Deon Meyer’s LEO storms the South African charts

Congratulations to Deon Meyer – whose new novel LEO celebrates its fourth consecutive week at the top of the official South African charts, having sold more than 2,500 copies in its first week and continuing to dominate the bestseller lists ever since.

LEO marks the return of Meyer’s iconic detectives Benny Griessel – now also the star of the new 5-part M-Net series DEVIL’S PEAK – and his police detective partner Vaughn Cupido. LEO follows on from 2020’s DONKERDRIF (English title: THE DARK FLOOD), which won the Adult Fiction prize at the 2021 SA Book Awards, and was longlisted for the prestigious CWA International Dagger. LEO is published in South Africa by Human & Rousseau; the English translation, by K. L. Seegers, will be out with Hodder in the UK in 2024.

In Meyer’s trademark style, LEO weaves together several seemingly unconnected strands into a tense and gripping investigation. A young female student is found dead on a mountain trail near the university town of Stellenbosch, where Benny and Vaughn have been demoted and sent to work at the local police station. In the north of the country, a beautiful wildlife guide with a mysterious past is recruited by a group of special forces soldiers to act as a honeytrap, part a dangerous multi-million-dollar heist that goes tragically wrong. And back in leafy Stellenbosch, a local businessman is found murdered in what looks like a professional hit – suffocated by filler foam sprayed down his throat. A message to keep silent – but about what? You need a cool head to unravel it all, under enormous pressure. You have to stay calm, focused – and sober. Benny may be sober, but he’s not feeling calm. Because in just a few weeks he is set to get married, a date that’s racing towards him like an express train. Big trouble, on every front.

About Deon Meyer

Deon Meyer lives in Cape Town. His books are sold in 23 countries, and have been awarded many prizes around the world: the Deutsche Krimi Prize in Germany, the ATKV Prize in South Africa, the Martin Beck Award in Sweden and Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière and Le Prix Mystère de la Critique in France. COBRA was shortlisted for the 2015 CWA International Dagger, THIRTEEN HOURS was shortlisted for the 2010 CWA International Dagger, and HEART OF THE HUNTER, was longlisted for the 2005 IMPAC Prize and selected as one of Chicago Tribune’s ‘10 best mysteries and thrillers of 2004’. THE DARK FLOOD was longlisted for the 2023 CWA Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation.

Praise for LEO

‘When a new Deon Meyer lands on the shelves, I feel like W.H. Auden: “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone / Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone.” All 490 pages of such a book have to be devoured in one sitting. Keep it for the holidays, or for a weekend when you have nothing planned… You’ll be on the edge of your seat, chewing your nails… Meyer is the best, if you ask me... Buy LEO and take a day or two off work.’ – Deborah Steinmair, Vrye Weekblad

Praise for Deon Meyer

‘Deon Meyer's name on the cover is a guarantee of crime writing at its best.’ – Tess Gerritsen

‘Deon Meyer should be on everyone's reading list.’ – Michael Connelly

‘Deon Meyer is the monarch of South African crime novelists.’ – Barry Forshaw, Financial Times

‘Unquestionably the supremo of South African crime-writing fiction’ – Peter James

‘Deon Meyer is not just South Africa’s greatest crime writer, he’s up there with the best in the world.’ – Marcel Berlins, The Times

‘Deon Meyer is good at sketching a realistic country, people we recognise and grow accustomed to, and telling a darn good yarn.’ – Diane De Beer, The Star

‘Deon Meyer is one of the best crime writers on the planet.’ – Mail on Sunday

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Hannah Lowe shortlisted for the 2024 Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer’s Award

Photo credit: Lealle

Costa Book Award-winner Hannah Lowe has been shortlisted for the highly prestigious 2024 Eccles Centre & Hay Festival Writer’s Award.

The award is given annually to two writers in the early stages of a new book relating to the Americas, with the £20,000 prize now in its 13th year. Along with the £20,000 grant, the winners also receive a residency at the British Library, the chance to appear at future Hay Festival editions with their published work, and the opportunity to work with the Eccles Centre to develop and facilitate activities and events related to their research at the British Library. Past winners include Olivia Laing, John Burnside and Ayanna Lloyd Banwo.

The other writers on this year’s shortlist are Mexican novelist Julian Herbert Chavez, Irish art critic Isobel Harbison, Bolivian novelist Rodrigo Hasbún, British-American historian Sarah M.S. Pearsall, and Chilean novelist Alia Trabucco Zerán. You can read about them and their work here.

