Traditionally celebrated on the last day of October or in early November, the Day of the Dead is an occasion on which family and friends gather to pay their respects to those who have passed on. This year, we are inviting literary friends and family to celebrate the day with Christy Weyer, Consuelo Roland and Alex Latimer at Liberty Books on 4 November 2025.
Consuelo (The Good Cemetery Guide) and Alex (Love Stories for Ghosts) have both written movingly about the dead, remembering and honouring them as well as celebrating their lives and thus encouraging us readers to celebrate ours, here and beyond.
Day of the Dead themed dressing up is optional (but to be strongly considered). All are welcome to attend this free event! Hope to see you there!
Please join us for another celebration of the South African Library Week at the Rondebosch Library on 18 March 2025, at 15:30! Consuelo Roland will be in conversation with Aimee Searle.
The Good Cemetery Guide by Consuelo Roland is back in print! Join us for a talk about the new Karavan Press edition of this remarkable novel, and about writing and publishing in general. It will be fun!
Temperature is the result of the Karavan Stories Workshop & Anthology project, now in its second year.
Love keeps the cold out better than a cloak. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
All the contributors gathered for a writing workshop at the end of April. Together, we discussed the intricacies of the short story, went through several writing exercises, decided on a theme for our anthology and began exploring ideas for individual stories. In the following months, we kept in touch, drafting and redrafting, until the book took shape.
The theme – temperature – was inspired by global and intimate, personal developments. Climate change continues to dominate our weather and news cycles. Heated international debates require cool and collected thinking for the sake of all our futures around the world. It has been an exceptionally difficult year for many – what allows us to survive, and thrive, is the warmth and kindness of our connections. Temperature is testimony to this simple truth.
Contributors could work with the theme in any way they wished, either reimagine it, see it as a springboard or a metaphor, or let their imaginations soar. The stories which emerged interpret ‘temperature’ in the most innovative ways, but they have one thing in common: hot off the press, they inspire reflections on interdependence – between individuals, communities and continents, as well as between humanity and our environment.
I would like to thank all contributing authors for embarking on this journey with Karavan Press: your stories are a cooling balm for a scorching reality. A big thank you to Monique Cleghorn for the exquisite design of our anthology. To our readers: enjoy!
Karina M. Szczurek Cape Town, December 2024
Contributors: Sue Brown, Christine Coates, Gail Gilbride, Kerry Hammerton, Karen Horn, Karin Lijnes, Ciaran R. Maidwell, Firdose Moonda, Consuelo Roland, Anne Schlebusch, Joëlle Searle, Philisiwe Twijnstra, Alexandra Wood
Cover artwork: Hannes Meiring
Publisher: Karavan Press
Publication date: December 2024
ISBN: 978-1-0672224-3-7
The book will be available in all good bookshops in the new year.Please contact Karavan Press directly if you would like to get copies of the book earlier.
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.
karavanpress.com 