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July – December 2025 Penguin Random House 2 RISING STARS 6 GENERAL FICTION 14 CRIME & THRILLERS 22 LITERARY FICTION 26 AFRIKAANSE FIKSIE 28 BIOGRAPHIES 32 NON-FICTION 44 NATURE & TRAVEL 48 COOKERY 52 FAITH & INSPIRATION CONTENTSFROM THE SUBURBS OF PHILADELPHIA TO THE STREETS OF SAIGON, THIS LUMINOUS DEBUT FOLLOWS THREE WOMEN AS THEY SEARCH FOR TRUTH AND BELONGING MY OTHER HEART Emma Nanami Strenner May 1998: Mimi Traung and her baby daughter Ngan wait at the gates of Philadelphia airport, on their way back home to Vietnam. While they prepare to board, the unimaginable happens. Seventeen years later, two best friends are discussing their summer plans before college. Both have trips ahead in search of their roots: Sabrina is preparing to travel to China to meet her mother’s family. Kit leaves for Tokyo, convinced that her biological mother is Japanese. Meanwhile, Mimi returns to Philadelphia in search of her lost child, tracing memories from that fateful day waiting at the gates. Eventually Mimi, Kit and Sabrina come face to face, and have to confront the people they truly are, dismantling their own assumptions about belonging and the importance of blood ties. Trade paperback • R355 • 9781529154078 • August RISING STARSJULY – DECEMBER 2025 3 RISING STARS THE EIGHTS Joanna Miller Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its 1000-year history, the world’s most famous university has admitted female students. Giddy with dreams of equality, education and emancipation, four young women move into neighbouring rooms on Corridor Eight. But Oxford’s dreaming spires cast a dark shadow: in 1920, misogyny is still rife, influenza is still a threat, and the ghosts of the Great War are still very real. And as the group navigate this tumultuous moment in time, their friendship will become more important than ever. Trade paperback • R355 • 9780241737668 • July THE FAVOURITE Fran Littlewood Alex, Eva and Nancy. Three grown-up sisters; each wonderful in their own individual ways. And loved equally by their parents, Vivienne and Patrick. Or so they thought … Until on their annual family holiday, Patrick accidentally lets slip that he has a favourite daughter – causing other long- buried secrets to come to light. Set over a single week, but examining the highs and lows that define a family over the decades, The Favourite is a story about rivalries and long-held resentments, about loss and grief and blame – and, above all, about love. Trade paperback • R380 • 9780241548554 • July NOTES ON INFINITY Austin Taylor When Zoe and Jack meet in a chemistry classroom in Harvard, they couldn’t be more different, but they are immediately drawn to one another. In two years’ time, they will have dropped out of college and become business partners in a billion-dollar company that promises longer life. But as they become wrapped up in a maelstrom of insatiable ambition, greed and ultimately deceit, their love for each other will be tested to its very limit … Trade paperback • R395 • 9780241729496 • July “W hen I began writing The Eights, I knew I wanted to immerse readers in the atmosphere and politics of 1920s Oxford – a time and place I find endlessly fascinating. Having studied at Oxford three times, I know the city well, and over the course of writing the novel, I returned often – sometimes with my dog, Dickens – for research and inspiration. The Bodleian Library even renewed my reading card so I could work in its iconic rooms and access its archives. I discovered many evocative historical details during this process – like the ‘sub fusc’ uniforms and the strict rules for women – which helped bring the setting to life. Though the characters are fictional, the locations, documents, and many social dynamics are rooted in real history. I was especially lucky to gain access to handwritten testimonies from 1920s students at St Hugh’s College, where the novel is set. More than just capturing the era’s look and feel, I wanted The Eights to reflect the shifting roles of women in the aftermath of World War I. My protagonist, Beatrice, is the daughter of a suffragette and carries both her mother’s ideals and her emotional absence. She’s warm, curious, idealistic – and wounded. Through Beatrice, I explored how a young woman might define herself in a world where old traditions still loomed large despite social change. The story unfolds through Beatrice and her three friends – Otto, Dora, and Marianne – each of whom brings a distinct perspective on life as a woman in the post-war world. Through these four women, I wanted to explore the depth of female friendship in a time of uncertainty and possibility. I hope The Eights offers a rich historical journey and a story that speaks to love, loss, loyalty, and ambition.” Joanna Miller on writing The Eights, studying at Oxford (three times), and imagining the lives of the first women to walk its storied halls. A quick chat with Joanna Miller PHOTOGRAPH: Lucy Noble PhotographyJULY – DECEMBER 2025 4 RISING STARS A gripping coming-of-age debut, My Other Heart by Emma Nanami Strenner explores identity, loss, and the deep, sometimes complicated bonds of female friendship through the eyes of two unforgettable teens. A Love Letter to Girlhood There was always a heartbeat of panic, a moment when I imagined the worst. “A irports have always fascinated me. They feel like liminal spaces – neither here nor there, suspended between arrival and departure, presence and absence. I’ve spent a lot of time in them, especially when my daughter was little. I remember chasing after her tiny, determined figure as she darted away from me, always just out of reach. I’d find her eventually, of course, but there was always a heartbeat of panic, a moment when I imagined the worst. It was from that feeling, that edge of dread, that My Other Heart was born. I asked myself: what if I didn’t find her? What if something irreversible happened? What if I couldn’t