What does it mean to belong — to a place, a people, a history? Three powerful new books explore this question from strikingly different angles. Claire Robertson’s The Immortalites is a lyrical frontier epic set in 19th-century South Africa. Karin Mitchell’s The High Treason Club unpacks the chilling true story of the Boeremag bombings and trial. Ocean Vuong’s The Emperor of Gladness is a tender novel about an unexpected bond between two outsiders. Hear each author discuss their work in revealing video interviews. Plus, don’t miss the thrilling trailers for You Are Fatally Invited and The First Gentleman — two gripping new reads packed with suspense.
The Immortalites
Claire Robertson
Ellie Kent longs to belong. Abandoned as a child and raised in the bleak confines of an asylum, Ellie is taken into service as a governess by a family bound for the distant colony of South Africa. But before reaching their destination, she is abandoned once more – cast adrift in a land as vast as it is unforgiving. Left with no choice but to join a caravan of settlers, Ellie finds herself in the company of a questionable trader, a mysterious opera singer, and a young Afrikaner, Gysbert de Boer, tasked with delivering her safely to an uncertain future. As war brews on the horizon and the settlers struggle for survival in a land that offers little mercy, Ellie must carve out a home – or be lost to the wilderness forever. A sweeping frontier fable, The Immortalites is a masterfully crafted tale of survival, sacrifice, and the search for belonging. Read an extract >>
Claire Robertson is the author of The Spiral House, winner of the 2014 Sunday Times Fiction Prize and a South African Literary Award, and shortlisted for the University of Johannesburg Debut Prize, and The Magistrate of Gower, shortlisted for the 2016 Sunday Times Fiction Prize, and Under Glass, shortlisted for the 2019 Sunday Times Fiction Prize. She lives in Simon’s Town. Watch Claire talk about The Immortalites.
The High Treason Club
Karin Mitchell
On the night of 30 October 2002, eight bomb blasts tore through Soweto, leaving one woman dead and damaging vital infrastructure. The bombs were the work of a far-right white Afrikaner separatist group called the Boeremag, whose stated aim was to overthrow the ruling ANC government, rid the country of black people and reinstate a new Boer-administered republic. All in all, 23 men were arrested and charged with high treason after the police seized explosives, homemade pipe bombs, weapons and ammunition in arms caches hidden all over the country.
The High Treason Club is the story of the Boeremag, the investigation that brought them down and the subsequent trial, the first of its kind in democratic South Africa. Based on exclusive interviews, as well as thousands of pages of court transcripts and documentary evidence, this book elegantly unpacks a complex case and gives unprecedented insight into the various role-players and their motivations
Karin Mitchell began her journalism career in various respected national radio and television newsrooms. The Boeremag trial was her first big assignment, and since then she has covered the Marikana Massacre, the Oscar Pistorius trial and other significant political events. Driven to tell untold stories, Karin left journalism in 2016 to pursue a full-time writing career. She has dedicated more than a decade of her life to telling the full story of the Boeremag. Here's Karin talking about The High Treason Club.
The Emperor of Gladness
Ocean Vuong
One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.
Ocean Vuong is the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collections Night Sky with Exit Wounds and Time is a Mother, as well as the New York Times bestselling novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. A recipient of the 2019 MacArthur "Genius" Grant, he is also the winner of the Whiting Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize. His writings have been featured in The Atlantic, Harper's Magazine, The Nation, The New Republic, The New Yorker, and the New York Times. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he currently splits his time between Northampton, Massachusetts, and New York City. Here he is with a message to you about The Emperor of Gladness.
You Are Fatally Invited
Ande Pliego
Legendary mystery author J. R. Alastor’s books are sold all over the world, but no one knows his real name. After years hiding in the shadows, he has sent out six invitations to an exclusive murder mystery retreat on his private island. Mila del Angél has been hired to ensure the week runs smoothly. She has yearned for revenge on a ghost from her past for years – and this could be her chance to get it. The six bestselling thriller writers accept their invitations without question – it’s an opportunity any author would kill for. What should have been a week of trope-filled games takes a sinister turn when one guest is found dead, and the others find themselves in the midst of a nightmare drawn from Alastor’s dark imagination. They may have written thrillers – but now they and Mila must survive one... Watch the trailer below.
The First Gentleman
Bill Clinton & James Patterson
Clinton and Patterson are back. And they're better than ever. The President of the United States is up for re-election. Her husband is on trial for murder. Is the First Gentleman a killer? A pair of brilliant investigative journalists set out to answer that burning question. Watch the trailer below.
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