Joanne Joseph is joined by acclaimed Somali novelist, Nuruddin Farah to delve into his latest offering "North of Dawn". In this intimate interview, he shares about the guilt he had to deal with after his sister died in a similar manner to one of his characters in "Hiding in Plain sight". He felt that his writings were a premonition of his sister's death. Even though both these books are centered around terrorism, in the North of Dawn an uncommon story is told. This novel looks ate the life of the family of the terrorist, how they have to deal with the shame of their child taking away innocent lives and yet having to mourn the loss of a son. It explores the themes of forgiveness and recovery after such a violent act.

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New York Times bestselling author, Fiona Barton, has brought out a new crime fiction thriller called "The Suspect". This novel moves away from her previous English settling to the throbbing streets of Thailand, where two British eighteen-year-old girls go missing during their gap year. This time, Barton's familiar protagonist, journalist Kate Waters is thrust directly into the epicentre of the plot, as a family member of hers is drawn into the investigation. Barton's made more brave choices in this novel than she previously has. Joanne Joseph had a conversation with her, not just about the development of this latest book, but the evolution of crime fiction in recent times and the distinctly feminist turn it's taken.

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In the first installment of “The survivors” series, Joanne sits down with Nicci Diamond Levenstein who along with her brother were the first complaints in the Sidney Frankel sexual assault case. The group of complainants became known as the Frankel 8. They never had the opportunity to confront him about the abuse but their case led to the ConCourt ruling that removed the 20 year prescription rule that prevented the prosecution of sexual assault cases where the incident of abuse occurred over 20 years ago.

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For the month of February, Joanne took a journey with various couples to explore their love stories. In this episode, Terry- Ann and Dumisa Mathabathe share their love story. What began as a match-fixing exercise by Dumisa, trying to fix Terry-Ann up with a friend, ended with him falling in love with her. Together they overcame societal prejudices to realize a magical romance.

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For the month of February, Joanne takes a journey with various couples to explore their love stories. In this episode, anti- Apartheid activist Jay Naidoo and award-winning writer & journalist, Lucie Pagé share their love story with Joanne Joseph. Their relationship with their mothers is what drew them closer together, having met after the launch of the ANC Youth league in 1990. What they thought was just a seven-day love affair, ended up being a lifetime of love.

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Medical doctor, Dr Mavhungu Nelwamondo is the firebrand behind Modern Traditions.  She uses South African indigenous food as part of a strategy to combat contemporary lifestyle diseases like diabetes and hypertension. Her vegan food range includes a decadent chocolate ice cream and a gluten-free sorghum flour bread topped with marula nut butter.

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In the chronic turmoil of modern Zimbabwe, Abednego and Agnes Mlambo’s teenage son, Bukhosi, has gone missing, and the Mlambos fear the worst. Their enigmatic lodger, Zamani, seems to be their last, best hope for finding him. Since Bukhosi’s disappearance, Zamani has been preternaturally helpful: hanging missing posters in downtown Bulawayo, handing out fliers to passers-by, and joining in family prayer vigils with a flamboyant local pastor. But it looks as though there may be more to Zamani’s efforts. Zimbabwean-born writer, Novuyo Tshuma’s debut novel, House of Stone, is a surprising and harrowing journey through the country’s history, exorcising the violent demons of the past that continue to haunt the country today.

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We're having a bit of fun this week, and what better way to do that, than with books? They make great gifts, particularly for children, in a country where we're trying to cultivate a much stronger reading culture. We invited some members of the Roedean Literary Quiz team in to review a few books for us. This group of girls is 12-years-old and they're widely-read, so much so that they compete against other schools in a yearly international quiz on books.  Penguin publishing house was kind enough to supply us with books for this review.

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