Rabid to impress girls at underground dinner parties, Port of Cape Town mud traffic control officers Geronimo Chanboon and Darius Coochoomber III strive to smuggle and cook every rare critter on the endangered species roster. Meanwhile, Corsicana Malva, nursing a crush on retired circus orangutan Lahnee-O, spearheads the campaign to have the great apes declared human. Lovesick and gun-crazy, travel agent Gool Eunus, on the other hand, plots to take down the pretender to the throne of the Saudi Caliphate. This comical masterpiece holds the answers to who the Tanuki Ichiban really is and offers a witty and provocative milieu where elements of dreams and reality intertwine.

This book considers the political potential of affective experiences of desire as reflected in contemporary South African literature. Jason Price argues that definitions of desire deployed by capitalist and colonial culture maintain social inequality by managing relations to ensure a steady flow of capital and pleasure for the dominant classes, whereas affective encounters with animals reveal the nonhuman nature of desire, a biopower that, in its unpredictability, can frustrate regimes of management and control. Price wonders how animals’ different desires might enable new modes of thought to positively transform and resist the status quo. This book contends that South African literary works employ nonhuman desire and certain indigenous notions of desire to imagine a South Africa that can be markedly different from the past.

This volume examines the Africa-Asia relationship from a transregional perspective, namely as a set of emergent social, political and economic practices spanning a number of analytical and spatial scales. Drawing on a host of countries from both regions, the contributions illustrate how encounters increasingly transcend fixed territorial categories at local, national and regional levels. While large-scale political and economic considerations tend to dominate in Asia-Africa related literature—for instance, in China-Africa, BRICS and South-South discourses—the current volume seeks to foster dialogue between these broader levels of analyses and more localized social practices and experiences, including the role of civil society, cultural production and migration. With an emphasis on the “trans” aspects of inter-regional exchange, the volume contributes to a better understanding of new forms of space-making between these two increasingly important regions.

Laura Marsh, an art teacher and single mother, is horrified when a visiting friend--a Zimbabwean refugee and an artist--finds a corpse in the plantations near her home. When the friend, Daniel, is arrested for the murder, Laura assumes he has been pegged due to his being a foreigner. However, a connection between Daniel and the dead man emerges, and the situation becomes even more complicated as some politically well-connected people are lurking in the background of the case. Resenting the police's unwillingness to look beyond Daniel for a suspect, Laura puts her own life at risk. The story of a woman trying to move on following her divorce, this crime novel also touches upon the issues of xenophobia and racism in South Africa.

Imagine that there are American MIAs who chose to remain missing after the Vietnam War. Imagine that there is a family in which four generations of strong, alluring women have shared a mysterious connection to an outlandish figure from Japanese folklore. Imagine just those things (don’t even try to imagine the love story) and you’ll have a foretaste of Tom Robbins’s eighth and perhaps most beautifully crafted novel--a work as timeless as myth yet as topical as the latest international threat. On one level, this is a book about identity, masquerade and disguise--about “the false mustache of the world”--but neither the mists of Laos nor the smog of Bangkok, neither the overcast of Seattle nor the fog of San Francisco, neither the murk of the intelligence community nor the mummery of the circus can obscure the linguistic phosphor that illuminates the pages of Villa Incognito. A female fan once wrote to Tom Robbins: “Your books make me think, they make me laugh, they make me horny and they make me aware of the wonder of everything in life.” Villa Incognito will surely arouse a similar response in many readers, for in its lusty, amusing way it both celebrates existence and challenges our ideas about it. To say much more about a novel as fresh and surprising as Villa Incognito would run the risk of diluting the sheer fun of reading it. As his dedicated readers worldwide know full well, it’s best to climb aboard the Tom Robbins tilt-a-whirl, kiss preconceptions and sacred cows goodbye and simply enjoy the ride.

Jo Hernandez is a wallflower doing a PhD on South African models and beauty queens. She travels to Cape Town but spends much of her time peeping at the hot neighbor guy. He has a girlfriend, though, and the couple draw Jo into a flirty friendship. Around them love feels within reach, and they have just the guy for her. Anele is a police psychologist. He’s perfect and just the kind of guy Jo would have run a mile from until her cupids gave her a personality makeover. But does the affection of her friends come with a price? Before Jo and Anele can get together her budding will and his talent as a hostage negotiator will be put to the test.

Best Places Portland is the smartest guide to one of the hottest cities in America. Whether it’s munching on crepes in Northwest Portland or an afternoon exploring the Garden of the Awakening Orchid, you’ll find the best the city has to offer. The Best Places series offers expert opinions, inside information, and honest advice—from the country’s most respected regional travel series. Includes information on walking tours, fine and performing arts, shopping, and nightlife, and contains reviews of new restaurants, hotels, and brewpubs and wine bars. This new edition includes: updated reviews of food and lodging, an expanded Shopping section, eight new sidebars, expanded coverage on the Oregon wine-growing region.