Hannah’s submitted work for the award was a lyrical, hybrid memoir, with the working title of MOY: In Search of Nelsa Lowe. It uses the intimate story of her Chinese Jamaican aunt – a folk healer, amputee, hostess of a famous waterfront restaurant, and ‘madam’ of a portside brothel – as a device for exploring the history of the Chinese in Jamaica, women’s sexual labour, and the culture of folk healing.

The judges said: ‘We were enthralled by Hannah Lowe’s inventive approach to conjuring Nelsa, her Afro-Chinese Jamaican aunt. Remarkably, Lowe evokes Nelsa through a single portrait photo and along the way excavates other marginalised women whose lives are rarely noted in official archives.’

The winners will be announced at an awards reception at the British Library on Wednesday 29 November.

About Hannah Lowe

Hannah Lowe was born in Ilford to an English mother and Jamaican-Chinese father. Her 2021 poetry collection, THE KIDS, won the Costa Book of the Year Award 2021 after winning the Costa Poetry Award. It was also shortlisted for the 2021 T.S. Eliot Prize, was a Poetry Book Society Choice for Autumn 2021 and an Irish Times and Guardian poetry book of the year.

Her first book-length collection, CHICK, won the 2015 Michael Murphy Memorial Prize and was selected for the Poetry Book Society’s Next Generation Poets 2014 promotion. Her second full-length collection, CHAN, was published by Bloodaxe in 2016, followed by a pamphlet, THE NEIGHBOURHOOD (Out-Spoken Press) in 2019. Her prose memoir, LONG TIME NO SEE, exploring her relationship with her half-Chinese, half-Jamaican immigrant father, was published by Periscope in 2015.

Praise for THE KIDS

‘This is a playful yet moving collection that will make the reader frown and laugh, sometimes both at once.’ – Mary Jean Chan, The Guardian, ‘The Best Recent Poetry’

‘Lowe’s social conscience, grounded register and frank humanity recall Tony Harrison...’ – Tristram Fane Saunders, The Telegraph

‘Hannah Lowe's brilliant and entertaining book of sonnets, THE KIDS, is one of the most humorous and tender collections of recent times.’ – Sean Hewitt, The Irish Times, ‘Best poetry of 2021’

‘THE KIDS is the real deal. A page turner about the experience of teaching and being taught, it made us want to punch the air with joy... A contemporary book that buzzes with life while re-energising the sonnet that Shakespeare would recognise. All readers will find something of themselves here.’ – Costa Poetry Award Judges Rishi Dastidar, Ian Duhig and Maya Jaggi

‘A book to fall in love with – it’s joyous, it’s warm and it’s completely universal. It’s crafted and skilful but also accessible… I felt the centre of gravity in the room was with THE KIDS because it fulfils everything that the Costa Book of the Year should be. It’s very readable, very accessible, broad appeal, it’s the sort of book that you could hand to anybody because you would know that everyone would get something out of it… It is a book of poetry, it’s a book of sonnets, but Hannah Lowe is in no way constrained by the form of the poetry. The language just speaks very directly to the reader. It’s a very audacious, utterly successful book, I think, because it’s taking a classical art form, that goes back hundreds of years, and making it bang up-to-date, completely contemporary. We all thought it was so fresh and original.’ – Reeta Chakrabarti, chair of Costa Prize judges

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Henrietta Rose-Innes wins the University of Johannesburg Prize for Translation

Credit: Martin Figura

Congratulations to novelist, short story writer and translator Henrietta Rose-Innes, who has been awarded this year’s University of Johannesburg Prize for Translation for her work on the English language edition of Etienne van Heerden’s acclaimed A LIBRARY TO FLEE (Tafelberg, 2022).

The prize recognises the outstanding translation of a text from any language into any one of the official South African languages, with Henrietta working from Etienne’s original Afrikaans text DIE BIBLIOTEEK AAN DIE EINDE VAN DE WÊRELD to produce this book: a feat made all the more remarkable by the text’s expansive length, running to nearly 800 pages in its original edition.

‘Henrietta’s exemplary work in bridging linguistic and cultural gaps through translation has earned her this esteemed accolade,’ writes the University in a press release. ‘UJ sends its warmest congratulations to Henrietta Rose-Innes for her exceptional contribution to the world of translation and for her dedication to fostering greater cultural understanding through the art of language. Her remarkable work will undoubtedly leave a lasting impact on the world of literature and multilingual communication.’

