Novels of Botswana in English, 1930-2006

Novels of Botswana in English, 1930-2006
Author: S. Lederer
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2014-06-16
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1940729165

Mary Lederer provides a valuable critical/historical survey of the genesis and development of the English novel in Botswana. This book comes as a timely correction of the notion that Botswana has no sustained fiction written in English, thus filling a gap that has existed for a long time in the literature of that country.

Far and Beyon'

Far and Beyon'
Author: Unity Dow
Publisher: Spinifex Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2001
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781876756079

"Far and Beyon'" is a captivating novel by an exciting new voice in African literature.

Botswana Time

Botswana Time
Author: Will Randall
Publisher: Abacus
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2009-10-01
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 0748113673

Will Randall travels with a purpose, as well as an outrageous sense of fortune. In INDIAN SUMMER he found himself, by chance, having the extraordinary experience of helping slum schoolchildren put on a play to help save their school. In Botswana he was taken up by a headmaster to teach a class of six year olds at The River of Life school. They are football crazy and one of Will's jobs is to take them to play neighbouring (sometimes as much as 100 miles away) schools. Camping en-route or staying in farms and rural villages, often travelling by foot or dug-out punts, thousands of antelope, elephant, buffalo and zebra follow their progress. The sound of lions, leopards and hyenas become the soundtrack of their dreams. Against all the odds they find themselves preparing for the Grand Final of the season - the titanic clash with arch rivals, Victoria Falls Primary school. Both an endearing personal story and a travel book about a little-known but highly successful country, BOTSWANA TIME will win new fans for both Will Randall and the extraordinary country of Botswana.

The Kalahari Typing School for Men

The Kalahari Typing School for Men
Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2004-06-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1400079411

Fans around the world adore the bestselling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and its proprietor, Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s premier lady detective. In this charming series, Mma Ramotswe—with help from her loyal associate, Grace Makutsi—navigates her cases and her personal life with wisdom, good humor, and the occasional cup of tea. Mma Precious Ramotswe is content. Her business is well established with many satisfied customers, and in her mid-thirties (“the finest age to be”) she has a house, two adopted children, a fine fiancé. But, as always, there are troubles. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni has not set the date for their marriage. Her able assistant, Mma Makutsi, wants a husband. And worse, a rival detective agency has opened in town—an agency that does not have the gentle approach to business that Mma Ramotswe’s does. But, of course, Precious will manage these things, as she always does, with her uncanny insight and her good heart.

When Rain Clouds Gather

When Rain Clouds Gather
Author: Bessie Head
Publisher: Waveland Press
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2013-09-23
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1478611677

Rural Botswana is the backdrop for When Rain Clouds Gather, the first novel published by one of Africa’s leading woman writers in English, Bessie Head (1937–1986). Inspired by her own traumatic life experiences as an outcast in Apartheid South African society and as a refugee living at the Bamangwato Development Association Farm in Botswana, Head’s tough and telling classic work is set in the poverty-stricken village of Golema Mmidi, a haven to exiles. A South African political refugee and an Englishman join forces to revolutionize the villagers’ traditional farming methods, but their task is fraught with hazards as the pressures of tradition, opposition from the local chief, and the unrelenting climate threaten to divide and devastate the fragile community. Head’s layered, compelling story confronts the complexities of such topics as social and political change, conflict between science and traditional ways, tribalism, the role of traditional African chiefs, religion, race relations, and male–female relations.

Whatever You Do, Don't Run

Whatever You Do, Don't Run
Author: Peter Allison
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2007-10-01
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 0762751746

A hilarious, highly original collection of essays based on the Botswana truism: “only food runs!” In the tradition of Bill Bryson, a new writer brings us the lively adventures and biting wit of an African safari guide. Peter Allison gives us the guide’s-eye view of living in the bush, confronting the world’s fiercest terrain of wild animals and, most challenging of all, managing herds of gaping tourists. Passionate for the animals of the Kalahari, Allison works as a top safari guide in the wildlife-rich Okavango Delta. As he serves the whims of his wealthy clients, he often has to stop the impulse to run as far away from them as he can, as these tourists are sometimes more dangerous than a pride of lions. No one could make up these outrageous-but-true tales: the young woman who rejected the recommended safari-friendly khaki to wear a more “fashionable” hot pink ensemble; the lost tourist who happened to be drunk, half-naked, and a member of the British royal family; establishing a real friendship with the continent’s most vicious animal; the Japanese tourist who requested a repeat performance of Allison’s being charged by a lion so he could videotape it; and spending a crazy night in the wild after blowing a tire on a tour bus, revealing that Allison has as much good-natured scorn for himself. The author’s humor is exceeded only by his love and respect for the animals, and his goal is to limit any negative exposure to humans by planning trips that are minimally invasive—unfortunately it doesn’t always work out that way! Peter Allison is originally from Sydney, Australia. His safaris have been featured in National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveler, and on television programs such as Jack Hanna’s Animal Adventures. He travels frequently to speaking appearances, and splits most of his time between Botswana, Sydney, and San Francisco.

