BOOK SA – News

Thursday night saw the launch of Idasa’s 2010 Democracy Index, Testing Democracy alongside the opening of Lobby Books, a joint indie bookshop venture that is less about competition, as we previously reported, than it is about collaboration. Lobby Books is a partnership between Mervyn Sloman, of The Book Lounge, and Henrietta Dax, of Clarke’s Books.

After the event was opened by Idasa executive director Paul Graham, UCT associate professor of law Richard Calland spoke about the importance of a bookstore at Idasa, and the creative use of the space overseen by Architect Justin Cooke.

Continuing along the theme of development, guest speaker Njabulo Ndebele outlined the context in which the Democracy Index series, established in a distinctly different political era, now finds itself. He spoke particularly of the need for a reshuffling of our nation’s priorities; a shift to putting the people of South Africa ahead of political parties.

Judith February and Neeta Misra-Dextra, the book’s editors, highlighted the findings that Ndebele described as an “attempt at a qualitative assessment of democracy and equality” with a focus on the inter-relatedness of democracy and development. Testing Democracy is the third iteration of the Idasa’s Democracy Index. May the works continue to help actuate our democratic society, still-latent for many.

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Book details

• Idasa’s Democracy Index 2010: Testing Democracy: Which way is South Africa going? edited by Judith February and Neeta Misra-Dexter
  EAN: 9781920409159
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Wednesday’s evening’s Book Lounge launch of Breyten Breytenbach’s Notes from the Middle World, a collection of controversial essays, was a riveting affair.

The conversation with poet Rustum Kozain – who was lauded as the leading cultural commentator following his recent deconstruction of Richard Poplak’s take on Die Antwoord – covered a broad reach of supremely pertinent topics, framed by trenchant and far-reaching questions.

In a fitting opening the author issued a generous acknowledgement that resonated through the substantial crowd: “This kind of bookstore is so precious and so wonderful. There are so few of them left in the world.”

Kozain, who has been reading Breytenbach’s books since he was a 14-year-old, claimed some anxiety about interviewing the author that so many South Africans love to hate. Breytenbach conceded a measure of nervousness of his own, but having noticed in the audience the advocate who’d saved him from many more years in jail back in the days, he was not concerned that anything too dire was imminent.

Kozain’s response to the essays and his questions reflected a deeply considered and empathic reading of the collection. He noted that this work could be viewed as the literature of witness, representing “multiple cries of despair and rage against the panoply of cultural stupidities, locally and internationally”. He asked, “What is the force that drives you to bear witness when you are exhausted by the overwhelming stupidities that confound you? Is it intellectual honesty or a personal drive to self-confession about the nature of bearing witness?”

Breytenbach noted that this book was not only about what is happening in South Africa, although many sense it as such. “I’m wanting to not write about South Africa now; I sensed I’ve reached a point of satiation where I’m just picking at a scab. In my case, I’m not sure I have much to contribute any more.”

He talked about his sense of being a writer in the contemporary world. “I grew up in a time where I was heavily influenced by those who were engaged in the what was happening in the world: Paris in the ’60s was hugely wonderful. Things were still alive, there was international solidarity and intelligent discourse. I had a long list of literary ancestors I hoped to live up to: Fanon, Camus. But I walked into many stupid situations, got involved with politics, and that’s never really gone away.”

He observed that the country is “nowhere close to what we could be and that rankles the most”. He urged writers to keep reinventing themselves, to keep exploring the interface between belonging and not belonging, to continue to reassert the “moral imagination” as they explore the ideological blindness that refuses to incorporate poor people under the current dispensation.

“Writers need to continue exploring the fine line between ethics and morals. We must establish the difference between politically correct and sloganised writing so that the words we write possess soul. We have to write with emotional gravity; with moral and ethical responsibility. What’s the use of the mind – that immensely powerful entity – if you can’t even change it?”

Watch four video clips from the occasion:

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Book details

• Notes from the Middle World by Breyten Breytenbach
  EAN: 9781931859912
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Alert! SA’s perspicacious man-about-digital-lit Arthur Attwell was the first to spot it: Kalahari.net has launched its ebooks store, softly-softly, just a few days ahead of the big debut of its rival Excluisve Books’ new web retail portal, which is also set to include an ebook component.

