By the time Andrew Brown is seated on the small podium, along with Michiel Heyns, who will interview Brown on his latest novel, Solace, The Book Lounge is full to overflowing. The buzz in the room, I notice, is peculiar to the launch of crime fiction novels. It was the same vibe at the launch of recent novels by Deon Meyer and Margie Orford. Say what you like about South African crime fiction as a genre, but there is no denying its burgeoning readership and the interest – even now among academics – that it is garnering.

• Complete article: SLiPNet

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• Solace by Andrew Brown
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  EAN: 9781770223776
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Two Random House Struik imprints have just launched eBook library apps for the iPad. The apps, Earth & Nature (Struik Nature) and South Africa in Print (Zebra Press), will house a wide selection of natural history and current events eBooks at discounted prices.

 
Titles available at the initial launch include Guide to Night Skies of Southern Africa, Basic Bird ID in Southern Africa, Filmer’s Spiders, Winnie Mandela: A Life, Herschelle Gibbs’ biography To the Point and eBook bestseller 32 Battalion.

Additional titles will be added to the libraries on an ongoing basis and will immediately be available for purchase when the customer next opens the app.

The Apple iBookstore is currently not available in South Africa, but South Africans can purchase apps from iTunes. These library applications enable local and international iPad users to purchase South African eBooks. The apps can be downloaded for free from iTunes and customers can then purchase eBooks seamlessly from within the app.

The apps can be downloaded from here iTunes: Earth and Nature and South Africa in Print.

Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd is South Africa’s leading publishing house and offers readers the best of both local and international titles. It promotes books written in both English and Afrikaans through its many diverse and highly respected imprints, which include the Struik Lifestyle, Struik Nature, Struik Travel & Heritage, Zebra Press, Umuzi, eKhaya and Fernwood Press imprints.

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• Winnie Mandela: A Life by Anne Marie du Preez Bezdrob
  EAN: 9781868729265
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• To the Point: The No-Holds-Barred Autobiography by Herschelle Gibbs, Steve Smith
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  EAN: 9781770221314
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eBook options – Download now!

• 32 Battalion by Piet Nortje
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eBook options – Download now!

 
The launch of Andrew Brown‘s fourth novel, Solace, was a Book Lounge humdinger. Eager fans crammed into every available space to hear the award-winning author, who is variously a lawyer, farmer and police reservist. Brown was joined in conversation by Michiel Heyns and together, they were welcomed by Mervyn Sloman as “two of South Africa’s best, most important contemporary writers.”

Brown and Heyns kept the audience enchanted with their wry and understated dialogue that was nevertheless a highly personal account revealing much about both men’s gentle, subtle and refined approach to literature and the writing process.

Brown spoke of his queasiness on completion of a manuscript and the ensuing anxiety “… that what I’ve managed to create won’t stand any kind of test, and that I don’t really know when it was written. I can remember times when I was writing but I can’t remember a coherent period of time that gave rise to this manuscript… the worry is that I’ll never be able to do it again. Now I have these 90 000 words, but clearly I’ll never be able to do it again.”

He said he stole time, never writing in a single fluid motion, never taking it seriously enough to insist that everybody left him alone “because writing is a serious business.” The easiest place for him to write was not “spledid isolation in a rural getaway”, but at home, with the bergies knocking on the door and his children needing help with their Afrikaans grammar. “It stops me from getting on a pedestal about writing, stops me from pushing the real part of life away….”

For Brown, writing is not a career but a passionate hobby: “I don’t give it enough coherent time. That makes it quite hard because it becomes disjointed. Anybody whose tried to write anything longer than a short email knows that you don’t sit down and stick with it when you come back to it you’ve lost your train of thought; you’ve lost all the atmosphere you had in your mind. Each time you’ve then got to read yourself back into it, and that makes it time consuming and inefficient.”

In a similar vein, Brown spoke with disarming candour about the editing process. He advising that one needs great “heart and spirit” to fully appreciate how the latter involves engaging with “very intelligent, very pedantic people” who go to great lengths to explain your errors. “They are, of course, right; and you are, of course, wrong,” he said, dryly.