advocate for myself? What if I was utterly powerless? Mimi’s disappearance in the novel is my worst fear materialised. But before that pivotal scene took shape, the idea for the book had been quietly forming. There’s an old adage that debut novels are often a little autobiographical, and in some ways, My Other Heart is no exception. I wanted to write about a girl growing up in a world that didn’t quite reflect her, someone with roots in more than one place and yet unsure of where, or if, she truly belongs. Enter Kit: mixed race, adopted into a wealthy white family, finishing school and facing the inevitable identity reckoning that comes with young adulthood. She arrived fully formed, already questioning the version of her life she’d been told was hers. Her story became a vehicle for a bigger question: what happens when the story you’ve been told about yourself begins to unravel? Sabrina followed soon after. She and Kit are very different, yet deeply connected. I felt I knew them both immediately. They’re grappling with identity – cultural, racial, personal – and also with the deeply emotional terrain of what it means to be a girl on the brink of adulthood. I see a lot of myself in both of them. Like Kit, I’ve misunderstood my parents. I’ve chosen convenient beliefs over uncomfortable truths. Like Sabrina, I’ve been hesitant, overly self- conscious, and unsure of my place. But just as Sabrina grows more confident and finds her voice, so too did I, eventually. The story was always going to belong to these two girls. There’s something sacred about the intensity of teenage emotions – raw, immediate, unfiltered. The highs are euphoric, the lows catastrophic. Nothing is dulled by time or cynicism yet. It felt right to see this world through their eyes, to give their experiences the gravity and nuance they deserve. My Other Heart is, in many ways, a love letter to the emotional intensity of girlhood, to the complexity of identity, and to the ways in which we both find and lose ourselves in one another.” PHOTOGRAPH: Naoko KanedaJULY – DECEMBER 2025 5 RISING STARS ALCHEMISED SenLinYu In this standalone dark fantasy debut, a woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy, while navigating a complex relationship with the man tasked to unearth the deepest secrets of her past. Trade paperback • R495 • 9780241714348 • October A deeply original and moving read with a beautiful blend of fantasy, romance and Gothic suspense SILVERCLOAK L. K. Steven An addictive new fantasy series set in a world where magic is fuelled by pleasure and pain, in which an obsessive detective infiltrates a brutal gang of dark mages – knowing that one wrong move will get her killed … Trade paperback • R395 • 9781529940985 • September DIRE BOUND Sable Sorensen Fourth Wing meets The Hunger Games in this spicy, page-turning romantasy where humans and direwolves forge unbreakable bonds and fight for survival at all costs. Trade paperback • R395 • 9781911751212 • SeptemberTHE GIRL WITH THE SUITCASE Lesley Pearse London 1941. When Mary meets a glamorous stranger named Elizabeth she realises their lives couldn’t be more different. But when an air raid forces them to take shelter underground Mary’s life changes forever. After waking up in hospital, injured but alive, the nurse mistakes her for Elizabeth and hands over her suitcase with Elizabeth’s money and tickets to Ireland inside. This is Mary’s chance to escape the hardship of her life and start afresh. What could go wrong? Trade paperback • R380 • 9780241678121 • July Set in London and Ireland in 1941, a woman from harsh beginnings seizes the opportunity for a fresh start. But it all rests on the one secret that could ruin it all … GENERAL FICTION7 GENERAL FICTION JULY – DECEMBER 2025 ONE NIGHT IN PARIS Nina George Claire Cousteau has a seemingly perfect family life, but she has become increasingly frustrated by her marriage and her husband’s affairs. As the Cousteaus prepare for a summer in Brittany, Claire’s son Nico asks if his new girlfriend, Julie, can join them. But what the family don’t realise is that Julie and Claire have met before, in a Parisian hotel during a night that Claire thought was her secret. Beneath the Breton sun, could their surprising bond alter the course of their lives for all time? Trade paperback • R395 • 9780241436592 • September TYRANT Conn Iggulden Ancient Rome, AD 50. The boy Nero lives. His mother Agrippina has married her way to power, tangling the Emperor Claudius in her skirts. The emperor may have a son and heir of his own, but Agrippina sees no obstacles to her ambition. Rome is a path through a marsh, lit by torches. Those who walk it are always one step from disaster – and the road itself is treacherous, slippery with blood. Trade paperback • R380 • 9780241587355 • July WRITE ME FOR YOU Tillie Cole Seventeen-year-old June Scott has always dreamt of writing the greatest love story ever told. But when devastating news shakes her world she fears time is running out to find her own love. That’s until she meets Jesse who treats every day as if it could be his last. June is determined to give the boy she loves the story of them. And the world a reminder of who they might have been if their stars were written differently. Because even when your heartbeat stops, a true love story never dies. Paperback • R295 • 9781405964708 • August THE PREDICAMENT William Boyd Gabriel Dax, travel writer and accidental spy, has returned to a life of secrets and subterfuge. Dax is sent to Guatemala under the guise of covering a tinderbox presidential election, where the ruthless decisions of the Mafia provoke warfare in collusion with the CIA. As political turmoil erupts, Gabriel escapes to West Berlin, where he uncovers a chilling realization: there is a plot to assassinate young President John F. Kennedy. In a race against time, Gabriel must navigate deceit and danger, knowing that the stakes have never been higher. Hardcover • R395 • 9780241761144 • OctoberNext >