Kalahari’s ebook system appears dependent, like parts of Scribd.com’s (and Little White Bakkie’s), on Adobe Digital Editions (ADE), a version of Adobe’s popular Reader that allows publishers to create digital works with full “DRM” (that’s short for Digital Rights Management). DRM, in turn, determines how the content may be used and shared (or not) across devices. The upshot is that you won’t be able to read your Kalahari ebooks without ADE – a platform that also limits where you can read the book. (Some eReader devices don’t support ADE; at the moment, your best bet is to read the books on a laptop or netbook.)

So far, Kalahari appears to have imported ebook catalogues wholesale from third parties – there doesn’t appear to be a locally-driven component, at first glance at least – meaning that a fairly random selection of international titles will now be available to readers, but no local ones. Moreover, these titles come with equally random pricing. Compare, for instance, the ebook version of Michela Wrong’s It’s Our Turn to Eat (one of the few Africa-centric books we could find in Kalahari’s ebook store): buy the digital edition for R204.26 from right now; or order the softcover, currently going for R171.00 on Kalahari, and wait 5 days for delivery. The choice is yours!

Local tech website e-relevant offers excellent further analysis:

Kalahari.net eBook offering & pricing:

The available eBooks cover a broad range of categories, the Fiction category appears to have over 2,000 eBooks (based on 86 pages and 25 eBooks displayed per page). 500 of these titles fall into the Romance sub-category which tends to dominate the eBook Fiction market.

Searching for the keyword ‘ePub’ (dominant eBook format) returns 2,797 results. The price ranges (no. titles in brackets) of ePub format are:

Less than R100 (973)
R100 – R250 (1650)
R250 – R500 (168)
R500 – R1000 (4)
R1000 – R2500 (1)
More than R2500 (1)

Searching for the keyword ‘PDF’ (eBook format often used for academic & travel publications) returns 49,337 results. The price ranges (no. titles in brackets) of PDF format are:

Less than R100 (348)
R100 – R250 (1752)
R250 – R500 (9765)
R500 – R1000 (9837)
R1000 – R2500 (21285)
More than R2500 (6350)

• Keep reading at E-relevant

BOOK SA very much looks forward to covering the SA ebook wars (just as much as the Cape Town indie bookshop wars). Here’s hoping some heavy local ordnance arrives sooner rather than later!

Book details

• It’s Our Turn to Eat by Michela Wrong
  eBook Edition
  EAN: 9780007325115
  Click here to purchase

• It’s Our Turn to Eat: The story of a Kenyan whistleblower by Michela Wrong
  Softcover
  EAN: 9780007241965
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Alert! BOOK SA is not entirely convinced of the genuineness of the call, but Granta magazine is apparently looking for help compiling the top African short stories of the past 50 years. The following notice has been found poking out of various online literary thickets:

The Granta Book of The African Short Story

Edited by Helon Habila and Binyavanga Wainaina

This anthology will bring together the best of the best African short stories published in the last 50 years. You are invited to recommend any great short story you have read in a collection, a magazine, online, or heard on the radio, but it has to be by an African author.

The story could be in English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, or any major African language, but the final language of publication will be English. Send story title, author’s name, and any publication information you have to help us track your recommended story. Send before April 30, 2010, to: africastories2010@gmail.com

Is it real? BOOK SA will be calling Granta later on to find out. Even if not, however, the exercise of considering Africa’s top shorts might be worthwhile. From South Africa, off the top of my head, I’d recommend Siphiwo Mahala’s “The Suit Continued” and Ivan Vladislavic’s “The WHITES ONLY Bench” as strong contenders.

Your choices? Comments welcome below, as always.

Book details

• Granta 109: Work edited by Alex Clark
  EAN: 9781905881130
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• Granta 91: The View from Africa edited by Ian Jack
  EAN: 9781929001224
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Indie publishing house, Biscuit Publishing has released Xhosa Women’s Voices an anthology of life stories written by woman of the Cradock township and edited by Val McLane and Peggy ka Calata. This collection promises the casting of yet a different light on life during Apartheid.

Here’s the blurb:

In their own words, these representative Xhosa women describe their lives during the Apartheid regime and afterwards, in the new, post 1994 South Africa.
 
