Bongani Kona

Ariella Aisha Azoulay

Asaiel Al Saeed

Aseel AlYaqoub

Alla Vronskaya

Deserts Are Not Empty

‘I would get out of the car at every shopping centre and want to ask the stranger walking by with their trolley: “Why are you still shopping? Someone I love has died.”’ – Dela Gwala Death is a fact of life, but the experience of grief is unique to each of us. This timely collection brings together a range of voices to offer refl ections on death and dying, from individual losses to large scale catastrophes. Karin Schimke revisits her troubled relationship with her late father, a Second World War survivor ‘whose brain had been broken by violence’. Madeleine Fullard, the head of South Africa’s Missing Persons Task Team, draws us into the search for activists who were ‘disappeared’ or went missing in political circumstances between 1960 and 1994. Caine Prize winner Lidudumalingani remembers his childhood in a small village in the Eastern Cape, and how his mother always listened to death notices read over the radio as a way of bearing witness to the grief of strangers. The other contributors in this poignant and thought-provoking anthology turn their minds to subjects as varied as the ritual of washing the body of the deceased before burial, the ethics of killing small animals, and the extinction of humankind. In a time of relentless grief, Our Ghosts Were Once People reminds us that one of the small consolations of literature is that all sorrows can be borne. Sindiswa Busuku • Lucienne Bestall • Khadija Patel • Shrikant Peters • Sudirman Adi Makmur • Paula Ihozo Akugizibwe • Rofhiwa Maneta • Madeleine Fullard • Musawenkosi Khanyile • Simone Haysom • Thato Monare • Angifi Dladla • Nick Mulgrew • Tariq Hoosen • Catherine Boulle • Tatamkhulu Afrika • Dela Gwala •Anna Hartford • Gabeba Baderoon • Barry Christianson • Vonani Bila • Khanya Mtshali • Robert Berold

Stories on Death and Dying

Our Ghosts Were Once People

Elnathan John

Msingi Sasis

Sarita Ranchod

Barbara Wanjala

Illuminating African narratives for readers both inside and outside the continent. Representing the very best of African creative nonfiction, Safe House brings together works from Africa's contemporary literary greats. In a collection that ranges from travel writing and memoir to reportage and meditative essays, editor Ellah Wakatama Allfrey has brought together some of the most talented writers of creative nonfiction from across Africa. This collection of five singles from the Safe House anthology gathers work from the very best of contemporary African writers. Includes: Includes: The Keepers of Secrets by Elnathan John A Murder in Clovelly by Bongani Kona Dream Chasers by Msingi Sasis Border Crossings by Sarita Ranchod A Woman's Smile by Barbara Wanjala

Safe House Short Story Singles Bundle

Being and Belonging

Illuminating African narratives for readers both inside and outside the continent. Representing the very best of African creative nonfiction, Safe House brings together works from Africa's contemporary literary greats. In a collection that ranges from travel writing and memoir to reportage and meditative essays, editor Ellah Wakatama Allfrey has brought together some of the most talented writers of creative nonfiction from across Africa. This creative nonfiction single from Safe House anthology is Bongani Kona’s account of a South African murder.

Safe House Short Story Singles

A Murder in Clovelly

Bongani Kona

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