Reading Matters (week 045) 04 November 2025

Gareth Crocker’s debut novel, Finding Jack, about a dog in Vietnam, was published in New York in 2011 to international acclaim, translated into several languages and sold around the world. Now, many years and books later, and after an hiatus, he’s back with two thrillers that’ll keep you up at night as they did me.

Now you Suffer was the first in the detective Ruben Ellis series, and just out is Now you Bleed (Penguin). People are bleeding to death, for no reason, in different settings all over Jo’burg city. The killer is no thug but an academic icon, a professor of human physiology. Crocker’s writing skills and extraordinary imagination will chill and thrill you.

SA celebrity Michelin chef, Jan van der Westhuizen’s JAN Voyage (Penguin) is a hardcover beauty taking readers and home cooks on culinary journeys to, in this book, medieval Apricale in Italy and Nice in France.

There are over 100 recipes, some complicated but most elegantly simple, that feed a hunger for life, love and discovery. A gem.

Steven Pinker, one of the world’s most celebrated intellectuals, has spent a lifetime thinking about how we think. Ever thought of that ?! He starts his new book, When Everyone Knows that Everyone Knows… (Penguin) by telling the story of the emperor’s new clothes. Everyone knew he was naked but it took a little boy to blurt out the truth. What does that story and Pinker’s many others, tell us about ourselves. Fascinating!

Finally, Healing the Mother Wound (Tafelberg) by Moshitadi Lehlomela, made me pause as I think mothers often get a raw deal. But Lehlomela, a bestselling author and coach, is deeply insightful and compellingly full of wisdom. Read it even if you don’t need it.

Reading Matters with Sue Grant-Marshall