Shirley Kossick

Despite its numerous sad revelations, Anne Schuster’s <i>Foolish Delusions</i>, is an absorbing read and a fine, multi-faceted achievement, writes Shirley Kossick.

<i>Souvenir</i> — Jane Rosenthal’s second novel for adults — is set in the Karoo in the late 21st-century, and contains striking descriptions of tidal waves that devour the coastline. Shirley Kossick reviews. <i>Souvenir</i>
By <b>Jane Rosenthal</b>
(Bromponie)

Remembered most, perhaps, for her stormy affair with the artist Modigliani, Beatrice Hastings is "A treasure house … researched with true scholarly passion." Shirley Kossick looks at an analysis of a distinctive literary talent.

A tribute to a mother’s influence, Kate Turkington’s <i>Doing it with Doris</i> is a collection of tales about the journeys, adventures and encounters inspired by inspired by her mother’s philosophy of "make it happen". Shirley Kossick takes an armchair trip.

In her debut novel, Barbara Adair imaginatively recreates a compelling portrayal of the lives of literary figures Paul and Jane Bowles. Shirley Kossick reviews "this fine book with the powerful story to tell".

Trezza Azzopardi’s first book, <i>The Hiding Place</i>, was shortlisted for the 2000 Booker Prize and is a first-person account of a Maltese child growing up in Tiger Bay, Cardiff. In her second novel, <i>Remember Me</i>, the heroine — also a first-person narrator — is again something of an outsider. Shirley Kossick reviews.

These 12 stories were originally published in Toronto during Rayda Jacobs’s 27-year exile from her own country (<i>The Middle Children</i>, 1994). As she mentions in the acknowledgements, they are "of especial significance because they are ‘fledgling stories’ — stories written while I was living in Canada, longing for home". Shirley Kossick reviews her latest collection of short stories.

Rosamund Haden is another of the talented young South African writers who has emerged with flying colours from the University of Cape Town’s creative writing MA course. Though she has published several children’s books and short stories, <i>The Tin Church</i> is her first adult novel. Shirley Kossick reviews.

This novel centres on the sleepy — not to say dying — town of Vlenterhoek in the remote Northern Cape. Like the author herself, Leah Hopkins returns home to South Africa after a long absence in Canada, writes Shirley Kossick of <i>Boundaries</i>.

Delving into a range of new fiction, Shirley Kossick looks at two books that explore effects of colonialism against backdrops of soaring and Australian and New Zealand landscapes, as well as a reflection of lost culture set in 1879 Natal, a reflection on the experiences of indentured Indian sugar-cane labourers.

<b>Review:</b> <i>I Flying</i>

by Finuala Dowling

(Carapace)

<b>Book review: </b> <i>No Way Out</i>

by Zinhle Carol Mdakane

(Life History Series, University of Durban-Westville)

Born in South Africa, Lindsey Collen has lived in Mauritius since 1974 and has been a controversial figure there for her espousal of women’s rights. Though her novel, <i>The Rape of Sita</i> (1994), won the prestigious Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, it was banned in Mauritius where Muslim pressure groups objected to its forceful feminism.

The shortlist for this year’s "Boeke" Prize — an Exclusive Books promotion — offers six very different novels, writes Shirley Kossick .