The Bay Bookshop

The independent bookshop for unchained minds.

Past Featured Books

Other People's Money  by Justin Cartwright. Published by Bloomsbury in trade paperback at R180. pp 258.

There have been any number of books based around the financial meltdown, most focussing on the soulless, alpha-male, 'masters of the universe' who landed the world in the soup but continued on their way, none the wiser and certainly none the worse for wear, judging by their bonuses and undiminished self-regard. But that's not quite what this novel is about. True, it's about a bank and the bank is in trouble because it's been dabbling, like everyone else, in financial instruments it didn't really understand but still seemed to make lots of money from, at least, until the whole thing collapsed. Now a financial hole has to be filled, legally or not, if the venerable family-owned bank of Tubal & Co (Shakespeareans will enjoy this) with its 300 year history is to be sold, allowing a reasonably graceful and profitable exit. So far, so predictable but wait, there's more, the banker and his family aren't evil or soulless, just human, with the foibles of the very rich added to the mix. And that's one of the issues this novel, with the lightest of touches, addresses, the amusing, self-deceiving and silly ways people behave when under pressure, whether financial, moral or emotional. The CEO, Julian Trevelyan-Tubal, didn't want to be a banker but felt pressured into it when his elder brother decided he'd rather be a trust-fund kid. His deeply traditional father is slowly dying, unaware that his legacy is being sold around him and that his much younger wife is coping by having an 'affair' with her personal trainer (a South African former rugby player) if bonking in the equipment cupboard qualifies. Exposure, in the form of a crusading old-time journalist, threatens and time is running out. Justin Cartwright has written a readable, humorous, finely observed, morality tale, which asks some interesting questions about our values in the early 21st century.

Steve Davies

Why The West Rules - For Now (The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future). 
by Ian Morris. Published by Profile Books in hardback at R389.95. pp 750.

For lovers of good thick history books, this will hit the spot. If you enjoyed Jared Diamond's 'Guns, Germs and Steel' with its search for first causes in the unfolding of human history, then you will revel in Ian Morris's quest for a 'theory of everything'. One of his main points is that present explanations simply do not start early enough and so takes us back thousands of years to the beginning of human development. It's an exercise in 'compare and contrast' as he plots the development of the Western and Eastern 'nodes' of the world, shows where, how and why they diverged, how the East overtook the West, how the West regained the lead but now looks in imminent danger of losing it once more.

Throughout history there have been developmental  'ceilings', not so much of glass but of iron, that we've striven to break through. When we do, great things happen; when we don't, we spiral down into what he terms 'nightfall'. We don't quite start again from scratch as we still store some lessons for the future but it's not an inviting prospect. This book says as much about the future as it does about the past and according to the author's theory, we are rapidly approaching another 'ceiling', with no guarantee that we will break through (but he gives a fascinating insight into just how this could be accomplished.

Someone may one day write a book refuting Ian Morris's arguments but I think it's going to be a long wait.

Steve Davies 

Embracing Hout Bay - Over a century of making things happen from Dorman & Son to Mariner's Wharf and Fisherman's World' 

edited by Gwynne Schrire. 184 pp R285. Illustrated. Published by Fisherman's World.

Books on Hout Bay are as scarce as hen's teeth. The most recent history, Tony Westby-Nunn's, is now out of print (so if you have one, hang onto it) and the only other publication I can think of, had very little text and photos that looked as if they were taken with a Kodak Instamatic some time in the early seventies. Perhaps they were but the information was equally dated. So, a new book on Hout Bay is a welcome event. Stanley Dorman and Gwynne Schrire have compiled what is essentially a fond history of the Dorman family and its contribution to the development of Hout Bay since the 1890's. There is a wealth of detail about Hout Bay's fishing industry and its politics, the development of Mariner's Wharf and Fisherman's World and the preservation and restoration of many of Hout Bay's historic buldings. The book is illustrated with a good mix of family and company photos, paintings and historic memorabilia while the text trips along in an easy, chatty style. An interesting addition to the written record of Hout Bay.

Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer. Published by Hodder & Stoughton in trade paperback at R185. 408pp.

Local really is lekker when it comes to Deon Meyer. If you enjoy having your pulse rate accelerated and can think of nothing better than being in a state of agitation for 400 pages then this is highly recommended! Written in ‘real time’ over 13 hours this is the story of a young American woman who, ‘can’t let them catch her – they can’t let her live’,  on foot in Cape Town, being pursued by a murderous gang. Why they want to kill her, you’ll discover but not before you’ve spent 13 desperate hours in her company, as she flees for her life across the City Bowl.

She’s not quite alone, although she doesn’t know it, political pressure has brought Detective Benny Griessel out of limbo and onto the case. Drunk or legend, according to your view, he has to navigate the politics of the new SA police force and save the girl, plus his career. Meyer sets the tension dial to ‘high’ right from the start and doesn’t relax it for a moment. It certainly doesn’t detract from the story that it takes place in locations, familiar to most of us, but not to the girl.  You’ll soon see why he’s rated by the UK ‘Guardian’ as ‘Far and away the best crime writer in South Africa

Solar  by Ian McEwan
Published by Jonathan Cape at R215 in trade paperback. pp 288.

Something a little unexpected from Ian McEwan, a comedy, or at least a dark satire, on one of the topics du jour, anthropogenic global warming. Centre stage is a shambling excuse for a human being called Michael Beard who embodies many of the faults, vanities and appetites which stand in the way of humanity getting its act together, yet he's oddly appealing too, not least to women. His fifth marriage is about to fall apart when his wife discovers he's had a string of affairs and she takes revenge on Beard by conducting an affair with the builder. Beard, of course discovers, as he's about to lose Patrice, that he actually loves her and embarks on a futile attempt to win her back and frighten off the builder, not that easy when you're short, fat and on the point of cardiac arrest. His professional life is in a similar state, once a renowned young scientist who shared a Nobel prize, he now lives off past glories as nominal head of a research institute going nowhere. An amusing twist in the story puts him, improbably, in a position to develop a major source of clean energy and renewed fame and wealth beckon. A departure for Ian McEwan but an amusing one, as Michael Beard stands in for all of us.

Evita's Kossie Sikelela  by Evita Bezuidenhout. Published by Umuzi at R150. 127 pp and lavishly illustrated.

Also available in Afrikaans as 'Evita Se Kossie Sikele'

What does one say about Evita Bezuidenhout? National Treasure? The most famous white woman in South Africa? Gogo to the Nation? Former Ambassador Extraordinaire? All this and more. A girl who rose from humble origins in the dusty Orange Free State town of Bethlehem to mix with the rich, famous and influential, is also a fabulous cook and here she shares her favourite recipes with us. In the spirit of the Rainbow Nation, the cookbook includes dishes for diabetics and vegetarians, halaal and kosher, holidays and children and even some to keep you in the svelte shape we so admire in Tannie Evita. Would you like to know Pik Botha's bushveld braai secrets or Golda Meir's chicken soup recipe? Tannie Evita tells all.

The book is wonderfully put together, with recipes, anecdotes, great good humour and illustrated throughout with Tannie Evita's family photographs and portraits (with apologies to various well-known painters) which will amuse and entertain. Altogether this is one of the nicest books to have been published locally in ages. Don't take my word for it, Sophia Loren, who writes an introduction, thinks so too. If all this isn't enough, the book cover folds out into a poster of Evita and her extended family at table. You'll want to frame it as a true piece of Africana.