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Price: R119.95

ISBN:9780749010720, Paperback, Allison&Busby, due March 2012

1986, The Panama Hotel The old Seattle landmark has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made a startling discovery in the basement: personal belongings stored away by Japanese families sent to interment camps during the Second World War. Among the fascinated crowd gathering outside the hotel, stands Henry Lee, and, as the owner unfurls a distinctive parasol, he is flooded by memories of his childhood. He wonders if by some miracle, in amongst the boxes of dusty treasures, lies a link to the Okabe family, and the girl he lost his young heart to, so many years ago. WITH OVER A MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE, THIS CAPTIVATING DEBUT IS A STORY OF THE SACRIFICES ONE BOY MAKES FOR LOVE AND FOR HIS COUNTRY.

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Price: R174.95

ISBN:9780571260676, Trade Paperback, Faber&Faber, due March 2012

It’s September 1939. The Second World War has begun. Even as the fighting rages in Poland, Stalin’s long time obsession with the missing treasure of Tsar Nicholas II is rekindled. An informant claims to have information about the whereabouts of the man entrusted by the Tsar with hiding his gold. As the news of the informant reaches Stalin, however, the man is knifed to death. Stalin summons Pekkala to the Kremlin and orders him to solve the murder. To accomplish his mission, he must return to Borodok, the notorious Gulag where he himself spent many years as a prisoner. There, he must pose as a inmate in order to unravel the mystery …As he returns to the nightmares of his past, is this a mission too far for the great Pekkala?

ISBN:9781846687761, Serpent’s Tail, Paperback, due March 2012

From Weimar Berlin to the fall of Paris, and on to the present day, danger, jealousy and inspiration combine to tempt a man to a secret betrayal. Now a Radio 4 Book at Bedtime scheduled for 27th June – 8th July. Chip told us not to go out. Said, don’t you boys tempt the devil. But it been one brawl of a night, I tell you. The aftermath of the fall of Paris, 1940. Hieronymous Falk, a rising star on the cabaret scene, was arrested in a cafe and never heard from again. He was twenty years old. He was a German citizen. And he was black. Fifty years later, Sid, Hiero’s bandmate and the only witness that day, is going back to Berlin. Persuaded by his old friend Chip, Sid discovers there’s more to the journey than he thought when Chip shares a mysterious letter, bringing to the surface secrets buried since Hiero’s fate was settled. In Half Blood Blues , Esi Edugyan weaves the horror of betrayal, the burden of loyalty and the possibility that, if you don’t tell your story, someone else might tell it for you. And they just might tell it wrong…

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Price: R194.95

ISBN:9780857388186, Trade Paperback, Quercus, due March 2012

Ahalya Ghai is just seventeen when a tsunami rips through her Indian village. Ahalya and her sister Sita are the sole survivors of their family. Destitute, their only hope is to find refuge at a convent in Chennai, many miles away. A driver agrees to take them. But the second they get into that car they are doomed – the two sisters are sold. Ahalya doesn’t understand why any man would pay so much money for them. She will soon find out. On the other side of the world, Washington, D.C. lawyer Thomas Clarke witnesses the kidnapping of a young girl. Struggling to cope after the death of his baby daughter and the collapse of his marriage to Priya, he takes a sabbatical from his high-pressure job and accepts a position with the Bombay branch of CASE, the Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation. He is now on a path that not only involves saving himself and his marriage, but the lives of Ahalya and Sita Ghai. A Walk Across The Sun is about cruelty and loss. It is about family and survival. And ultimately it is about love, and the immeasurable strength of the human spirit.

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Price: R100.00

ISBN:9780552565042, Small Paperback, Random House Struik, due April 2012

Three girls. One city. Who will be the last flapper standing? It’s Chicago 1924. Born into American high society, Gloria is the girl who has it all. Living the debutante dream along with her best friend Lorraine, Gloria is just a trip down the aisle away from her future life as Mrs Sebastian Grey. But surely there’s time for a little partying before she settles down? With an illegal speakeasy on every corner and mobsters rubbing shoulders with the city’s most sensational flappers, Chicago’s jazz-fuelled underworld is certainly not the kind of place for a society princess like Gloria. And she’s never had so much fun.

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Price: R165.00

ISBN:9780370332291, Trade Paperback, Random House Struik, due April 2012
Childrens Age Group: 9-12 years

Wonder is the funny, sweet and incredibly moving story of Auggie Pullman. Born with a terrible facial abnormality, this shy, bright ten-year-old has been home-schooled by his parents for his whole life, in an attempt to protect him from the stares and cruelty of the outside world. Now, for the first time, Auggie is being sent to a real school – and he’s dreading it. The thing is, Auggie’s just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he’s just like them, underneath it all? Through the voices of Auggie, his big sister Via, and his new friends Jack and Summer, Wonder follows Auggie’s journey through his first year at Beecher Prep. Frank, powerful, warm and often heart-breaking, Wonder is a book you’ll read in one sitting, pass on to others, and remember long after the final page.