Etienne van Heerden’s A LIBRARY TO FLEE book was called ‘huge, inventive, fascinating, funny, troubling, and highly courageous’ by Professor David Atwell (co-editor of The Cambridge History of South African Literature) and longlisted for the 2023 Sunday Times Literary Awards in South Africa.

About Henrietta Rose-Innes

Henrietta is a prize-winning author and literary translator with degrees in archaeology and biology, and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. She has worked in publishing, scriptwriting and as a creative writing teacher. She is the author of four novels: SHARK'S EGG (SA: Kwela 2000), THE ROCK ALPHABET (SA: Kwela 2004), NINEVEH (SA: Umuzi imprint, 2011; UK: Gallic Books, 2016), and her latest novel GREEN LION, published by Umuzi in 2015 and by Gallic Books in 2017. She is also an acclaimed writer of short fiction, and her 2010 collection of short stories, HOMING, features the 2008 Caine Prize winning story 'Poison' and the 2010 Willesden Prize runner-up, 'Falling'.

Praise for Henrietta Rose-Innes

‘Henrietta Rose-Innes writes an admirably taut clean prose.’ — J M Coetzee.

‘Rose-Innes’ writing is as entertaining as it is subtle – a rare combination.’ — Steven Amsterdam, author of WHAT THE FAMILY NEEDED.

‘I love Henrietta Rose-Innes’s work. With plotlines that are wittily subversive and language that is whippet-lean, it is long overdue for discovery by a wider readership.’ — Patrick Gale, author of NOTES FROM AN EXHIBITION

‘Rose-Innes writes with a dreamlike, lyrical beauty, but she has the ability to keep a tight hold on her plot. Each of her works is a finely wrought delight.’ – Jennifer Crocker, Cape Times

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Deon Meyer’s DEVIL’S PEAK to premiere on M-Net in South Africa

DEVIL’S PEAK, the long-awaited screen debut for Deon Meyer’s troubled detective Benny Griessel, arrives on South African screens this weekend, with the first episode airing on Sunday, 29 October at 20:00 (SAST) on M-Net. Based on Deon Meyer’s prize-winning 2005 novel of revenge, forgiveness and suspense, the 5-part series follows Griessel as he is tasked with tracking down a vigilante killer whose crimes are causing a stir in Cape Town. Meyer’s latest novel LEO, starring Benny Griessel and his detective comrade Vaughn Cupido, is also just out in Afrikaans from Human & Rousseau in South Africa — a double treat for fans!

‘I’m absolutely delighted and so very proud to finally see Benny Griessel and his world come alive on screen, thanks to a brilliant team of local and international talent,’ says Meyer. ‘DEVIL’S PEAK was the first novel in which Benny became a protagonist, and now, it’s his debut on the box. Exciting stuff!’

Produced by Lookout Point and Expanded Media Productions, with backing by BBC Studios and Multichoice Studios, the series stars Hilton Pelser (THE KISSING BOOTH, MOFFIE) as Benny, with Sisanda Henna (who starred in previous Deon Meyer adaptation TRACKERS), Tarryn Wyngaard, Shamilla Miller, and Masasa Mbangeni. The 5 x 1-hour series is directed by Jozua Malherbe (JUSTICE SERVED, GRIEKWASTAD) and written by Matthew Orton (MOON KNIGHT, OPERATION FINALE). International distribution for the show is being handled by BBC Studios.

On behalf of M-Net, Director for Premium Channels Waldimar Pelser said ‘M-Net is proud to bring our viewers a first-class global production with deep local roots. This is a story that could only have played out in South Africa, where the dark underworld of crime pierces – on an almost daily basis – the bubble in which those who can, seek security and comfort. DEVIL’S PEAK shows the extraordinarily beautiful city of Cape Town with and without its mask. It’s the tale of iconic detective Griessel’s struggle against external and internal demons to find justice for others and redemption for himself. It’s also the story of a father willing to do anything to avenge the death of his young son. Not all deaths, the story suggests, are mourned equally. We hope DEVIL’S PEAK will be a story from which it is impossible to look away.’

