Karina Author, Book, Event

Love Books launch of ICE SHOCK by Elleke Boehmer

We are delighted that Elleke Boehmer is returning to South Africa for a few days and will be launching and discussing her novel Ice Shock at a few events at the end of October and beginning of November. Catch her first at Love Books on Wednesday, 29 October 2025, for her first official launch of Ice Shock. Elleke will be in conversation with Michele Magwood. Not to be missed!

Karina Author, Book, Event

Love Books launch of BAD LUCK PENNY by Amy Heydenrych

Next week, Karavan Press authors and readers are moving into Love Books for two days. We are launching Anna Stroud’s Who Looks Inside on 19 June, and then Amy Heydenrych‘s beautiful Bad Luck Penny the next day, on 20 June. Amy will be in conversation with Gail Schimmel. Please do not forget to RSVP. Sadly, you will have to go home to sleep between the two events, but we hope to see you there for both occasions!

About the book:

In the wake of her beloved grandfather’s death, Lou and her family gather at their coastal family home for a long-awaited family reunion. The windswept and wild surroundings remind Lou of who she was before being a mother, a wife, and a professional failure. They bring back memories of Michael, her toxic first love and, according to the family, her ‘bad luck penny’. A shocking crisis in the country disrupts the funeral arrangements and forces the family together for longer than planned. As secrets rise to the surface, the threads of Lou’s life unravel and she faces a difficult choice – after all, it’s only a bad luck penny if you pick it up.

Karina Author, Book, Event

Love Books launch of WHO LOOKS INSIDE by Anna Stroud

Dear Readers of Joburg, 
The super-talented Anna Stroud is launching her stunning debut novel, Who Looks Inside, at Love Books on 19 June 2024. She will be in conversation with Michael Boyd, the author of The Weight of Shade.
Please join them for this celebration!
Literary love,
Karavan Press

PS Do not forget to RSVP.

About the book:

The news of her mother’s death pulls Hannah back from South Korea to her childhood home in the Karoo where she discovers that she has never escaped her abusive father and passive mother. That, in fact, she has been there all along, baking bread and raising a son whose father might be a local farmer she is having an affair with. Her world unravels as she struggles to separate the life she has built for herself from the one she survived. Unsettling, eerie and evocative, Who Looks Inside explores themes of childhood trauma in a working-class Afrikaans family.

“Poetic, atmospheric and haunting—Who Looks Inside is an intricate and compelling exploration of family trauma, small-town secrets and the decisions that seal our destinies.” — JENNIFER MALEC

Karina Author, Book, Event

Love Books launch of GOOD HOPE by Nick Clelland

Dear Readers of Joburg,

Good Hope, Nick Clelland‘s debut novel about an alternative-reality independent Western Cape, is venturing outside of the Good Hope Territory for the first time and will be launched at Love Books next Monday, 27 May 2024. Nick will be in conversation with the wonderful Kate Sidley. Hope to see you all there!

About the book:

Lisa Robinson has moved from Durban to Cape Town to be with Grant, the prospective next First Minister of the Good Hope Territory. The GHT is the safest and most prosperous country in the southern hemisphere – at a price. Citizens contract to be tracked by drones, executions are synchronised to the Noon Gun and only those with qualifications are permitted to vote in the Qualified Franchise system. Life here is picture-perfect. The Mother City is pristine. Everyone has a job. Tourism is booming. But this shiny new state has decided that Lisa is a problem, and problems here disappear quickly and quietly …

Karina Author, Book, Event

BOILING A FROG SLOWLY by Cathy Park Kelly launched at Love Books

There must be a thing like book launch envy, because I am definitely experiencing it. Boiling a Frog Slowly by Cathy Park Kelly was launched at the beautiful Love Books last night, and I really, really wish I could have been there. Cathy was in conversation with the fabulous Joburg author, Pamela Power.

This is what Pamela had to say about the launch:

During all of this, I had to prepare for the launch of Boiling a Frog Slowly, Cathy Park Kelly’s Memoir published by Karavan Press about “love gone wrong”. It was FANTASTIC and more than a little emotional to be book-launching at Love Books after two years, and it was very exciting to meet Cathy in the flesh as we have only met online. The launch was packed and I saw a couple of familiar faces, including Nicola Cloete who is a former student of mine from WITS (and is now very fancy and much degreed), and her husband who is a former student of Cathy’s (nothing like meeting former students to make you feel seriously MATURE).

The book sold like hotcakes which is always lovely to see, and Cathy has organised for a book box where you can buy an extra copy of the book which then goes to organisations that deal with the survivors of GBV like Kwanele and POWA which I think is WONDERFUL. There are some copies left at Love Books, including signed copies, so hurry up if you want one for yourself or you want to contribute to the book box because I think they will sell out fast.

Authors Sue Nyathi and Gail Schimmel were both at the launch, Gail reminded me that it was exactly five years ago that we launched Delilah Now Trending at Love Books. Shocking that it’s taken me so long to get another book out (and a quarter of a book at that) but I guess it’s been a rather busy five years. Sue, who was Cathy’s editor on the anthology When Secrets Become Stories also got to meet Cathy IRL for the first time which was rather special.

The Week That Was – Go.See.Do. South Africa

Thank you, Love Books, Pamela, and all who attended (lucky yous!). And thank you, Cathy, for your brave and beautiful book.