Karina Author, Book, Literary Awards, Prize

The Bitterness of Olives by Andrew Brown wins the 2024 Sunday Times Fiction Prize

We are thrilled to announce that The Bitterness of Olives by Andrew Brown won the 2024 Sunday Times Fiction Prize. The judges called it a “contemporaneous, daring, complex and aesthetically pleasing novel”. Congratulations, Andrew! And thank you – for writing, for sharing this story with your readers, for publishing it with Karavan Press.

‘Why can you not be friends anymore?’

It was the story of his country, he supposed. Perhaps they could have been friends. Perhaps they were once. The reasons were complex, full of feeling, disappointment, resentment. And, of course, betrayal. This was the Middle East after all.

Avi Dahan, a retired detective mourning his beloved wife in Tel Aviv, and Khalid Mansour, a Palestinian doctor confronting the precarious reality of living in Gaza City, are still reeling from the political fallout that jeopardised their delicate friendship. When a mysterious corpse scarred by history and forbidden love shows up in Khalid’s emergency room, he reaches out to Avi for help. Though the detective is the only one who might be able to assist, he is the last person on earth to agree …

The stage is set for Andrew Brown’s unforgettable new novel, The Bitterness of Olives.

Did it really matter? In the face of chaos, was it important how she had died? That was the guidance he needed from Avi now. He needed to understand that question: did it matter anymore? Was it of any significance, how you died in a war?

ISBN: 978-1-7764581-2-7

Kindle: The Bitterness of Olives by Andrew Brown

ANDREW BROWN is an advocate and a sergeant in the saps reserves and police liaison officer for the Child Protection Unit at Red Cross Children’s Hospital. He is the author of two non-fiction books and five novels, including Coldsleep Lullaby, winner of the Sunday Times Prize for Fiction in 2006, and Refuge, shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Literature (Africa Region) in 2009. Street Blues: The Experiences of a Reluctant Policeman was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award the same year. Andrew’s books are published in Germany, the Netherlands and the USA. He has three children and lives in Cape Town.

Karina Author, Book

Karavan Press title: Self-portrait of a Guava by Lucienne Argent

Self-portrait of a Guava

Lucienne Argent

Is it a special occasion?
Do you deserve a treat?
Stew me on the stove.
Drain my pips out with a sieve.
Mix me with some whipped cream.
Add granadilla or just juice.
It’s me that you have waited for.
It’s me, I am your treat.
It’s me that you have waited for,
a guava-pink mousse.

“It’s magnificent—quirky, original, young, funny, touching.” FINUALA DOWLING

Author photograph: Sam Wells

LUCIENNE ARGENT is a Cape Town-based writer, artist, and counsellor. In her previous lives, she worked in historical research and online education. She has poems published in the Sol Plaatje European Union Anthology, Stanzas, Think of a Poem and on the AVBOB Poetry website. She also has a short story in Karavan Press’s Tiger anthology. Self-portrait of a Guava is her first poetry collection. She writes about everyday things, like mugs, rocks, fruit, babies, and colonoscopies.

Publisher: Karavan Press

Publication date: December 2024

ISBN: 978-1-0672224-5-1

Karina Author, Book

New edition of a cherished novel, The Good Cemetery Guide by Consuelo Roland

THE GOOD CEMETERY GUIDE

CONSUELO ROLAND

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES FICTION PRIZE

ANTHONY LOXTON, reluctant third-generation funeral director by day, is by night Tony the Fox, a guitarist in the bars of Kalk Bay. It looks like there’s no escape from the burden of the past. But when Lily, Tony’s one-night stand, arrives in a body bag at the Loxton Funeral Parlour, he surprises himself by breaking his own rules.