Mating

Mating
Author: Norman Rush
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 498
Release: 1992-09-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 067973709X

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • Is love between equals possible? This modern classic is a delightful intellectual love story that explores the deepest canyons of romantic love even as it asks large questions about society, geopolitics, and the mystery of what men and women really want. “Luminous…Few books evoke the state of love at its apogee.” —The New York Times Book Review “The best rendering of erotic politics…since D.H. Lawrence…The voice of Rush’s narrator is immediate, instructive and endearing.” —The New York Review of Books The narrator of this splendidly expansive novel of high intellect and grand passion is an American anthropologist at loose ends in the South African republic of Botswana. She has a noble and exacting mind, a compelling waist, and a busted thesis project. She also has a yen for Nelson Denoon, a charismatic intellectual who is rumored to have founded a secretive and unorthodox utopian society in a remote corner of the Kalahari—one in which he is virtually the only man. What ensues is an exhilarating quest and an exuberant comedy of manners: “A dryly comic love story about grown-up people who take the life of the mind seriously.” —Newsweek

When Novels Were Books

When Novels Were Books
Author: Jordan Alexander Stein
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2020-01-07
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0674987047

A literary scholar explains how eighteenth-century novels were manufactured, sold, bought, owned, collected, and read alongside Protestant religious texts. As the novel developed into a mature genre, it had to distinguish itself from these similar-looking books and become what we now call “literature.” Literary scholars have explained the rise of the Anglophone novel using a range of tools, from Ian Watt’s theories to James Watt’s inventions. Contrary to established narratives, When Novels Were Books reveals that the genre beloved of so many readers today was not born secular, national, middle-class, or female. For the first three centuries of their history, novels came into readers’ hands primarily as printed sheets ordered into a codex bound along one edge between boards or paper wrappers. Consequently, they shared some formal features of other codices, such as almanacs and Protestant religious books produced by the same printers. Novels are often mistakenly credited for developing a formal feature (“character”) that was in fact incubated in religious books. The novel did not emerge all at once: it had to differentiate itself from the goods with which it was in competition. Though it was written for sequential reading, the early novel’s main technology for dissemination was the codex, a platform designed for random access. This peculiar circumstance led to the genre’s insistence on continuous, cover-to-cover reading even as the “media platform” it used encouraged readers to dip in and out at will and read discontinuously. Jordan Alexander Stein traces this tangled history, showing how the physical format of the book shaped the stories that were fit to print.

Tears of the Giraffe

Tears of the Giraffe
Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2008-10-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0748110623

The second book in the multi-million copy bestselling No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series The one where Precious gains a new family Mma Ramotswe of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is hoping to set up home with Mr J.L.B. Maketoni. But first she must deal with his scheming, misbehaving maid. She also has to confront the most difficult case of her career so far: that of an American who went missing ten years ago, and about whom all leads have long since dried up. Then there are not one, but two sudden additions to Mma's family . . . 'One of the most memorable heroines in any modern fiction' Newsweek 'Soothing, full of hope' Sunday Telegraph 'Delightful' Evening Standard 'Enthralling... Mma Ramotswe is someone readers can't help but love' USA Today

Travels with Gannon and Wyatt: Botswana

Travels with Gannon and Wyatt: Botswana
Author: Patti Wheeler
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Adventure and adventurers
ISBN: 9781608325856

In the tradition of the historic journals kept by such explorers as Lewis and Clark and Dr. David Livingstone comes this new adventure series about twin brothers who travel the world. When Gannon and Wyatt arrive in Botswana for an African safari, they find themselves tangled up in much more than a family vacation.