PAGECAST

"I love this phrase you've used - explain ourselves to ourselves."

Joanne Joseph sits down with best-selling author Alka Joshi for a rich, expansive conversation on Six Days in Bombay. Together they unpack why Alka only came to novel writing later in life, the mother whose real story became the seed of The Henna Artist, and the painter Amrita Sher-Gil, "the Frida Kahlo of India", whose bold, uncompromising life inspired the character of Mira. They talk about the responsibility of writing historical fiction with care, the meticulous research behind Alka's immersive worlds, and the layered ways women in her novels travel outward to find their way back to themselves. It's also a wider conversation about heritage, colonisation, and why literature matters as a tool for explaining ourselves to ourselves.

Alka Joshi's new book is Six Days in Bombay. Inspired by the life of Amrita Sher-Gil, it follows nurse Sona as she carries a cryptic note and four paintings across a Europe teetering toward war, in search of the truth about the woman who left them in her care, and about herself.

Alka Joshi is the best-selling author of The Henna Artist and the Jaipur Trilogy. Her books have been translated into nearly 30 languages.

Joanne Joseph is a TV and radio presenter, producer, and writer, and the author of Children of Sugarcane and Drug Muled.

What happens when a former CIA analyst turns his hand to fiction? Lester Kiewit chats to David McCloskey about The Persian, a sophisticated, atmospheric thriller that pulls readers deep into the shadow war between Iran and Israel, and the human cost of living a double life.

David McCloskey's new book is The Persian. Layered with intrigue, shifting loyalties and geopolitical danger, the novel follows Kamran Esfahani, an Iranian dentist recruited by the Mossad, whose life unravels after a single operation goes terribly wrong. Smart, fast-paced and atmospheric, it's a compelling read for fans of intelligent spy fiction.

David McCloskey is a former CIA analyst and best-selling author of intelligent spy fiction. Lester Kiewit is the host of the CapeTalk Breakfast show.

In this episode of Pagecast, food enthusiast, recipe creator, and social media sensation Onezwa Mbola joins storyteller and marketing professional Star Senamile Shongwe for a warm conversation about her debut book, A Food Love Story.

Onezwa traces her culinary journey from her mother's kitchen in a rural Eastern Cape seaside village, through destinations around the world, and back home again - a story about how food connects us to the people and places we love most. As a mother, she shares that love with her son and with the million-plus followers who have made her one of South Africa's most beloved voices in home cooking.

A Food Love Story is filled with wholesome recipes and the kind of warmth that makes you want to head straight to the kitchen.

A Food Love Story is out now and available at all good bookstores.

In this episode of Pagecast, South African writer Julia Martin joins Professor David Attwell, Professor of English at the University of York, for a reflective conversation about her latest book, On the Sponge Islands: Loss and Restoration in the Aegean.

The book follows Julia's journey through the Greek islands of the Dodecanese - Rhodes, Symi, Halki, Kalymnos, and Patmos - tracing the cultural and ecological legacy of sponge diving. For centuries, men from these islands had dived for sea sponges and traded them across the world. In the late nineteenth century, new deep-sea diving suits made it possible to harvest the seabed at an unprecedented scale, bringing home extraordinary wealth - and at extraordinary cost, in lives lost and ecosystems stripped bare.

On the Sponge Islands is a meditation on beauty and suffering, abundance and collapse, and what it means to restore what has been lost - both in the natural world and in ourselves.

Julia Martin is a South African writer and academic known for her work at the intersection of ecology, place, and contemplative practice. On the Sponge Islands is out now and available at all good bookstores.

In this episode of Pagecast, political analyst Tara Roos joins Twanji Kalula for a sharp, no-nonsense conversation about her new book, Where to From Here?, and what it reveals about the state of South African politics.

Roos argues that South Africa has entered an age of uncertainty, as populism rises and a new, unstable coalition era takes hold. She unpacks the structural weaknesses, strategic miscalculations, and identity crises within political parties, sorting them into three categories: Winners, Losers, and Survivors, and explains what each is getting right, where they are failing, and why some have grown while others have collapsed.

Thirty years into South Africa's democracy, Where to From Here? is a clear-eyed account of how politicians have failed the people, and a challenge to the electorate to demand better.

Tara Roos is one of the leading political thinkers of her generation. Twanji Kalula is a Cape Town-based communications professional, media practitioner, and joint chairperson of the Cape Town Press Club, widely known for hosting and moderating South African literary, cultural, and current affairs events.

Where to From Here? is out now and available at all good bookstores.