As the boundaries separating the two worlds he has created for himself collapse, Anthony’s journey of self-discovery begins, accompanied by a cast of unforgettable characters. A chain of events takes him to the edge of tragedy and disaster and back again. He discovers that the living are more fragile than the dead and that joy can arise in the most unlikely circumstances.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

‘Remarkable … The needs of the dead and those of the living are superbly captured.’ BEVERLEY ROOS MULLER, Cape Argus

‘’n Heerlike boek om jou te laat lag, dink, gril en weer lag.’ MADELEINE ROUX, Volksblad

‘You can smell the sea, hear the 4.30 train to Muizenberg and feel the grit in your eyes when the South-Easter picks up. Highly recommended.’ BARRY TYSON, The Other Guide

‘… the story is eccentrically funny with a chorus of marvellous characters and a cheering resolution … an irresistible tale of human possibility.’ MICHELE MAGWOOD, Sunday Times

‘… dis ’n juweel van ’n boek.’ MADELEINE VAN BILJON, Beeld

‘Unputdownable.’ MANU, Goodreads

CONSUELO ROLAND is a South African author. The new edition of her acclaimed debut, The Good Cemetery Guide, is now available from Karavan Press. With her subsequent novels in the Limbo Trilogy, she continues her exploration of human relationships and the power of possibility. Her poetry and prose appear in various journals and anthologies. She lives with her family in Hout Bay, a coastal town on the Cape Peninsula.

consueloroland.com

Publisher: Karavan Press

Publication date: November 2024

ISBN: 978-1-0672224-8-2

Kindle: The Good Cemetery Guide

(First published by Double Storey Books, 2005)

Karina Author, Book, Festival

Karavan Press at Madibaland @ BookBedonnerd Literary Festival, Richmond Book Town

The Karavan is hitting the road and celebrating all things literary in the wonderful Book Town of Richmond at the end of October/beginning of November. It is time for Madibaland @ BookBedonnerd Literary Festival again and we hope to see many of your there.

Karavan Press titles on the programme:

THURSDAY, 31 OCTOBER 2024

08h00 – 08h55COFFEE & WRITING WORKSHOP WITH KARINA M. SZCZUREK
12h10 – 12h35Michael Boyd, The Weight of Shade
12h35 – 13h00Thobeka Yose, In Silence my Heart Speaks

FRIDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2024

08h00 – 08h55COFFEE & WRITING WORKSHOP WITH KARINA M. SZCZUREK

SATURDAY, 2 NOVEMBER 2024

14h00 – 14h30C. J. Driver, Dayspring
14h30 – 15h00Gail Gilbride, Cat Therapy

To see the exciting list of all participants, click here: Authors

For the full programme, click here: BookBedonnerd Literary Festival

Karina Author, Book, Festival

Karavan Press at the Woordfees

Anna Stroud, Nick Clelland and Beatrice Willoughby will be participating in this year’s Woordfees:

TUESDAY, 1 October, 11:30, SU Museum Annex

A Tale of Two Cities

The Johannesburg writer Anna Stroud’s first novel, Who Looks Inside, is about family trauma and small town secrets, and stretches from South Korea to the Karoo, and finally comes to an end in Johannesburg. Nick Clelland’s novel Good Hope is set in a dystopian future where the Western Cape is an independent country. Those in power will sweep anything under the rug to maintain the illusion of a well-functioning state and booming economy. Publisher Jaco Adriaanse facilitates this meeting of North and South.

SATURDAY, 5 October, 18:00, EasyEquities Book Tent

Met ’n bietjie hulp van my vriende

Poets often feel obliged to write about love, but perhaps it is time to wax lyrical about the often more reliable and long-lasting love between friends instead. Invited poets bring two verses each about friendship. Is friendship indeed one soul in two bodies, or simply the one soul that will be there when your world falls apart? Bring your best friend and discover fresh insights into what makes your bond so special.

With Loftus Marais, Jolyn Phillips, André le Roux, Jaco Barnard-Naudé, Lynthia Julius, Danie Marais and Beatrice Willoughby.

Full programme: WOORDFEES 2024