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Price: R130.00

ISBN:9780099525486, Small Paperback, Random House Struik, due April 2012

One day shortly after her father’s death, when Jasmin Darznik is helping her mother move house, a photograph falls from a stack of old letters. The girl in it is her mother. She is wearing a wedding veil, and at her side stands a man whom Jasmin has never seen before. Despite Jasmin’s pleas, her mother Lili refuses to say anything about the photograph, and Jasmin returns home frustrated and confused. But months later, she receives the first of ten cassette tapes from her mother revealing a wrenching hidden story of her family’s true origins in Iran: Lili’s troubled history of abuse and neglect, and a daughter she was forced to abandon in order to escape that life. The final tape reveals that Jasmin’s sister, Sara – the Good Daughter – is still living in Iran. In this sweeping, poignant and beautifully written memoir, Jasmin skilfully weaves the stories of three generations of Iranian women into a unique tale of one family’s struggle for freedom. The result is an enchanting and unforgettable story of secrets, betrayal, and the unbreakable mother-daughter bond.

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Price: R130.00

ISBN:9780099546030, Small Paperback, Random House Struik, due April 2012

Kunsang thought she would never leave Tibet. One of Tibet’s youngest nuns, she grew up in a remote mountain village where, as a teenager, she entered the local nunnery. Though simple, Kunsang’s life gave her all she needed: a oneness with nature, a sense of the spiritual in all things. She married a monk, had two children and lived in peace and prayer. But not for long. There was a saying in Tibet: ‘When the iron bird flies and horses run on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scattered like ants across the face of the earth.’ The Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950 changed everything for Kunsang. When Chinese soldiers began destroying her monastery, she and her family were forced to flee in a hair-raising trek across the Himalayas in winter. She spent several years in Indian refuge camps. Both her husband and her younger child died. Then came an extraordinary turn of events: the arrival of Martin Brauen, a cultured young Swiss man with a fascination for Tibet, who fell in love with her daughter and took both of them to Switzerland where Yangzom would be born, the author of this remarkable book. Many important stories lie hidden until the right person arrives to tell them. Yangzom Brauen has rescued the story of her inspirational grandmother, writing a book full of love and endurance, and giving us a rare and vivid glimpse of life in rural Tibet before the arrival of the Chinese.

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Price: R125

ISBN:9780099559764, Small Paperback, Random House Struik, due April 2012

When Anna Maria Giusti returns from holiday to find her elderly neighbour Constanza Altavilla dead, with blood on the floor near her head, she immediately alerts the police. Commissario Brunetti is called to the scene and it seems the woman has suffered a fatal heart attack. Patta, the Vice-Questore, is eager to dismiss the case as a death from natural causes, but Brunetti believes that there is more to it. It soon transpires that there are some faint bruises around her neck and shoulders, indicating she may have been shaken. Could this have caused a heart attack? And was someone threatening her? Meanwhile, Brunetti meets Signora Altavilla’s son, Niccolini, who tells him that since her retirement she had been helping out at a nearby nursing home. Brunetti visits the home with Ispettore Vianello to try and find any information that might be connected to the case. While they speak to those she spent the most time with, it appears that there is some hostility between the residents which raises Brunetti’s suspicions. Once again, he enlists the help of Signorina Elettra, who discovers that Signora Altavilla was involved with an organisation that helped women at risk, providing them with a safe house. Could this have something to do with her death? As the investigation takes an unexpected twist in events, Brunetti needs to find out the truth before it gets buried within a community that seems to be slipping deeper and deeper into deception and lies.

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Price: R125.00

ISBN:9780099548409, Small Paperback, Random House Struik, due April 2012

Every morning Hakan von Enke takes a walk in the forest near his apartment in Stockholm. However, one winter’s day he fails to come home. It seems that the retired naval officer has vanished without trace. Detective Kurt Wallander is not officially involved in the investigation but he has personal reasons for his interest in the case as Hakan’s son is engaged to his daughter Linda. A few months earlier, at Hakan’s 75th birthday party, Kurt noticed that the old man appeared uneasy and seemed eager to talk about a controversial incident from his past career that remained shrouded in mystery. Could this be connected to his disappearance? When Hakan’s wife Louise also goes missing, Wallander is determined to uncover the truth. His search leads him down dark and unexpected avenues involving espionage, betrayal and new information about events during the Cold War that threatens to cause a political scandal on a scale unprecedented in Swedish history. The investigation also forces Kurt to look back over his own past and consider his hopes and regrets, as he comes to the unsettling realisation that even those we love the most can remain strangers to us. And then an even darker cloud appears on the horizon…The return of Kurt Wallander, for his final case, has already caused a sensation around the globe. The Troubled Man confirms Henning Mankell’s position as the king of crime writing.