In this episode of Pagecast, Man Booker Prize-shortlisted author Tan Twan Eng joins Cape Town-based political commentator and writer Mphuthumi Ntabeni for a conversation about his latest novel, The House of Doors.

Set in 1921 at Cassowary House in the Straits Settlements of Penang, the novel follows Robert Hamlyn, a well-to-do lawyer, and his steely wife Lesley, whose lives are upended by the arrival of an old friend, Willie Somerset Maugham. One of the great writers of his day, Willie is privately beleaguered by an unhappy marriage, failing health, and a struggle to write. As Lesley's friendship with him deepens, she sees him more clearly for who he truly is -- and finds herself sharing secrets of her own, including her connection to the revolutionary Dr Sun Yat Sen and a scandalous murder case in the Kuala Lumpur courts.

Drawn from real events, The House of Doors is a masterful exploration of public morality and private truth, set against the shadow of empire -- a story of love, betrayal, and the masks we wear to survive.

Tan Twan Eng is the bestselling author of The Garden of Evening Mists. The House of Doors is out now and available at all good bookstores.

In this episode of Pagecast, South African playwright and novelist Nadia Davids joins renowned poet and scholar Gabeba Baderoon for a conversation about her latest novel, Cape Fever.

Cape Fever follows Soraya Matas, a young maid who takes up a position in the beautiful, decaying home of the eccentric Mrs. Hattingh - not far from the Muslim Quarter where she lives with her parents. What begins as a practical arrangement slowly unravels into something far stranger: a ritual of dictated letters, restless spirits, and a bond between two women that threatens the sanity of both.

Set in an unnamed colonial city and drawing on gothic themes, folk tales, and psychological suspense, Cape Fever has been compared to the work of Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Daphne du Maurier. It is a story of love and grief, class and power, and the long reach of history into the lives of those history forgets.

Nadia Davids is an award-winning South African author and playwright. Cape Fever is her latest novel and is available now at all good bookstores.

Pagecast recorded live at the Kingsmead Book Fair, where Mandy Weiner sat down with Shakti Pillay from Jonathan Ball Publishers to talk about her latest book, The Deal.

In this episode, Mandy pulls back the curtain on the story behind the book -- the kind of deep, forensic storytelling that has made her one of the most trusted voices in South African media.

Mandy Weiner is the host of The Midday Report on 702 and Cape Talk, a weekly columnist for EWN, and an award-winning author. Known for her rigorous investigative journalism and her ability to make complex stories accessible, Mandy has built a reputation as a fearless chronicler of South African public life.

The Deal is out now and available at all good bookstores.

Pagecast recorded live at the Kingsmead Book Fair, where Nozipho Tshabalala sat down with Mpumi Mgidlana from Jonathan Ball Publishers to talk about her memoir, After the Fires: Unlocking the Power of Letting Go.

In this episode, Nozipho reflects on the question at the heart of her book: when the flames of life's challenges have swept through you, who do you become from the ashes? It is a conversation about grief, surrender, and the unexpected freedom that comes from letting go.

Nozipho Tshabalala is a globally sought-after conversation strategist who has facilitated presidential and executive conversations for the World Bank, UN agencies, and governments around the world. In After the Fires, she turns that same lens on her own life -- tracing her journey from the loss of her mother at the height of her career, to a profound reckoning with control, identity, and what it truly means to thrive.

After the Fires: Unlocking the Power of Letting Go is published by Jonathan Ball Publishers, which is celebrating 50 years in South African publishing this year. The book is out now and available at all good bookstores.

Pagecast recorded live at the Kingsmead Book Fair, where Sally Andrew sat down with Faye Knight from Jonathan Ball Publishers to talk about the latest instalment in her beloved Tannie Maria mystery series, Wild Things Never Die.

In this episode, Sally shares what keeps drawing her back to Tannie Maria -- and what readers can expect from the fifth book in the series.

Sally Andrew is the best-selling author of the award-winning Tannie Maria mystery novels, which have been translated into fifteen languages and adapted into an international television series. She lives with her artist partner in a mud-brick house on a nature reserve in the Klein Karoo, and holds a master's in Adult Education from the University of Cape Town. A former social and environmental activist, she now writes, cooks, does Biofield Tuning, and is training to be a doowop girl.

The Tannie Maria series includes Recipes for Love and Murder, The Satanic Mechanic, Death on the Limpopo, and The Milk Tart Murders. Sally has also published a cookbook, Recipes to Live For. Wild Things Never Die is the fifth instalment in the series and is out now at all good bookstores.