Ivan Vladislavic wins the 2011 M-Net Award

Ivan Vladislavić's new novel DOUBLE NEGATIVE wins the English category of the 2011 M-Net Award. In their 20th year, the awards count as among South Africa's most prestigious, and are awarded in four language categories - English, Afrikaans, Nguni and Sotho - and a "film" category, for a novel showing the greatest promise for translation into a visual medium.
 
This year's other winners are:
Afrikaans category: Die benederyk by Ingrid Winterbach (Human & Rousseau)
Nguni category: Inkululeko Isentabeni by Ncedile Saule (Hibbard Publishers)
Sotho category: Lehutso by KJ Sekele (Hibbard Publishers)
Film category: Happiness is a Four-letter Word by Cynthia Jele (Kwela)

Click here to view the full shortlist.

Ivan Vladislavić's DOUBLE NEGATIVE is published as a standalone novel in South Africa by Umuzi. In DOUBLE NEGATIVE apartheid-era university drop-out Neville Lister is in danger, his father thinks, of 'falling in with the wrong crowd' and so is sent to eminent photographer Saul Auerbach - 'a man of strong convictions, but who has learned to direct them' - to gain some sense of perspective and direction. And so begins a delicate, funny and beautifully written exploration of the art of depiction, of the haunting power of photographs - those 'odd little memorials that owe so much to chance and intuition'. In three sections - 'Available Light', 'Dead Letters', and 'Small Talk' - this spare yet memorable novel tracks the changing city of Johannesburg and Neville's path to career success - though that first day and what they saw, and what Saul Auerbach photographed then, are things he will never forget. DOUBLE NEGATIVE is a brilliant meditation on our ways of seeing and recording, on how and what we remember, and the art of being lost.

Praise for Ivan Vladislavić

'One of the most imaginative minds at work in South African literature today.' -- André Brink

'Vladislavić is without doubt the most significant writer in South Africa today.' -- Focus on Africa

'Vladislavić is a rare, brilliant writer.' -- Sunday Times (SA)

Lauren Beukes and Ivan Vladislavic are shortlisted for the M-Net Literary Awards

ZOO CITY by Lauren Beukes and DOUBLE NEGATIVE by Ivan Vladislavić have both been shortlisted for the M-Net Literary Awards. With categories in place to represent all of South Africa's indigenous languages, ZOO CITY and DOUBLE NEGATIVE are both on the English language short list. The list also includes Craig Higginson's LAST SUMMER, and IN A STRANGE ROOM by Damon Galgut. The winners will be announced on Saturday, 18 June, at a gala event in Cape Town.

This is the twentieth year of the M-Net Literary Awards, the prestigious awards celebrating the writing of South African authors in all of their indigenous languages. The prize money for each of the category winners has been increased to R50,000 (from R30,000 last year). Previous winner of the Film Category, a novel which is believed to have the biggest potential for a screenplay, was Deon Meyer's 13 HOURS.

ZOO CITY is published by Angry Robot in the UK and the USA, and by Jacana in South Africa. It was the winner of the 2010 Arthur C. Clark Award for science fiction novel of the year.

DOUBLE NEGATIVE is the latest novel from Ivan Vladislavić, whose work has received many awards including the Sunday Times Fiction Prize and most recently, the 2010 University of Johannesburg Award. DOUBLE NEGATIVE is published by Umuzi/ Random House (South Africa).

Praise for Lauren Beukes:

'Beukes's energetic noir phantasmagoria...crackles with original ideas...Beukes skilfully employs all the twists of first-rate noir...powerful indeed.' -- Jeff Vandermeer, The New York Times

'Beukes delivers a thrill ride that gleefully merges narrative styles and tropes, almost single-handedly pulling the "urban fantasy" subgenre back towards its groundbreaking roots.' -- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Praise for Ivan Vladislavić:

'Vladislavić is without doubt the most significant writer in South Africa today.'-- Focus on Africa

'Vladislavić is a rare, brilliant writer. His work eschews all cant. Its sheer verve, the way it burrows beneath ossified forms of writing, its discipline and the distance it places between itself and the jaded preoccupations of local fiction, distinguish it.' -- Sunday Times (SA)

Deon Meyer and Monique Roffey on Independent’s ‘50 best summer reads’ list

Deon Meyer's latest thriller THIRTEEN HOURS and Monique Roffey's new memoir WITH THE KISSES OF HIS MOUTH both feature on the Independent's '50 best summer reads' list.

To view the full list of 50, please click here.

