Joseph, who is also the best-selling author of Drug Muled, will be speaking from 2 pm to 2.30 pm on November 18.ĭay two features Imraan Coovadia, who will be talking about his latest book, The Poisoners, which exposes the secret use of poisons and diseases in the Rhodesian bush war and independent Zimbabwe, as well as the apparent connection to the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States. She also discovers the power of love and the heroism of sacrifice. She hopes that in the Colony of Natal she will escape the poverty of India, but in South Africa she discovers that life can be very hard indeed. Shanti, whose life in rural India looks bleak, is lined up for an arranged marriage. It tells the story of an indentured labourer who comes to South Africa from India in the late 1800s. Unsettled, Samuel is soon swept up by the memories of his former life on the mainland: a life that saw his country suffer, then fight for independence, only to fall to a cruel dictator.Īnother star guest is Joanne Joseph, whose novel, Children of Sugarcane, has been receiving wide acclaim. It tells the story of what happens when a young refugee washes up unconscious on the beach of a small island inhabited by no one but Samuel, an old lighthouse keeper. Karen Jennings, who was short-listed for this year’s Booker, will be talking about her novel, The Island. Okri, who won the Booker Prize with his novel The Famished Road, will be in conversation with Rosemary Gray at 6.30 pm on November 18. PowerBall and PowerBall Plus results: Tuesday, Īlso appearing on day one will be fellow Booker Prize-winner Ben Okri, a Nigerian poet and novelist.Ĭonsidered one of the foremost African authors in the post-modern and post-colonial traditions, his work has been compared to that of Salman Rushdie and Gabriel García Márquez. Galgut, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 20, will be in the chair from 7.45 pm on the first day of the festival, which is co-hosted by Booktown Richmond and the University of Cape Town.

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.

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. It tells the story of the Swart family in four snapshots, each one centred on a family funeral, each one happening in a different decade. Damon Galgut, fresh from winning the prestigious Booker Prize, will be one of the headline guests at the Madibaland World Literary Festival, which starts on November 18.įestival organiser Darryl David will be in conversation with the Cape Town-based writer whose latest novel, The Promise, wowed the judges.

Becoming leidah by michelle grierson