Tag Archives: African Writing

28 July 2016

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The Raft. Fred Strydom

The Raft. Fred Strydom

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE RAFT by Fred Strydom

Captivating, compelling, and moving

On Day Zero everyone’s memory is wiped clean. No-one remembers anything, or anyone.

A mysterious and oppressive movement called The Renascence comes to power and forces people to live in isolated communes and to conform to their ideals. As memories of families and past lives start to trickle back, some people begin to question the regime.

Kayle Jenner has questions, and he’s punished just for having them. He escapes from his isolated beach commune when the raft he’s strapped to for punishment breaks free. With help from the enigmatic Gideon, Kayle sets out to find and rescue his son Andy.

Kayle doesn’t find it odd that the people he meets all have memories that help and guide him. Until it becomes clear that some people’s ‘memories’ are not their own.

But Kayle’s are. Kayle definitely remembers Andy. And he’s going to find him.

Published in South Africa by Umuzi, Penguin Random House. Published in the US by Skyhorse Publishing

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The Raft. Fred Strydom

The Raft. Fred Strydom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE RAFT by Fred Strydom

Captivating, compelling, and moving

On Day Zero everyone’s memory is wiped clean. No-one remembers anything, or anyone.

A mysterious and oppressive movement called The Renascence comes to power and forces people to live in isolated communes and to conform to their ideals. As memories of families and past lives start to trickle back, some people begin to question the regime.

Kayle Jenner has questions, and he’s punished just for having them. He escapes from his isolated beach commune when the raft he’s strapped to for punishment breaks free. With help from the enigmatic Gideon, Kayle sets out to find and rescue his son Andy.

Kayle doesn’t find it odd that the people he meets all have memories that help and guide him. Until it becomes clear that some people’s ‘memories’ are not their own.

But Kayle’s are. Kayle definitely remembers Andy. And he’s going to find him.

 

Published in South Africa by Umuzi, Penguin Random House. Published in the US by Skyhorse Publishing

8 June 2015

Karretjie MenseCarol Campbell’s sumptuous novels ‘n Huis vir Esther and Karretjiemense have been optioned by legendary South African film maker Koos Roets in a co-production arrangement with distinguished theatre director Andre Stolz.

The directors intend to shoot both films back to back. Mr. Roets will direct ‘n Huis vir Esther and act as Director of Photography on Karretjiemense. Mr. Stolz will direct Karretjiemense, and act as production manager on ‘n Huis vir Esther.

Mr. Roets has been a formidable figure in South Africa’s film industry for 51 years, during which he has won an impressive 33 awards, mostly for directing and cinematography. It will be wonderful to see his collaboration with Mr. Stolz, is a well known director, producer and actor. Both men are celebrated for being ‘hands on’ and very passionate about their projects, and have adapted the material themselves.

Author, Carol Campbell is known for crafting heartbreaking stories which are simultaneously poignant and hopeful. She has a masterful ability to inflict and build tension, and to create characters with voices that ‘take hold of you… and never let go.’ Taking her work to screen presents a beautiful challenge for any filmmaker.

The deal for the film rights was negotiated by The Lennon-Ritchie agency on behalf of Penguin Random House South Africa.

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Justin Fox: Whoever fears the sea

Scriptwriter Paul Waterson is in Kenya to research a documentary film. It’s October 2001, and his relationship has come to an unexpected end. Searching for solace in Mombasa, Malindi and Lamu, he becomes obsessed with finding the last remaining mtepe dhow in Somalia, a magnificent, sewn vessel harking back to Africa’s rich maritime past. But getting someone to take him into Somali waters is proving near impossible. When he does manage to talk a dhow captain into the journey, he and the crew are oblivious to the dangers that lie ahead.

“An engagingly romantic, fast-paced tale of sailing-ship adventures off the myth-laden East African coast, with plenty of sex and action, plus a serious revisionist message regarding  modern-day Somali piracy.” JM Coetzee

Justin Fox is a Cape Town-based travel writer, novelist, and editor. Justin was a Rhodes Scholar and holds a PhD in English from Oxford University.  He was a research fellow at the University of Cape Town after his doctorate, where he still teaches part time. Justin’s articles and photographs have appeared internationally in a number of award-winning publications and his short stories and poems have appeared in multiple anthologies.