PRAISE FOR WITH THE KISSES OF HIS MOUTH

'Intelligent, dark, thorny but redemptive book about sex. Men, read it at your peril.' -- Robert Rowland Smith, author of BREAKFAST WITH SOCRATES

'At last a book about female sexuality that isn't coy or vainglorious. With the Kisses of his Mouth is a fresh look at love, lust and longing in the 21st century. And it's funny too.' -- Daisy Goodwin

'From Craigslist to tantra classes, this is a heartbreaking and, at times, explicit memoir of rediscovery' -- Elle

'Less of Belle de Jour's lifestyle raunchiness and far more honesty about how sex feels - as opposed to how it looks…Roffey's writing soars when she's describing the intense grief she experienced at the end of the great love affair that prompted her journey…Roffey is both wise and moving when examining her desire for romance; her propensity for creation myths in relationships; and how her ex "had a talent for love"…Roffey asks serious questions about what place sex has in modern relationships, and is blessed with admirable honesty.'  -- Alexandra Heminsley, Independent on Sunday

'Monique Roffey is an acclaimed fiction writer - her THE WHITE WOMAN ON THE GREEN BICYCLE was shortlisted for last year's Orange Prize. Her…honest, self-exposing new memoir…is about sex…and about far more - it's a candid exploration of the vulnerability of middle-age, as well as a fairly brutal examination of the human heart and its endless capacity to be broken…This book…is astoundingly brave. It is funny. It speeds along. It has magic at its heart - that indefinable sliver of human warmth and hope that all the best, most searching memoirs seem to have. Moreover, Roffey's somehow irrepressible willingness to share begins to seem generous, infectious even…I found myself knocked off course in a rather moving an indescribable way…she actually…makes a writerly choice to remain "blind" because "I wanted to turn the darkness in me into prose". Well, good. Because isn't that exactly what we need writers - the brightest, most adventurous and self-scrutinising ones, like…Roffey - to do: to take that same darkness and turn it into something so blazingly alive that it can shine a little light on the rest of us?' -- Julie Myerson, The Observer

PRAISE FOR THIRTEEN HOURS

'Deon Meyer is one of the unsung masters. THIRTEEN HOURS proves he should be on everyone's reading list. This book is great!' -- Michael Connelly

'THIRTEEN HOURS has breathtaking suspense, psychological understanding, and one of the most inspiring detectives ever. Deon Meyer deserves his international reputation.' -- Thomas Perry

'Try picking up THIRTEEN HOURS and setting it down. Try. You can't do it. I'm a pro, and I couldn't do it.' -- Don Winslow, author of THE POWER OF THE DOG and SAVAGES

'Best-selling South African novelist Meyer delivers another exciting if brutally violent crime novel. Expertly cutting away from the politicized police investigation to the plight of a terrified young girl literally running for her life, Meyer also steeps his novel in the day-to-day life of a country still reeling in the wake of radical transition.' -- Joanne Wilkinson, Starred Review, Atlantic Monthly

'What makes this novel so outstanding is its setting - the new South Africa, where jaded white detectives are still getting used to working with black and "coloured" (in the country's curious parlance) colleagues - and Meyer's superlative talent for suspense... Some of the best crime ¬fiction is rooted in contemporary events. Twenty years after the release of Nelson Mandela, South Africa remains a troubled place, and Meyer's novels give rare insights into the texture of everyday life. Above all, though, this is a vigorous, exciting novel that combines memorable characters and plot with edge-of-the-seat suspense.' -- Joan Smith, Sunday Times

Listen to THE ELEPHANT KEEPER in the Woman's Hour Drama on BBC Radio 4

This adaptation of Christopher Nicholson's vivid and captivating novel was broadcast in 5 parts and is currently available on the BBC iPlayer.

A novel of great intelligence, poignancy and originality, about the extraordinary relationship between a female elephant and her keeper, a young stable boy. Set in late 18th century England, it follows them from the Bristol docks to a landed estate in the countryside, and finally, to London. The novel raises questions about sexuality and violence, freedom and captivity, and about the nature of story-telling, but most of all it is the story of an unlikely but wonderful love between a man and an animal - a love which has its costs as well as its rewards.

The radio dramatisation is written by Elizabeth Burke and produced by Kate McAll, with a cast including Stuart McLoughlin, Sarah Ovens and Bertie Carvel. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011p5hn/Womans_Hour_Drama_The_Elephant_Keeper_Episode_1/

Author found in Shoreham Harbour…

Peter James performs a fantastic stunt at the launch party for his latest book, DEAD MAN'S GRIP, which took place at Shoreham Harbour on May 26. Please click here to watch the video.

Since publication, DEAD MAN'S GRIP is No 1 in the hardback bestseller list for the second week running and according to Nielsen Bookscan has sold nearly 28,000 copies. Massive posters of DEAD MAN'S GRIP have also been placed in London's busiest rail and tube stations. This one is taken at Victoria Station.

Praise for Peter James:

'Peter James creates worlds as familiar as your backyard, but doubly spicy, smart, and entertaining.  Danger and drama leap from every page, as the master delivers precisely what every reader wants:  plenty of sizzle and emotional clout.' -- Steve Berry

'Roy Grace ... is fast becoming one of the more memorable coppers in modern crime fiction ... A first class police procedural.' -- The Times