Theatre Road, the story of Thembi Mtshali-Jones as told to Sindiwe Magona, is among this year’s “most outstanding books”, chosen by the reviewers of the Sunday Times. Thank you to Nancy Richards for including the biography among her picks.
Great to see quite a few independent presses, local and international, getting a mention on this wonderful “Grand Book Tour” of 2019.
Cheers to a great year in books!
Shadow Flicker by Melissa A. Volker returns to its place of origin, the small coastal village made popular by The Endless Summer, and will be launched at the St. Francis Brewing Company on 19 December 2019 at 6pm. If you are local, or there (or nearby) for the holidays, don’t miss this event: books, beer and waves. Guaranteed fun!
The St. Francis Brewing Company features in Shadow Flicker and has something vital in common with the book: eco-awareness. The company has just introduced new eco-packaging: biodegradable and compostable six pack rings and compostable shrink packaging – a first for the brand and great for the environment.
And here is Melissa with a friend, enjoying a beer at a previous launch of her stunning novel in Muizenberg at Xpression on the Beach.
At the event at the St. Francis Brewing Company, Melissa will speak about Shadow Flicker and how St. Francis Bay inspired the setting of her eco-romance thriller.
Cheers!
Read the entire interview here: Dragonfly.eco
Dragonfly.eco is a “news site that covers environmental fiction authors’ works via book posts, interviews, reader-submitted reviews, book database, guest posts, and author spotlights. This site raises awareness of the impact and diversity in storytelling around the world that explores climate change and related ecological themes.”
WOMEN IN A FRACTURED WORLD with Melissa A. Volker and Dawn Garisch is one of the highlights of the Salonfestival Cape Town 2020:
Melissa and Dawn will talk to John Maytham of CapeTalk about the divisions and connections between humans, animals and the environment in the Rosebank home of writer, editor and publisher Karina M. Szczurek, on Thursday, February 27 at 6pm.
To read more about the Salonfestival, please click here: Sneak Preview of the Salonfestival 2020
On a farm in the Eastern Cape, Kate wakes before dawn, her head and heart in turmoil. She has good reason to worry – today is the day that her baby grandsons, conjoined twins, are to be separated. The risky surgery will take place in London. Kate’s estranged daughter, Jess, has told her definitively, and hurtfully: “Don’t come.”
On the same farm, Nosisi awaits the return of her son, who is undergoing the traditional initiation into manhood. Another anxious mother, another separation, another child at risk.
“So many women down the ages have lain awake in the earth’s great shadow, insomniac over their progeny, their sons and daughters intent on escaping their mothers’ intractable worry,” writes Dawn Garisch in Breaking Milk.
The book takes place over one day, from Kate’s early-morning wake up, and within the confines of the farm and the house she shares with her demented father and his carer. As she ponders her painful choice – respecting her daughter’s wishes, or rushing to be at her side – she must continue to take care of business. Once a microbiologist geneticist working on embryos in a fertility lab, she is now the creator of prize-winning goat’s cheese…
Continue reading: Sunday Times
Shadow flicker vertel die storie van Kate Petersen wat leef vir haar werk, veral omdat haar persoonlike lewe ’n gemors is ná ’n lewensveranderende gebeurtenis. Sy vertrek na St Francisbaai in die Oos-Kaap, waar sy die boere moet oorreed om hul grond beskikbaar te stel vir die ontwikkeling van hernubare kragopwekking. Dit is haar keuse om nie haar baas in te lig dat sy terugkeer na die plek waar haar probleme ontstaan het nie – ’n tragedie wat steeds by haar spook en die oorsaak van haar paniekaanvalle is.
Hier ontmoet sy vir Dr Matthew Sykes, die dorp se veearts, wat steeds in rou is oor die ontydige dood van sy omgewingsgoedgesinde vrou. Alhoewel sy geensins beplan het om emosioneel betrokke te raak nie, ontwikkel dié twee spoedig ’n sagte plek vir mekaar. Ongelukkig is die pad nie net met rose besaai nie en behalwe vir die vyandigheid wat in die kusdorp uitbroei, word Kate die slagoffer van inwoners met verskuilde agendas…
Continue reading: LitNet
Please join us in celebrating Theatre Road, a literary collaboration of two South African legends of the arts: Thembi Mtshali-Jones and Sindiwe Magona.
The Cape Town launch will take place at The Book Lounge on 28 November 2019. Sindiwe and Thembi will be in conversation with Nancy Richards.
“Highly emotive, the novel is an evocative and thoughtful exploration of confrontations, loss and ultimately acceptance.“Breaking Milk by Dawn Garisch is her 7th novel and takes us into the world of protagonist Kate, a former geneticist and now an award winning organic cheese maker, over one seminal day. Her estrangement from her daughter Jess is at the heart of the novel as, on this day, Jess’s conjoined twins will be separated and Jess has forbidden Kate to come to London to be with her.
We enter the rooms of Kate’s mind as she wrestles with her inner anguish using her routine chores to cover her turmoil. Making cheese, running the farm and restaurant, dealing with her dementia addled father, a manipulative ex-husband and a besotted neighbour take us step by step through this day in vivid prose. Mothers united in their fear, Kate and Nosisi whose son Luzoko is undergoing initiation, work side by side in silent contemplation.
Continue reading review: Woman Zone Book Club
Please join us for a special event to celebrate the launch of Dawn Garisch’s Breaking Milk at Fynboshoek Cheese Farm, the place that inspired the setting for the novel.
Dawn will speak about the genesis of her novel, which tells the story of a day in the life of an award-winning maker of organic cheese. The ticket price for the event (R60 per person) includes a cheese tasting.
Books will be on sale.
We look forward to seeing you there and experiencing this delicious literary treat with our readers!
Earlier today on CapeTalk’s “On the Yellow Couch”: Dawn Garsich spoke to Pippa Hudson about her novel, Breaking Milk. Listen to the interview here: CapeTalk.