He concluded: “Books should have on their front cover, the author, and the person who edited the book. I had no formal training in how to write. Everything I know about writing has been taught to me by editors. Without them, no one would have the heart to say, ‘That’s the most awful piece of purple prose I ever saw.’”

By the end of the launch The Book Lounge had sold out of copies of Solace, marking the start of good things for Andrew Brown.

* * * * * * * *

Liesl Jobson tweeted from the launch using #livebooks:

Michiel Heyns and Andrew Brown at the Book Lounge. Great crowd here. Lots of writers. #bookslive @RandomStruik twitter.com/LieslJobson/st…

— Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) May 8, 2012

Mervyn Sloman welcomes enormous gathering to launch of Andrew Brown’s Solace. Wi Michiel Heyns SA’s 2 best contemporary writers. #livebooks

— Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) May 8, 2012

Sloman: Andrew is many things other than writer: lawyer, bikerider, father, husband. police reservist, general pain in the butt! #livebooks

— Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) May 8, 2012

Brown doesn’t write in single fluid motion. Can’t take time out for “serious business”. Don’t take myself seriously. Not a career #livebooks

— Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) May 8, 2012

I feel no pressure to write at all. Always the desire. Never blocked. If I declared “I’m a writer” pressure would be unbearable. #livebooks

— Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) May 8, 2012

Don’t want to deal wi very intelligent, very pedantic editors afterwards. Have to have heart and spirit to find & fix problems. #livebooks

— Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) May 8, 2012

Brown: Editors Martha Evans & Lynda Gilfillan did fantastic, patient job. Everything I’ve ever learned I learned from them. #livebooks

— Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) May 8, 2012

Brown says your mother’s never going to tell you it’s awful. Michiel Heyns recalls mother fixing a poem he’d written. Laughter. #livebooks

— Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) May 8, 2012

Brown reads gritty extract from the book. Tactile visceral writing of babelas. Welcome to the world of Andrew Brown quips Heyns. #livebooks

— Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) May 8, 2012

Heyns: Is this how you see life? AB: Refuge and Solace about how we find our sense of place & meaning without denying darkness. #livebooks

— Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) May 8, 2012

Brown: Solace is about how we experience our cultural identity & be happy in that without denial of reality or place. #livebooks

— Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) May 8, 2012

Brown: When dealing wi darkness obvious solace in religion. Took February close as I could to faith to see if he’d pick it up. #livebooks

— Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) May 8, 2012

Heyns: Appreciated how the novel doesn’t nail down the question of religious expression. Leaves this open for the reader. #livebooks

— Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) May 8, 2012

@MargieOrford and @MeyerDeon‘s characters appear in his novels. Brown says they’ve become public property. Only fair to borrow. #livebooks

— Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) May 8, 2012

Sloman says “Solace” will sell out tonight. Urges those wanting books signed to put their name down. Andrew Brown will return. #livebooks

— Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) May 8, 2012

• Follow Liesl Jobson (@LieslJobson) on Twitter for more

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• Solace by Andrew Brown
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Veloso’s story covers many fascinating issues of this period, among them: the conflict between FRELIMO and the South African-backed RENAMO; the negotiations that resulted in the Nkomati Accord, in which he was a key participant; the processes that resulted in the withdrawal of Cuban and South African troops from Angola and the independence of Namibia; the impact of post-independence Mozambique’s strictly socialist economy and its subsequent shift to a more market-orientated approach; and the aeroplane crash in which Samora Machel was killed.

Velosa’s insights are particularly interesting given his role in the commission of inquiry into the crash.

About the author

Jacinto Veloso was born in Lourenço Marques (today Maputo). In the 1950s he studied at the Military Academy in Lisbon, where he qualified as an aviation pilot. In 1963, together with João Ferreira, Veloso abandoned Mozambique, piloting a Portuguese Air Force plane to Dar es Salaam and becoming a member of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO). He participated actively in the national liberation struggle and accomplished risky missions abroad. After independence he became National Director of Intelligence Services and Minister of State Security. He has also served as Minister for Economic Affairs, Minister of International Cooperation and Minister of Information. In 2005 he was elected by Parliament as a member of the National Defence and Security Council.