They have suffered immeasurable hardship and sorrow yet they retain, for the most part, a positive attitude and hope for the future. These strong, resilient women have faith in their God, their families, their community and their nation.

• Read further at Biscuit Publishing
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Book details

• Xhosa Women’s Voices: A prose anthology edited by Val McLane and Peggy ka Calata
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781903914403
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

In her latest Sunday Times books column, Kalk Bay Books‘ Ann Donald names Antjie Krog’s Begging to be Black as her non-fiction book of 2009. Donald hosted a talk with Krog and Marianne Thamm at her shop in February; if the book were read widely enough, Donald thinks, it salutary effects might even reverse the trend of racist commenting in the SA blogosphere!

As a white South African, I’d like to write to other whites about a book I believe offers a new way of understanding our role in the “race issue”. Into this divided country, one of our deepest thinkers, Antjie Krog, has dared to publish Begging to Be Black – my choice for non-fiction book of the year in 2009, and a book I maintain is one of the most important to be released post-1994.

I realise that is a sweeping statement, that many people don’t like Krog’s writing or her politics, and that many whites are of the opinion that the past is past and it’s time to move on. Nevertheless, I stand by it because in her book Krog lifts the carpet and asks us at least to look at the elephant in the room.

• Complete article in the Sunday Times

Book details

• Begging to be Black by Antjie Krog
  EAN: 9781770220706
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Alert! The Silverbird Galleria on Victoria Island, Lagos – a place more commonly associated with extravaganzas like Mr Nigeria World 2010 and Man of the Year 2009 – played host to a new literary series that kicked off in late February called The BookJam @ Silverbird.

The first BookJam attracted over 50 guests, who gathered to hear three Nigerian authors – including Jude Dibia, who is known in these parts – plus special guest Michela Wrong, read from and discuss their work:

Jude Dibia read from his second novel, ‘Unbridled’ at the BookJam, while Imasuen read excerpts from his debut novel, ‘To Saint Patrick’. Kafayat Quadri, a regular at literary meetings, provided a musical interlude.
 
Wrong read excerpts from her acclaimed book about Kenyan corruption, ‘It’s Our Turn to Eat’. As for the last reader, Kaine Agary, she said her book ‘Yellow Yellow’ (which won the 2008 NLNG Literature Prize) is a coming of age story about a young woman growing up in the Niger Delta.
 
The fact that some had to stand somehow paled into insignificance as the writers satisfied the curiosity of audience members who posed questions about their works. Ms Wrong seemed to hit the right note when she declared that, “Nigerian writers take refuge in fiction.” She drew parallels between the exile of Kenyan anti-corruption campaigner John Githongo, who she focuses on in her book, and the self-imposed exile of Nigeria’s corruption czar, Nuhu Ribadu.

• Read the complete article at 234Next.com

BookJams are set to take place once a month at the Silverbird. A promising initiative – let’s hope it gathers good steam!

Book details

• Unbridled by Jude Dibia
  EAN: 9781770095267
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

• It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower by Michela Wrong
  EAN: 9780007241972
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Photo courtesy From Caves of Rotten Teeth

Alert! Thursday 11 March will go down in history as the date upon which Cape Town’s first indie bookshop war began.

Tensions have been simmering, it must be said, for some time, with young-lion indie heavyweights The Book Lounge and Kalk Bay Books fighting for the spoils of the launch business, while the (comparatively) grizzled Clarke’s Books and The Bay Bookshop held themselves above the fray.

Now, however, one of the old warriors has decided to regird and chase the glory of yore, and has sent a mighty salvo across the bows of its rivals. The Bay Bookshop will open its new, fringe-of-the-CBD Waterkant premises with the launch of Evita Bezuidenhout’s Evita’s Kossie Sikelela on the fated Thursday, 11 March. This is an event that would normally count as The Book Lounge and/or Kalk Bay Books’ meat and drink.

Not to be outflanked, Kalk Bay Books has responded to the threat with the clever and wholly unlooked-for strategy of offering its customers… meat and drink. That’s right, Ann Donald will preside over the opening of her new bookshop’s annex, a restaurant called, erm, The Annex, later this month – possibly, even, on the night following The Bay’s launch, when the bookshop will host Breyten Breytenbach and Gus Ferguson.

