May has arrived and with it, the perfect weather for reading. The amazing line-up of authors joining us for Open Book this year leaves no shortage of great books from which to choose (Patrick Gale’s A Place Called Winter seems particularly appropriate). Visit our website or give the Book Lounge a call, buy a book and start your reading now!
To kick winter off in style, we have some additions to our international guest list…
Anyone who had the pleasure of reading An Elegy for Easterly has been waiting for Petina Gappah to publish something new. The long wait will be over, when The Book of Memory, her debut novel, hits shelves later this year. And even better – she will be at Open Book discussing her novel and more!
Petina Gappah
Thanks to the Embassy of Sweden, we are being joined by Andreas Norman and Svante Weyler. Norman is a former diplomat, whose first novel, Into a Raging Blaze, is set in the world of spies, diplomats and international politics.
Weyler is the founder and publisher of Weyler Forlag, a small publishing house in Stockholm. Deon Meyer, Nthikeng Mohlele and Marlene van Niekerk are amongst the authors he publishes and we look forward to him offering him offering his insight into the book world.
Andreas Norman and Svante Weyler
Jakob Melander is joining us courtesy of the Embassy of Denmark. The House that Jack Built is the first of his crime novels to be translated into English. Prior to his writing career, he was guitarist for a number of Danish rock bands.
Jakob Melander
And last but certainly not least, we are delighted that the French Institute is supporting Alain Mabanckou’s visit to Cape Town for Open Book. He joined us – very briefly – in 2011 and we are over the moon that he’s returning. His latest novel, Letter to Jimmy, is a collection of imagined letters to James Baldwin.
Alain Mabanckou
They will be joining Marc Boutavant, Karen Joy Fowler, Patrick Gale, Masha Gessen, Saskia Goldschmidt, Christopher Hope, Andrey Kurkov, Helen Macdonald, Neel Mukherjee, Okey Ndibe, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Chris Riddell, Åsne Seierstad, Laura van den Berg and R.A.Villanueva.
If you would like further details about the festival or events through the year, please contact Frankie (frankie@openbookfestival.co.za).
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Open Book is organised in partnership with The Fugard Theatre, The District 6 Museum, The Townhouse Hotel, Equal Education, The Bookery, The Dutch Foundation for Literature, The French Institute, The Embassy of Sweden, The Embassy of Denmark, The US Consulate, Central Library, PEN SA, The Goethe Institute, UCT Creative Writing Department and sponsored by Leopards Leap, Pan Macmillan, NB Publishers, Jonathan Ball and Penguin Random House.