The SA Books Awards Ceremony for 2023 took place virtually on Tuesday, 3 October. Powered by Nielsen Book, and supported by PASA and SABA, the SA Book Awards celebrates books written and published in South Africa, voted for by South African booksellers.
Bursting with humour, action and reality-bending experiences, Bridge is Lauren Beukes at her finest. She chats here about the rise of AI, parallel universes and a few of her favourite works in speculative fiction.
Where do you get your ideas?
In the wake of his parents' tragic deaths fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote town of Ballantyne. Richard quickly earns a reputation as an outcast, and when a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects the new, angry boy is responsible. No one believes him when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie. A twisted, multi-layered spin on the classic horror novel.
Sasha is well and truly over it all: work (all-consuming), friendships (on the back burner), sex-life (non-existent). Sasha has hit a brick wall. Armed with good intentions to drink kale smoothies, try yoga and find solitude, she heads to the Devon resort she loved as a child. But it's off-season, the hotel is falling apart and now she has to share the beach with someone else: a grumpy, stressed-out guy called Finn. How can she commune with nature when he's sitting on a rock, watching her?