But the loudest roar of defiance at The Bay Bookshop’s brazen challenge has come, not unsurprisingly, from The Book Lounge, which is countering the threat of a new indie store on its turf by… opening a new indie store of its own.

That’s right! The Book Lounge has teamed up with Idasa to start Lobby Books, a shop that will operate from Idasa’s Cape Town premises at 6 Spin Street in the CBD. It will be opened in grand style on – you guessed it – the 11th of March, with the launch of Idasa’s Democracy Index 2010. As counterweights against Tannie Evita’s flair – which The Bay Bookshop will be flaunting on the city’s west side – Lobby Books has lined up both Njabulo Ndebele and Richard Calland as the stars of its show.

What will these developments portend for Cape book lovers? Plenty of good reading, one suspects. BOOK SA will cover the new indie bookshop wars as diligently as possible! Meanwhile, here are the details of the second indie bookshop launch on the 11th of March:

Event Details

• Date: Thursday, 11 March 2010
• Time: 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM
• Venue: Lobby Books, Idasa
  6 Spin Street
  Cape Town | Map
• Guest Speakers: Njabulo Ndebele, Richard Calland
• RSVP: booklounge@gmail.com, 021 462 2425

Here’s a story on the Idasa book that ran in this week’s Sunday Times:

The dominance of South Africa’s ruling party was eroding the security of the country’s 16-year-old democracy, the Institute for Democracy warned in a book due out next week.

According to Testing Democracy, the country scored only 5.8 overall on a scale of 10. Idasa’s democracy index rates anything below five as unacceptable and anything above eight as being “as close to the democratic ideal as possible”.

In individual categories, South Africa scored 6.9 for electoral independence – but only 4.8 for accountability.

“Weak institutions – a significant characteristic of South Africa’s democracy – struggle to promote the effective functioning of the state and fail to provide the checks and balances necessary… ” said co-editors Neeta Misra-Dexter and Judith February.

• Read the complete article

Book Details

• Idasa’s Democracy Index 2010: Testing Democracy: Which way is South Africa going? by Judith February, edited by Neeta Misra-Dexter
  EAN: 9781920409159
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

The Fifth Annual Pride Book Fair was surely a highlight on Cape Town Pride 2010’s event calendar. Emcee Odidiva sparkled as he introduced the authors and editors of the growing body of South African GLBTI literature.

He reflected that the Book Fair is one of those slightly more serious events. “It’s a little more toned down and we get to deal with our issues and talk about them. And how many issues there are indeed. I’ve never heard of homophobia being so prominent in the news as in the last three months. Everywhere you turn, there’s drama out there. Malawi – damn! Kenya – pshewwwww! It just hasn’t stopped.”

He said, “We’re lucky in this beautiful country to be protected, to be allowed to be who we are. But now, as the son of a preacher and it being a Sunday, I’m so glad we’re getting to discuss topics like self image and shame with the heavyweights of literature here tonight”.

Miriam Dancing is a moving collection of narratives by lesbian, bisexual and transgender women who tell their personal stories of love and hope. Elise van Wyk started by lighting a candle to commemorate the 31 South African lesbians who, despite legal protection, had been killed in hate crimes. “I do this every time I do a presentation,” she said, “and every time, there are more women to be remembered.” Referring to a chapter in the book, “We Weep for our Sisters”, she said, “We honour them; they are not here to tell their stories.”

A slide show presented exquisite images of women who love women, alone and together, at work and breaking bread, at play and in embrace. The candid photography was tender, sensual and intimate, inspiring a sense of the vibrant and sacred lives of its subjects.

Odidi paid tribute to Kalk Bay Books and all the other independents that historically provided an outlet for the kind of literature he wanted to read.

Zinaid Meeran, author of Saracen at the Gates, cycled to Kalk Bay as part of his training for the Argus cycle tour. After tucking his bicycle in between the book shelves, he read from his debut novel. won the 2009 EU Literary Award and raised appreciative chuckles at the detailed description of “glazed erotic trances” and uncles perving over expanses of naked young flesh.

