The Homebru Podcasts 2022: Recent Episodes
Exclusive Books
The Homebru Podcasts are back!
As part of our Homebru celebration we are excited to announce that we will once again be recording a series of Homebru author discussion podcasts with Jonathan Ancer, Lerato Sibanda and Dan Dewes.
Exclusive Books’ Homebru is a celebration of the diversity that is local writing, covering fresh perspectives on history, sharing never-told-before personal stories, challenging established views, and excavating the trough of political policy. Exclusive Books Homebru. Not the same old story.
The Winner of the 2021 Man Booker Prize! There is nothing unusual or remarkable about the Swart family, oh no, they resemble the family from the next farm and the one beyond that, just an ordinary bunch of white South Africans, and if you don’t believe it then listen to us speak ... The many voices of The Promise tell a story in four snapshots, each one centered on a family funeral, each one happening in a different decade. In the background, a different president is in power, and a different spirit hangs over the country, while in the foreground the family fights over what they call their farm, on a worthless piece of land outside Pretoria. Over large jumps in time, people get older, faces and laws and lives all change, while a brother and sister circle around a promise made long ago, and never kept ... www.exclusivebooks.co.za
Infused with colour, scenes from the Anglo-Boer War suddenly come to life in this striking collection of colourised photos from one of the biggest conflicts on South African soil. The Anglo-Boer War, or South African War, pitted the two Boer republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State against British imperial might. The effects of this devastating war on the political, economic and social landscape were felt long after its end. Volume 1 covers the conventional part of the war from October 1899 to June 1900 when Lord Roberts occupied the Boer republics. The photos show the Boer strikes into Natal and the Cape Colony, the sieges of British garrison towns at Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking, as well as some of the major battles of the war. The Boer War in Colour contains many iconic photos from the war, as well as several previously unpublished images. Over the past 120 years, hundreds of books on the Anglo-Boer War have been published, but this will be the first to show this conflict in full colour - introducing a fresh perspective and transforming it into living history. www.exclusivebooks.co.za
Look closely around you. Have you ever asked yourself what happens to all the girls who are in the system? Girls that are orphans… The boys… The mothers in shelters… All the battered women… The downfall of the most powerful… How the agenda began… I’m leaving the agenda BARE for those who seek to find it. I have a story for you. No mercy… Back like I never left! The savage, senseless murders of children and the youth. It carries Treasure’s story from Book 1 and ends with the fight for life between Paul and Tim Morgan. We look at the disappearance of young people, human trafficking, cults and mental illness in men. This story is inspired by real-life events and researched data from global social ills and Jackie looks into SA political faces that have sex scandals as part of her research. www.exclusivebooks.co.za
South Africa and its fraught political economy provide a fascinating case study into how it takes a particular brand of genius to thrive in a difficult domestic environment and to take those ideas and the businesses that deliver them global. Genius tells the stories of some of the extraordinary individuals, companies and industries whose ideas, products and raw materials solve problems and add value across the globe. Greatness comes from acting on purpose, and there is a generation of South Africans solving problems for the future. Learn how Pratley beat Armstrong to the moon, how a former Eskom quantity surveyor capitalised on Britain’s obsession with meerkats to create the UK’s most visible price comparison website, how to take a Mediterranean-style food concept to the Mediterranean, and how a device designed to beat diamond smuggling made it from the set of a popular US hospital drama into emergency rooms and pathology labs across the US. Genius examines what it takes to thrive in an increasingly complex, fast-paced and divisive global environment. These are lessons for anyone looking to succeed anywhere against the odds. www.exclusivebooks.co.za
Bookending Covid.When Saving a Stranger’s Life hit the shelves a few months into lockdown, none of us quite knew how a behind-the-scenes, scalpel-sharp, heartbreakingly funny book, shocking with the panic of wards filled to capacity, with patients dying because there was no oxygen, would take off. But take off it did, like a jet-propelled engine.And now, as life assumes a new normality, Anne is back.Along with her patients. www.exclusivebooks.co.za
This short story collection is filled with memorable characters, intriguing plots and twist endings. With his keen observations and insights into human nature, Mhlongo explores the things people do for each other, but also to each other. Injustice, corruption, love and desire are just some of the aspects of human interaction featured here. A family refuses to leave when the bank repossesses their house; stalking has an unexpected outcome; a desensitised morgue manager is spooked; and more! www.exclusivebooks.co.za
”White Chalk will blow you away by its honesty, depth and insightfulness. Terry Ann goes to places where others fear to tread. A memorable collection” – Lorraine Sithole
Following on from the critical acclaim of Those Who Live in Cages, Terry-Ann Adam’s latest book, White Chalk, is a collection of short stories set in Eldorado Park, the site of Terry-Ann’s inspiration. Her sentences positively glow as she documents the wonders and sadnesses of everyday life. These rich and powerful stories confirm Terry-Ann Adams’ place as one of the brightest stars of new South African writing.
Everyday life in these stories centres can be pregnancy, death, getting the fahfee numbers from gran, what to wear to a matric ball if you are from Eldos and you want to look like Princess Diana. These stories are nothing short of miraculous. www.exclusivebooks.co.za
Award-winning investigative journalist Karyn Maughan and former National Treasury insider Kirsten Pearson reveal the inside story behind South Africa's controversial nuclear deal. Through insider accounts, audio recordings and confidential minutes, the authors piece together the Zuma administration's secret dealings with Russia and how it went to extraordinary and dark lengths to conclude the nuke before Zuma's time ran out. www.exclusivebooks.co.za
After a string of police botches, Captain Ben Bliksem Booysen was assigned the Krugersdorp Killers' case in 2016. Eleven people had already been brutally murdered by a group calling themselves Electus Per Deus. Booysen made headlines when he arrested the mastermind Cecilia Steyn, and her accomplices. South Africa's own "Chuck Norris" takes the reader behind the scenes of the satanic killings, divulging new and shocking details of the crimes that have kept the nation on edge for almost a decade.
Too White to be Coloured, Too Coloured to be Black is a hybrid narrative, blending memoir with social commentary and political analysis.Always in search of "home", the book tracks Lagardien's vast experiences of a deeply lived life, always against a backdrop of "unbelonging" - first as a reporter in the turbulent 80s, to studying economics at the LSE, then achieving a doctorate at the University of Wales, to working as a speechwriter at the World Bank in Washington. A unique and brilliant read. www.exclusivebooks.co.za
"Liz McGregor has always been a great journalist but only South Africa could have wrung out of her this single-minded account of the murder of her beloved father. The book is an indescribable duty, exquisitely done." - Peter Bruce "An enthralling account of the journey by a daughter to meet with those convicted of her father's murder." - Trevor Manuel A searing, intimate memoir tracing the author's attempt to find out the truth about her father's murder. Robin McGregor, an older man who has recently moved into a small town outside Cape Town, is brutally murdered in his home. Cecil Thomas is convicted for the crime, but his trial leaves more questions than answers. As much as his daughter Liz McGregor tries to move beyond her grief - she finds new work, she even discovers love - she still wants answers. What drove Thomas to torture and kill a complete stranger? The author meets the murderer's family and discovers that he comes from a loving, comfortable home. He is educated and skilled, there is no apparent reason for his descent into delinquency. After protracted obstruction from the prison authorities, she finally gets to confront him but not without putting herself in danger. She finds answers, but not the answers she is looking for. Unforgiven tells a story seldom told: what happens to a family when one of their own is murdered? In a country where, year upon year, tens of thousands of people lose a loved one to violence. Where restorative justice is preached but not practiced. Where prisons are universities of crime. What would it take to achieve redemption? For the victim, the perpetrator and the country?