The FFF used to consist of Five Friends: Edith, Cordelia, Amanda, Doris and Beauty. But then Beauty suddenly becomes very ill, and after six short weeks, passes away. On her deathbed she begs Amanda to promise her one thing - that she and the rest of the FFF will not pass away prematurely like she is doing. 174pp, SOUTH AFRICA. KWELA BOOKS.

A collection of short stories which bring the full range of South African women's experience under apartheid to light. 155pp, USA. INTERLINK BOOKS.

The mother of a black youth who has killed a young white woman addresses the victim's mother, describing her feelings and the pressures of apartheid that drove him to the crime. Based on a real event. 210pp, SOUTH AFRICA. DAVID PHILIP.

From the languid innocence of the poems about her village, to her shattering images of Africa at war, Magona leads you headlong into her fireside circle where archetypes flicker like shadows on a face that has seen, and been. 82pp, SOUTH AFRICA. MODJAJI BOOKS.

A collection of hilarious and tragic short stories with memorable characters, set in varied backgrounds: rural Transkei, township life in the Cape, central New York. 168pp, SOUTH AFRICA. DAVID PHILIP