He spoke of the oddness that was his youth, marooned between the deep green ocean of sugar cane on one side of a narrow strip of KwaZulu-Natal coast, and the deep blue sea on the other. His Afrikaans grandfather, Coloured mother and Indian father (who seldom emerged from peanut-popping on the Lazyboy) didn’t make things easier. “I was confused on a number of fronts. I had no idea why people expected me to be a man; I couldn’t figure out why they thought I was Indian. I just didn’t get it. I knew I was all those things – Afrikaner, Coloured and Indian.” He said his book was a battle cry for those without racial, sexual or gender identity. “It’s for those who know they are something made up of fragments of history – those who have first hand experience of roots anarchy.”

Next up was Charl Marais and Joy Wellbeloved, co-editors of TRANS, launched in the Whale Well at Iziko last year. Marais talked about how the 26 contributors to this book experienced doctors and social workers who were ill-informed and didn’t know what treatment or advice to offer; familial bewilderment and colleagues who didn’t know how to deal with them; as well as religious leaders who prescribed guilt and damnation. He concluded: “Although transgenderism is classified as a psychiatric disorder, there’s nothing that a hormone pill and a surgeon’s scalpel can’t fix!”

The final contribution was a short story “Sweet is the Night Air”, the latest publication from independent publisher Robin Malan, who relit the candle to honour the event. Junkets Publisher’s Yes, I Am! was compiled by Malan with Ashraf Johaardien, and includes luminaries like Damon Galgut, André Carl van der Merwe, Gerald Kraak, K Sello Duiker, Zackie Achmat, David Lan, Peter Krummeck, Shaun de Waal and Pieter-Dirk Uys.

As book lovers and gay lovers filed out in the night, the full moon rising over the Helderberg sent silvery rays over the sea. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to imagine that Artemis had lingered between the shelves with a glass of Leopard’s Leap, heartily approving of the festivities.

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Book details

• Saracen at the Gates by Zinaid Meeran
  EAN: 9781770097704
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

• TRANS: Transgender Life Stories from South Africa edited by Ruth Morgan, Charl Marais, Joy Rosemary Wellbeloved
  EAN: 9781920196226
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

• Miriam Dancing compiled by Elise van Wyk

• Yes, I Am!: writing by South African gay men edited by Robin Malan, Ashraf Johaardien
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9780520458283
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Een van Abraham de Vries se vroegste herinneringe aan sy vriend en medeskrywer André P Brink is hul meningsverskil oor Opperman se gebruik van die woord “klong” in een van sy gedigte.

Vir De Vries was dit aanvaarbaar, want wit mense noem mekaar ook so, maar Brink het gesê: “Ek dink dit verskil as ‘n witte ‘n bruin mens so noem”.

Só het de Vries gisteraand vertel by die die viering van Brink se 75ste lewensjaar tydens die Woordfees op Stellenbosch. “Ek sal sy ongemak met die woord altyd onthou”. Tóé reeds het De Vries besef Brink dink anders en nuut.

Brink laat sy lesers ook anders dink met sy romans, meen prof Willie Burger.

Hy het daarop gewys dat Brink sedert die sestiger jare vernuwing teweeg gebring het. Hy doen dit steeds vandag, vier dekades later. “Ons bring hulde aan dié sjamaan wat ons denke verander.”

Brink het verduidelik dat hy daarna streef om met sy romans die onsêbare te sê. “Selfs al word dit miskien nooit werklik gesê nie, mik ek met alles wat ek skryf daarna.”

Hy vergelyk dié strewe met die briefie van ‘n Joodse seuntjie wat in ‘n konsentrasiekamp gesterf het. Hulle moes teken wat hulle van die konsentrasiekamp onthou. Die seuntjie het geskryf: “Hier het ek geen vlinder gesien”.

“Al het hy nie ‘n vlinder gesien nie, roep sy briefie ‘n vlinder in ‘n mens se gedagtes op, sodat jy dit nooit weer sal vergeet nie,” het Brink gesê. “Dit is kuns: Om uit afwesigheid iets te maak.”

Brink het sy lesers bedank en beloof om die woorde wat hy nog binne hom het “soos vlinders wat nie is nie” uit te stort, sodat hulle in ons gedagtes kan bly dwarrel en ons denke vernuwe.

Die gaste is ook vermaak deur die vioolspel van Sang Woo Jun en die smaak van Black Bottle Scotch Whisky.

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Boekbesonderhede

• ‘n Vurk in die pad deur André P Brink
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9780798149969
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• A Fork in the Road by André Brink
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  EAN: 9781846552441
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