Democracy in South Africa turns twenty on 27 April 2014. In A Rumour of Spring, Max du Preez investigates and analyses the progress and lack of progress the country has made during these twenty years. A Rumour of Spring looks at the legacies of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki in an attempt to understand how we got here, and examines Jacob Zuma’s presidency to better understand where we are. In the context of blatant corruption, populism and tragedies such as the Marikana massacre, the book considers the current state of the ruling party and the opposition, and dissects the big issues currently afflicting our society, including the state of education, land reform, crime and policing, the judiciary, nationality and race. And then, with images of the Arab Spring fresh in our collective memory, it dares to look to the future and what it may hold. An honest and balanced account, A Rumour of Spring tackles the questions asked by ordinary South Africans every day: How are we really doing? What is really going on in our country? How should we understand what is happening here? And will it get any better?

'A terrifying yet tender account of a girlhood spent under near-constant siege.' Madhuri Vijay, author of The Far Field 'Extraordinary - this memoir of growing up in Kashmir in the 1990s is illuminating, heartbreaking, and beautifully told.' Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire 'This is an unforgettable work that refuses silence. It is an urgent, brave call for justice.' Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King 'Page after page, Farah Bashir juxtaposes moments of heart-stopping terror and beauty in a stunning memoir of life and love under a bloody military occupation.' Mirza Waheed, author of Tell Her Everything 'I couldn't put it down, and even after it had ended, the people and their stories - wonderful, horrific, familiar and unfathomable - stayed textured and formidable in my mind.' Jennifer Croft, author of Homesick 'A beautifully tender and often heart-stopping memoir of growing up in a world that is spinning out of control.' Mahesh Rao, author of Polite Society Rumours of Spring is the unforgettable account of Farah Bashir's adolescence spent in Srinagar in the 1990s. As Indian troops and militants battle across the cityscape and violence becomes the new normal, a young schoolgirl finds that ordinary tasks - studying for exams, walking to the bus stop, combing her hair, falling asleep - are riddled with anxiety and fear. With haunting simplicity, Farah Bashir captures moments of vitality and resilience from her girlhood amidst the increasing trauma and turmoil of passing years - secretly dancing to pop songs on banned radio stations; writing her first love letter; going to the cinema for the first time - with haunting simplicity. This deeply affecting coming-of-age memoir portrays how territorial conflict surreptitiously affects everyday lives in Kashmir.

“Keeps you guessing until the final page.”—Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train “A rollercoaster ride to the very last sentence.”—Fiona Barton, author of The Widow “Everyone will be talking about The Rumor.”—Shari Lapena, author of The Couple Next Door When a single mother hears a shocking rumor outside her son’s school, she never intends to pass it on. But one casual comment leads to another . . . and now there’s no going back. Rumor has it that a notorious killer, who committed a brutal crime as a child, has been living a new life under an assumed identity in Joanna’s seaside town. So who is the criminal hidden in their midst? Suspicion falls on everyone. As Joanna becomes obsessed with the case, her curiosity will expose her son and his father to the supposedly reformed murderer—who may be ready to kill again. She will learn how dangerous one rumor can become . . . and just how far she must go to protect those she loves. She is going to regret the day she ever said a word. Praise for The Rumor “A brilliant premise with a killer twist. The Rumor depicts the prejudices and secrets that simmer in a small seaside town to devastating effect.”—Colette McBeth, author of An Act of Silence “This mystery has an unusual and resonant theme—how a single rumor can morph into a completely unmanageable, deadly force. . . . [There’s] psychological acuity throughout and [an] astonishing ending.”—Booklist

A New York Times bestseller! “A bewitching gem...I absolutely loved every moment of this story.” —Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Caraval series “If you loved the Hogwarts Library…you’ll be right at home at Summershall.” —Katherine Arden, New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale From the New York Times bestselling author of An Enchantment of Ravens comes an “enthralling adventure” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) about an apprentice at a magical library who must battle a powerful sorcerer to save her kingdom. All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire, and Elisabeth is implicated in the crime. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them. As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.

Sarah J. Maas hit the New York Times SERIES list at #1 with A Court of Wings and Ruin!

This book divides into two basic parts. In Chapters 1 and 2 I discuss historical examples of "rumor" discourse and suggest whey many blacks have--for good reason--channeled beliefs about race relations into familiar formulae, ones developed as early as the time of the first contact between sub-Saharan Africans and European white. Then in Chapters 3-7 it explores the continuation of these issues in late-twentieth-century African-American rumors and contemporary legends, using examples collected in the field. Because Turner was able to monitor these contemporary legends as they unfolded and played themselves out, rigorous analysis was possible. What follows, then, is an examination of the themes common to these contemporary items and related historical ones, and an explanation for their persistence. Concerns about conspiracy, contamination, cannibalism, and castration--perceived threats to individual black bodies, which are then translated into animosity toward the race as a whole--run through nearly four hundred years of black contemporary legend material and prove remarkable tenacious.

Ovid's poetry is haunted obsessively by a sense both of the living fullness of the texts and of the emptiness of these 'insubstantial pageants'. This major study touches on the whole of Ovid's output, from the Amores to the exile poetry, and is an overarching treatment of illusionism and the textual conjuring of presence in the corpus. Modern critical and theoretical approaches, accompanied by close readings of individual passages, examine the topic from the points of view of poetics and rhetoric, aesthetics, the psychology of desire, philosophy, religion and politics. There are also case studies of the reception of Ovid's poetics of illusion in Renaissance and modern literature and art. The book will interest students and scholars of Latin and later European literatures. All foreign languages are accompanied by translations.