Treats and tweets in Franschhoek

Short, sharp guidance and observations from a journalist with attitude. All books available from Exclusives

IF YOU READ ONE BOOK THIS WEEK

'The Jackal's Share', by Chris Morgan Jones (Mantle), R220

MORGAN Jones reunites us with "corporate spy" Ben Webster, the hero of his debut, An Agent of Deceit, a novel hailed for rescuing the spy genre from the doldrums in which it had languished since the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. Here Webster is hired by a billionaire to investigate his personal affairs - and it soon emerges that there is something very wrong with his client.

THE ISSUE

Poring over the entries for this year's Sunday Times Literary Awards, held in association with CNA, I wondered about the titles that would make the shortlists for both the Alan Paton Award and the Sunday Times Fiction Prize. Not easy. Regarding the latter, I'll be disappointed if James Whyle's The Book of War didn't make the cut on Saturday, when the leading contenders will be announced at the Franschhoek Literary Festival. Michiel Heyns' Invisible Furies, Nadine Gordimer's No Time Like the Present and Andre Brink's Philida will probably also be chosen.

Given the broad ambit of "non-fiction", selecting possible titles for the Alan Paton was more difficult, so I haven't bothered. Perhaps this prize could be restricted to the more ponderously "worthy" titles - the "political" analyses that normal folk would never read - and new awards handed out for the memoirs, biographies, travel writing and anthologies of essays, commentary and criticism. I'll be in Franschhoek for the festival and will be tweeting from author sessions and book events. Watch out for #flf2013.

CRASH COURSE

Thanks to Baz Luhrmann's film with Leonardo DiCaprio, there is renewed interest in F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, published in 1925 and considered by many to be THE great American novel. I feel the novel's concerns - besides the tragic romance of its central characters, it is both a cautionary tale against decadence as well as a critique of class conflict - have a particular relevance for current South African readers.

Apart from avoiding the Luhrmann film, those who know and love the novel may want to watch out for Careless People: Murder, Mayhem and the Invention of the Great Gatsby, by Sarah Churchwell, published by Virago next month and which details the real-life double-killing in 1922 that inspired Fitzgerald.

THE BOTTOM LINE

"Robert Langdon slowly awakened as if from a dream. Memories resurfaced like bubbles of methane mushrooming through a quagmire. He probed his brain. His memory hurt. Where was he? Where was his Jacquard dressing gown? His Harris tweed jacket? His Somerset loafers? All gone. Or not there. Or elsewhere." - Inferno, by Don Brown (www.telegraph.co.uk), a parody of Inferno, by Dan Brown (Random House Struik)