DEVIL’S PEAK, the first of six novels featuring the detective as central character, sees the talented but broken Benny Griessel tracking down a righteous vigilante killer whose crimes are capturing the imagination of the city. Meanwhile, grieving father Thobela Mpayipheli seeks justice after the untimely murder of his son. Benny and Thobela are brought into the orbit of a trapped mother, Christine, who is willing to do anything to achieve a better life for herself and her daughter, and the fates of these three characters become inextricably linked. Combining gripping tension with uncompromising authenticity, DEVIL’S PEAK offers an original South African take on the investigative thriller for today.

Originally published in Afrikaans as INFANTA in 2005, DEVIL’S PEAK was awarded the ATKV Prize in South Africa and won the Svenska Oversatta Kriminalroman (Martin Beck) Award and the Readers’ Award from CritiquesLibres.com in October 2010.

The latest Benny Griessel thriller, LEO, is published in Afrikaans by Human & Rousseau in South Africa and already storming the charts. Rights are sold to Hodder in the UK and Commonwealth (with Jonathan Ball to publish in South Africa), Bruna in Holland, Aufbau in Germany and Gallimard in France, with more deals pending.

About Deon Meyer

Deon Meyer lives in Cape Town. His books are sold in 23 countries, and have been awarded many prizes around the world: the Deutsche Krimi Prize in Germany, the ATKV Prize in South Africa, the Martin Beck Award in Sweden and Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière and Le Prix Mystère de la Critique in France. COBRA was shortlisted for the 2015 CWA International Dagger, THIRTEEN HOURS was shortlisted for the 2010 CWA International Dagger, and HEART OF THE HUNTER, was longlisted for the 2005 IMPAC Prize and selected as one of Chicago Tribune’s ‘10 best mysteries and thrillers of 2004’. THE DARK FLOOD was longlisted for the 2023 CWA Dagger for Crime Fiction in Translation. Several of his books have been filmed, broadcast and streamed and others are in development for film and television now. His latest novel is LEO (Human & Rousseau, 2023).

Praise for the novel DEVIL’S PEAK

‘It isn’t just about the action. A far, far cry from your basic ‘cops and robbers’ or blow-by-blow ‘good guys vs bad guys’, DEVIL’S PEAK is a grown-up and multi-faceted tale, tough and visceral in tone, but also rich in flawed characters and deeply redolent of both urban and rural South Africa; not just the geographic landscape, but the political and social scene as well.’ – Paul Finch

‘This is one of those entertainment fictions that teaches one more than any textbook or documentary. This thriller is a fascinating portrayal of one aspect of life in post-apartheid South Africa…winding up the tension to a gripping, shocking climax. Highly recommended.’ – Literary Review

‘Deon Meyer is…one of the sharpest and most perceptive thriller writers around…Meyer paints a wonderful picture of the dark side of the rainbow nation… Against the odds Meyer leaves us with a resolution that is both poignant and supremely satisfying. In no way is this a negative book about the new South Africa. It makes the place come alive with a breathless urgency that recalls the 1940s Los Angeles of Dashiel Hammet or Raymond Chandler: a bit mad, a bit bad, a bit dangerous, but exotically vibrant, a society in adolescence. Think of Meyer in the way that you might have regarded a bottle of Cape red a dozen years ago – dark, strong with an unusual but beguilingly moreish taste. If it can produce popular literature as good as this, the new South Africa has a lot going for it.’ – Peter Millar, The Times

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Gallic Books acquire Edward Carey’s dazzling EDITH HOLLER

EDITH HOLLER, Edward Carey’s first full-length novel since 2018’s internationally acclaimed LITTLE, has  been sold to Gallic Books. Gallic’s Managing Director, Joe Harper, acquired the UK and British Commonwealth rights to this ‘raucous, blistering, beautiful, and totally indelible’ novel from Isobel Dixon with publication planned for autumn 2024, accompanied by a ‘standout publicity campaign’ from FMcM.

EDITH HOLLER tells the story of a bright, inquisitive girl who spends her days among the boisterous denizens of the Holler Theatre, warned by her domineering father that the playhouse will literally tumble down if she should ever leave its confines. Fascinated by tales of the city she has only seen through her window, Edith decides to pen a play of her own: a stage adaptation of the legend of Mawther Meg, whose local delicacy Beetle Spread is rumoured to have been made from the blood of children.

But when her father suddenly announces his engagement to a peculiar, imposing woman named Margaret Unthank, heir to the actual Beetle Spread fortune, Edith scrambles to protect her father, the theatre, and her play – the one thing that is truly hers – from the newcomer’s sinister designs.

