Beeda is a forty nine year old Muslim mother of four sons. This is however only one side of her life. She is also an independent minded woman with a sizzling sensuality and a love for risk. Soon Beeda becomes embroilled in intrigue such as an illicit affair and an addiction to gambling. The dilemas of her double life are vividly portrayed as is her fight to challenges the prejudices of her community when her favourite son contracts AIDS. 240pp, SOUTH AFRICA. KWELA BOOKS.

Set in the late Eighteenth Century, the novel tells the story of Roeloff, who attempts to bridge the gap between the white settlers of the Cape and the Sonqua people he has grown to love. Gloss, 231pp, UK. HEINEMANN AFRICAN WRITERS SERIES

A collection of linked short stories combining fiction with autobiography focusing on South Africans of mixed race and their struggle for identity. 163pp, CANADA. SECOND STORY PRESS.

Illegitimate, Hud grows up with his mother and her Christian family in the Cape Flats. For 28 years he is overlooked by his Muslim father who is no more than a shadowy figure inhabiting the outskirts of his world; a man his mother has always called Mr Johnson. Then, out of the blue, Hud's father informs him that he is to inherit his rare orchid collection, and asks him to move in with him. His father's health suddenly deteriorates, and this sets in motion a chain of events. Hud's half-brother and sister discover his existence for the first time. When Sawdah returns from Australia, where she has taken refuge from an unhappy experience ten years ago, she is immediately drawn to him. But Mo, her artist brother, resents the intruder. 288pp, SOUTH AFRICA. UMUZI.

A collection of semi autobiographical short stories exploring childhood, exile, and the return to South Africa in 1995. 199pp, SOUTH AFRICA. DOUBLE STOREY BOOKS.

Set in Cape Town, this novel explores, among other themes, the obsessive relationship between a Muslim woman and a fundamentalist Christian man. 299pp, SOUTH AFRICA. KWELA BOOKS.

The story of slavery and two people whose love transcends diverse traditions, cultures and faiths, set in the South Africa of 1832. Gloss, 285pp, SOUTH AFRICA. KWELA BOOKS.