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26 February 2013

Justin Fox Unspotted

Justin Fox has just released an ebook, Unspotted: One Man’s Insane Search for Africa’s Most Elusive Leopard,with Mampoer.

Quinton Martins is a patient man, if only when it comes to the Cape mountain leopard. In the harsh mountains of the Cederberg, he spends months in icy cold conditions tracking them, often with as little to go on as faint spoor or partially decomposed scat. Justin Fox spends time in the Cederberg with this half-man, half-leopard, conservationist, to learn more about the madness that keeps Quinton in the mountains day in and day out.

To buy this ebook, go to: http://mampoer.co.za/justin-fox-titles/unspotted

Click here for Justin Fox’s website

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Justin Fox Just Add Dust

Four travel writers provide a compelling look at their road trip together from Cape Town to Cairo in this vivid travelogue. The writers’ love of travel and their native Africa shines through as they relate the story of their transcontinental rite of passage. By presenting each landscape as they experience it, they contrast their journey with the “Cape to Cairo” myth—wide open spaces, plains brimming with game, desert nomads, forest pygmies—and discover that even in the 21st century it’s still an unpredictable, pulse-quickening route. Every chapter is written in a style that evokes the unique flavor of each leg of the trip.

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Justin Fox The Life and Art of Francois Krige

François Krige – painter, traveler, book illustrator and graphic artist was a member of the New Group in South Africa, along with artists Gregoire Boonzaier and Walter Battiss. Although Krige’s drawings are known and admired, the paintings of this reclusive and enigmatic man have not been exposed to the public other than to a small circle of art lovers. When he died in 1994, a large collection of his beautiful works was discovered. This is the first comprehensive book published on the artist, tracing his life and art from his youth in 1913 to his death in 1994. It presents the influences of Rembrandt and the Post-Impressionists on his work; journeys through Europe with brother Uys; his sensitive portrayals of refugees and victims of the war, his studio in Cape Town; the Cape Fishermen studies and his long expeditions to live with the Bushmen in remote parts of the Kalahari resulting in ‘ethnographic’ sketches which are some of his finest work. The Montagu still-lifes, portraits and landscapes – his most lasting contribution.

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Justin Fox Africa Lens

Our desire to view, capture and share our experiences is obvious in more than a century of travel photography. In Africa, there is probably no single entity that has produced as many varied images as Getaway. The magazine has portrayed the continent’s people, fauna and landscapes in myriad indelible ways over the past 20 years. Assignments for Getaway have found our photographers riding camels across the Sahara, being manhandled by gorillas in Rwanda, micro-lighting over the Victoria Falls or snowmobiling across the wastes of Antarctica.

Click here for Justin Fox’s website

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Justin Fox The Marginal Safari

‘I’ve been craving the road for some time,’ writes Justin Fox, odd words for this most seasoned of travel writers. But there is more to it: ‘Restless, anxious about an uneventful slide into my late 30s…’ And thus begins ten thousand kilometres around the edge of the Republic. Hugging the comforts which distance offers agitated souls, he bears east from Cape Town. This is fatherland, and for Justin his father’s land, which the famous architect Revel Fox has marked as much as he had shaped his son s own identity. Justin tarries at outposts and towns; he skips entire cities to favor the off-beat treasures of characters fashioned less by convention than by their own battles against nature or circumstance. Back home his dad is fighting cancer. Having travelled with acute observation he reports like a novelist, stringing together scenes, pictures, communities and characters to form a totality of what South Africa is today as seen from its margins: a sad, exciting clash of histories and stories.

Click here for Justin Fox’s website

Click here to buy his books

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Justin Fox Under The Sway

Bewitched by Mozambique’s dazzling beauty, its alluring architecture, multi-hued seascapes, rambunctious markets and harbours with antiquated sailing craft, travel writer Justin Fox set out to capture all of these in his latest book, a hardcover, full-colour photographic feast accompanied by a compelling text.

Click here for Justin Fox’s website

Click here to buy the book