Edward Carey says: ‘I am so very delighted to be back with my beloved Gallic for my new novel EDITH HOLLER. Gallic have looked after my books in the most generous and ingenious ways, and I couldn't be happier to have a fourth book published by this incredible team.’

Joe Harper says: ‘We are thrilled to be once again publishing Edward Carey at Gallic Books. Teeming with a theatrical cast of characters and brought to life by Edward’s fantastical illustrations, EDITH HOLLER is a surprisingly modern fable of one young woman’s struggle to escape her family’s control, and in doing so, craft her own destiny. It is timely, brilliant, a love letter to Norwich, and will be adored by Edward’s many readers new and old.’

Isobel Dixon says: ‘It’s a joy when an author is given creative space by dedicated publishers. Edward Carey’s blazing talent and originality is in full force in this splendid book and I am so pleased that Edith and the Holler Theatre are in excellent hands with Joe Harper and the Gallic Books team.’

La Nave di Teseo have bought Italian rights, while Riverhead will publish EDITH HOLLER in the USA and Canada at the end of the month. See below for more on the pre-publication praise and Starred Publisher’s Weekly review affirming Edward Carey as a major literary talent.

About Edward Carey

Edward Carey is a writer and illustrator who was born in North Walsham, Norfolk, England, during an April snowstorm. Like his father and his grandfather, both officers in the Royal Navy, he attended Pangbourne Nautical College, where the closest he came to following his family calling was playing Captain Andy in the school’s production of Showboat. Afterwards he joined the National Youth Theatre and studied drama at Hull University.

He has written plays for the National Theatre of Romania and the Vilnius Small State Theatre, Lithuania. In England his plays and adaptations have been performed at the Young Vic Studio, the Battersea Arts Centre, and the Royal Opera House Studio. He has collaborated on a shadow puppet production of Macbeth in Malaysia, and with the Faulty Optic Theatre of Puppets.

Edward has lived in England, France, Romania, Lithuania, Germany, Ireland, Denmark, and the United States and now teaches Creative Writing at the University of Austin, Texas. He was awarded the prestigious Italian Fernanda Pivano Prize in 2016 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019.

He is the author of the novels OBSERVATORY MANSIONS, ALVA & IRVA, THE IREMONGER TRILOGY (HEAP HOUSE, FOULSHAM and LUNGDON), LITTLE and THE SWALLOWED MAN, all of which he illustrated. His book B: A Year in Plagues and Pencils is a visual chronicle of a year in lockdown and has been published in different editions in the UK, America and Italy. LITTLE has been acclaimed around the world and has sold over 100,000 copies in twenty countries.

Praise for EDITH HOLLER

‘Carey draws on fairy tales and Shakespeare for a dazzling bildungsroman… [EDITH HOLLER] affirms the author’s standing as a major literary talent.’ – Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

‘EDITH HOLLER is that rarest thing, a newly written tale that feels as though it's been discovered behind the stacked stone walls of an abandoned estate. It’s eldritch, raucous, blistering, beautiful, and totally indelible.’ – Maria Dahvana Headley, New York Times bestselling author of THE MERE WIFE

‘A raucous romp through the world of early 20th-century theater, with its barrels of fake blood and donkeys living in the bowels of the understage to provide the muscle for scene changes. In ways both witty and dark, the novel brilliantly probes the distinction between drama and real life, audience and performer, actor and character. And the whimsical illustrations, all drawn by Carey himself, are the perfect accompaniment to a story about an art form as visual as it is verbal. A wonderfully strange and quirky tale about the power of penning and performing tales.’ – Kirkus Reviews

‘Edward Carey is an extraordinary craftsman, and EDITH HOLLER is a masterpiece. Carey’s prose teems with wonderfully twisted humour and play, breathing life into the spirits that haunt its gothic framework. It is that special novel that makes you wonder why there aren’t more like it. The answer, of course, is that there is just one Edward Carey. EDITH HOLLER is singular – a dark delight from beginning to end.’ – Erika Swyler, bestselling author of THE BOOK OF SPECULATION and LIGHT FROM OTHER STARS

‘Brilliant and shiver-inducing, EDITH HOLLER is a delightfully macabre achievement, equal parts Charles Dickens and Sweeney Todd. Through Edith’s keen eyes we come to know her family theatre and its many denizens – each a masterpiece of oddity – as well as the frightening newcomer who threatens to topple her very world. A bravura performance.’ – Helene Wecker, New York Times bestselling author of THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI

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