so many good books that this just becomes a month that focuses their reading.

It’s not just about this August, or next August, but about celebrating diverse literature every day. Expanding just one month’s reading list can open up a world of possibilities, of viewpoints, of ideas. It’s what we hope our books do for our readers, and, more to the point, what we hope reading does. We step outside of our lives every time we open a book, and whether that new experience brings us joy, or thrills, or sadness, or knowledge, we leave with more understanding. Now, more than ever, we need to look towards diverse voices and perspectives in art and listen to their stories.

As part of Women in Translation Month, we’d like to introduce you to some of our authors who are working in translation. First up, Chanette Paul:

Chanette is a South African author of more than 40 books in her native language Afrikaans. On October 10, we are pleased to release her first English-language novel Sacrificed (translated by Elsa Silke), a translation of Offerlam. Sacrificed follows Caz Colijn from the Congo’s diamond mines to Belgium’s finest art galleries, and from Africa’s civil unrest to its deeply spiritual roots in her search for the truth about her trouble past.

Continue reading “Women in Translation Month, Chanette Paul”

Excerpt from Chanette Paul’s Novel Sacrificed

In Chanette Paul’s US debut, Sacrificed, we meet Caz Colijn, a woman whose quiet and secluded life is interrupted by new discoveries from her troubled past. Many thanks to Books Live for featuring this excerpt:

Prologue
17 January 1961
Katanga, Congo

The night air reeked of savanna dust, sweat and fear. Of betrayal, greed and the thirst for power. A stench Ammie knew well.

César’s left hand gripped her arm. The right hand was clenched around her jaw.

“Watch, bitch,” he hissed in her ear. “Watch!”

Elijah stood under an acacia, a hare in the headlights. It was new moon. At the fringes of the pale smudge between somewhere and nowhere loomed the vague shapes of more trees. Somewhere to the left something rustled in the tall grass. A jackal howled in the distance, its mate echoing the mournful cry.

A command rang out, followed by the distinct sound of four rifles being cocked. She wanted to close her eyes but she kept staring as if her eyelids were starched.

Elijah coughed and spat out a gob of bloody mucus. His vest, once white, was smeared with soil, sweat, saliva, blood. One shoe was missing. He wasn’t looking at the soldiers with their rifles. From behind the lopsided spectacles on his battered face his eyes searched out her own. The glare on the lenses made it impossible to read the expression in his eyes.
Another command. Rifles raised to shoulders.

Read the rest at Books Live

 

 

 

Catalyst Press Featured in Publishers Weekly

Many thanks to Publishers Weekly for featuring our launch.

Drawing on her years of publishing experience and love of African culture, Jessica Powers, YA author and longtime editor and publicist at Cinco Puntos Press, has started Catalyst Press. The indie publisher will focus initially on contemporary African literature, as well as graphic novels based on African historical events and figures.

Catalyst Press is launching with four titles this fall, and has distribution through Consortium. The house’s initial list will include three adult novels released under the Catalyst imprint, in addition to the first title in the African Graphic Novel Series, a line of YA graphic novels based on African historical events and figures.

Read more at Publishers Weekly