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• Memories at Low Altitude: The autobiography of a Mozambican security chief by Jacinto Veloso
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  EAN: 9781770221505
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• Solace by Andrew Brown
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In June this year Zebra Press will publish the autobiography of former Springbok coach, Peter de Villiers, which he wrote with sports journalist Gavin Rich. As the title, Politically Incorrect, suggests, this book will provide a no-holds-barred account of the difficult decisions de Villiers had to make during his tenure as Bok coach.

Be sure to keep an eye out for this forthcoming release!

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• Politically Incorrect: The Autobiography by Peter de Villiers, with Gavin Rich
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  EAN: 9781770224216
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• SuperVan & I by Sarel van der Merwe, with Steve Smith
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Stellenbosch, the present. The body of a young woman is found drifting in a river, and Detective Eberard Februarie is called in to investigate the case. A man struggling with his own demons, Eberard discovers secrets that lead him to an underworld of sexual hedonism, to the rotten core of this old university town.

Stellenbosch, seventeenth century. Martin van der Keesel’s skill as a viticulturist is matched only by his cruelty towards the slaves who work under him. When he takes an interest in the Boorman family, and their young daughter Sanna, events are set in motion that will ripple through the early colonial society.

With these intertwined narratives, Andrew Brown weaves a spellbinding story about prejudice and deceit, courage and redemption. The swift twists in the plot will keep the reader riveted and breathless. Intelligent, chilling, compelling.

“A beautifully assured whodunit…The narrative segues between present-day and 17th-century Stellenbosch, until Brown bends the strands together like two electrical wires that flare up in revelation.” – Michele Magwood, Sunday Times

~ ~ ~

When a criminal lawyer meets a beautiful Nigerian immigrant, his life starts to spiral out of control. Disillusioned with his marriage and the path his life has taken, Richard finds respite in Abayomi’s exotic and sensual world. But, as his involvement in Cape Town’s refugee community deepens, he is drawn into a murky underworld of deception, brutality and corruption. Not even his professional dealings with a notorious Russian ganglord have prepared him for the dangers that await.

Provocative, shocking and unflinchingly honest, Refuge explores the plight of refugees in South Africa, the entanglements of the criminal justice system and the pervasiveness of organised crime. With this gripping tale of prejudice, desire and betrayal, award-winning author Andrew Brown has again produced an intelligent page-turner.

“If you want to know what the hottest issue is right now in our writing, then read this book. If you want to remember that feeling of amazement at the triumph of literature over the blindness of the establishment, get hold of this novel.” – Leon de Kock, Sunday Independent

About the author

Andrew Brown practises as an advocate in Cape Town, and is a reservist sergeant in the South African Police Service. He is the author of four novels: Inyenzi, about the Rwandan genocide, and the crime novels Coldsleep Lullaby, Refuge and Solace. In Street Blues he wrote about his experiences as a police reservist. Brown won the 2006 Sunday Times Fiction Prize for Coldsleep Lullaby, and his work has been shortlisted for the Alan Paton Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Africa Region). He is married, with three children.

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• Coldsleep Lullaby by Andrew Brown
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  EAN: 9781770223899
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• Refuge by Andrew Brown
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  EAN: 9781770223905
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Zebra Press and The Book Lounge invite you to the launch of Solace by Andrew Brown. The author will be in conversation with Michiel Heyns on 8 May at 5:30 for 6:00 PM.

See you there!

Event Details

• Date: Tuesday, 08 May 2012
• Time: 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM
• Venue: The Book Lounge,
  71 Roeland Street
  Cape Town | Map
• Guest Speaker: Michiel Heyns
• RSVP: booklounge@gmail.com, 021 462 2425

Book Details

• Solace by Andrew Brown
  Book Homepage
  EAN: 9781770223776
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