Amabookabooka: The Quarantine Chronicles

EP26: One Whale of a Good Yarn

The subject of today’s episode of Amabookabooka is ‘A Poor Season For Whales’, which is not the title of a sports book about the Welsh rugby team’s miserable 1991 year when they were walloped 63-3 by the Wallabies. ‘A Poor Season For Whales’ (with an H) is author, translator and…

21 May 2020 8AM 20 min

EP25: Bruce Almighty

Some would say it is dreadful timing to launch a book at the same time that Covid-19 has decided to go hitchhiking around the globe, but for one book - The Upside of Down - the timing is spot on. The world is upside down and the Upside of Down…

15 May 2020 6AM 31 min

EP24: A Lockdown Mystery

Heinrich Böhmke loves trees, bees, wind over the veld and Nguni cattle - and even though he loves cattle he’s not scared to stomp all over sacred cows. Heinrich’s debut novel Sarie tells the story of four lives in crisis - on the same day. In the same hotel. It…

6 May 2020 5AM 14 min

EP23: Seven weeks in captivity

Thirty years ago today the Muller family's dream holiday turned into a nightmare when they were taken hostage by a band of child soldiers in Mozambique. On Friday the 13th of April 1990 Dave Muller and his family set sail to Mozambique to fulfill Dave's boyhood dream of voyaging to…

28 Apr 2020 8AM 29 min

EP22: Low Down on Health Horror

Today’s episode of Amabookabooka is a throwback to 2017 when novelist, journalist and public health activist Marcus Low coughed up the incredible and, as it turns out, very credible dystopian health-horror novel Asylum. A high-security quarantine facility has been set up in the Karoo for people with a highly infectious…

22 Apr 2020 5AM 20 min

EP21: Celebrating the Joy of Matt

Today is a very special edition of Amabookabooka. We pay tribute to and celebrate the life of Matthew Buckland - a tech wonder kid, a digital fundi, an entrepreneur, an innovator, a journalist, a publisher, an author, a mountain biker and a compulsive dreamer who had big dreams. Matt always…

16 Apr 2020 1PM 26 min

EP20: Lauren Beukes imagines a brand new world

Lauren Beukes crisscrosses literary genres to write ground-breaking weird-and-wonderful dystopian thrillers. Her novels - Moxyland, Zoo City, The Shining Girls, Broken Monsters - are beautifully written, with complex characters and intriguing pulse-racing plots and plots within plots that are skillfully knitted together. Lauren also writes comics and screen plays, directed…

15 Apr 2020 6AM 20 min

EP19: Shining, Shimmering, Schimmel

Gail Schimmel writes best-selling novels that have more twists and turns than Kyalami: Marriage Vows, Whatever Happened to the Cowley Twins?, The Park; and The Accident. Her most recent novel, the two week-old Two Months is a psychological thriller. Primary school teacher Erica and her husband Kenneth have a great…

14 Apr 2020 9AM 17 min

EP18: Iqbal Survé and mountain bikes

Today’s Amabookabooka guest has written two very different books - On Your Bike, which is a guide to mountain biking in South Africa. The second is Paper Tiger: Iqbal Survé and the downfall of Independent Newspapers, which is a riveting account of what happened to the Cape Times when it…

13 Apr 2020 10AM 14 min

EP17: Confronting the ghosts of war

Paul Morris went to Angola in 1987. He was a young soldier who had been conscripted into the South African Defence Force as it waged a brutal bush war against its neighbours. For 25 years Angola was the country of Paul’s nightmares. He returned to the country in 2012 -…

12 Apr 2020 8AM 20 min

EP16: Penny’s mightier with her words

Penny Haw grew up on a dairy farm in KwaZulu-Natal - she spent her childhood with cows and stories about Nicko - the abandoned vervet monkey that was rescued and raised by her grandmother Alice Kirk. The monkey became an essential member of the farmyard, befriending dogs, cats, African polecats,…

11 Apr 2020 10AM 22 min

EP15: Lindiwe Hani reflects on her revolutionary father

Today marks the 27th anniversary of the assassination of Chris Hani. It was a watershed moment in South Africa and anyone who is old enough remembers where they were when they heard the devastating news. For many the revered revolutionary was the president we never had. But 12-year-old Lindiwe Hani…

10 Apr 2020 7AM 21 min

EP14: Scratching the underbelly

Don’t let Caryn Dolley fool you - the woman with the goofiest grin and the wackiest sense of humour in South African journalism has struck fear into the heart of some of the toughest gangsters who roam the underworld - and she has the death threats to prove it. Caryn…

9 Apr 2020 9AM 13 min

EP13: The 7-day deadline

In just seven days Frank-N-Furter can make you a man. Well, that’s nothing because in just seven days Melinda Ferguson can make you a MANuscript. Melinda is a best-selling author, a prized publisher and an unstoppable force. A few days ago she published Lockdown, the Corona Chronicles. Written by 17…

8 Apr 2020 9AM 20 min

Ep12: Shaik's Spear (of the nation)

Moe Shaik’s memoir, The ANC Spy Bible, is an enthralling first-hand account of the relationship between Moe and The Nightingale - his unlikely mole in the belly of the apartheid beast. The ANC Spy Bible is thoughtful, detailed and nuanced and provides a bird’s eye view of the mysterious world…

7 Apr 2020 11AM 21 min

EP11: A poignant memoir

Brent Meersman’s compelling memoir, A Childhood Made Up, sees the author hurtle down memory lane to his childhood in Cape Town, where he grew up in a family where storms were constantly ranging. His father had an alcohol-addiction and battled with depression. His mother suffered from schizophrenia. His mother, Shirley…

6 Apr 2020 10AM 23 min

EP10: Yes, she Khan!

Raashida Khan had worked in a bank and for NGOs and as she was approaching 50 she took a giant leap of faith. She threw in the 9-to-5 towel and picked up a pen and became a full-time writer. She has two novels, a poetry anthology and a collection of…

6 Apr 2020 1AM 21 min

EP9: Deliciously delightful horror

Bontle Senne loves feisty girls who kick butt and break gender stereotypes. She also loves the rich tradition of African mythology. And she loves writing. These triple loves led the celebrated author and literacy advocate to pen the four-part adventure fantasy series, the Shadow Chasers. The Shadow Chasers are warriors…

4 Apr 2020 12PM 17 min

EP8: All Burnt Out And Nowhere To Go?

Ten years ago Judy Klipin was an unhappy, disillusioned, chronically stressed, seriously single, semi-employed consultant. Today she's a calm, settled, happy master life coach - and the author of two important books, Recover from your Childhood: Life Lessons for the Adult Child and Recover from Burnout. Judy has been waging…

3 Apr 2020 9AM 15 min

EP7: I Write, Said Fred

Fred Khumalo, according to one of his publishers, has been described as a ‘reluctant Zulu’, ‘clever black’ and an ‘equal opportunity offender’, but for Amabookabooka he is one of South Africa’s leading story tellers - who blends history and fiction into thrilling novels. He’s written 11 books. His first, Bitches…

2 Apr 2020 7AM 18 min