Sunday Times Literary Awards longlist 2024

FICTION

The criteria stipulate that the winning novel should be one of “rare imagination and style ... a tale so compelling as to become an enduring landmark of contemporary fiction”.

Here is the fiction longlist in order of the author’s surname:
Buried Treasure by Axelrad, Sven (Umuzi)
Bridge by Beukes, Lauren (Umuzi)
The Weight of Shade by Boyd, Michael (Karavan Press)
The Bitterness of Olives by Brown, Andrew (Karavan Press)
Lost Property by Choritz, Megan (Melinda Ferguson Books)
At Fire Hour by Gilder, Barry (Jacana Media)
Flipped by Hawthorne, Tracey (Modjaji Books)
On That Wave of Gulls by Head, Vernon RL (Jacana Media)
Each Mortal Thing by Heyns, Michiel (Umuzi)
The Ghost of Sam Webster by Higginson, Craig (Picador Africa)
My Side of the Ocean by Irwin, Ron (Pan Macmillan)
Glass Tower by Isaacs, Sarah (Holland House Books)
The Reed Dance Stalker by Makholwa, Angela (Pan Macmillan)
Three Egg Dilemma by Morojele, Morabo (Jacana Media)
The Frightened by Msimang, Lethokuhle (Karavan Press)
Tunnel by Mulgrew, Nick (Karavan Press)
A Soft Landing by Mushwana, Wisani (Kwela)
A Remedy for Death by Naidoo, Sarah M (Kwela)
Of Fathers and Fugitives by Naudé, SJ translated by Heyns, Michiel (Human & Rossouw)
On the Precipice by Nyatsumba, Kaizer M (Verity Publishers)
Eye Brother Horn by Pitt, Bridget (Catalyst Press)
The Resurrection by Qwabe, Sihle (Kwela)
Little Secrets by Schimmel, Gail (Pan Macmillan)
Bloomer by Schlebusch, Anne (Modjaji Books)
The Thing with Zola by Sithole, Zibu (Pan Macmillan)
Paperless by Siwisa, Buntu (Jacana Media)
The Institute for Creative Dying by Thompson, Jarred (Picador Africa)
Ghost Limb by Van der Merwe, Almini (Umuzi Trailblazer)
Decima by Venter, Eben (Umuzi)
Mirage by Viviers, David Ralph (Umuzi)
Sons of Mud by Vlok Louw, Johan (Umuzi) 

NON-FICTION

The award will be bestowed on a book that presents “the illumination of truthfulness, especially those forms of it that are new, delicate, unfashionable and fly in the face of power”, and that demonstrates “compassion, elegance of writing, and intellectual and moral integrity”.

Here is the non-fiction longlist in order of the author’s surname:
Daisy de Melker: Hiding Among Killers in the City of Gold by Botha, Ted (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
Finding Endurance: Shackleton, My Father and a World Without End by Bristow-Bovey, Darrel (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
Domestic Terror: Intimate Partner Violence in South Africa by Brodie, Nechama (Kwela)
Harry Oppenheimer: Diamonds, Gold and Dynasty by Cardo, Michael (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
Truth to Power: My Three Years Inside Eskom by De Ruyter, André (Penguin Non-fiction)
Durban’s Casbah: Bunny Chows, Bolsheviks and Bioscopes by Desai, Ashwin and Goolam, Vahed (UKZN Press)
Coloured: How Classification Became Culture by Dooms, Tessa and Chutel, Lynsey Ebony (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
Decolonising the Palestinian Mind by Eid, Haidar (Inkani Books)
Rassie: Stories of Life and Rugby by Erasmus, Rassie with O’Sullivan, David (Pan Macmillan)
The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa’s Racial Reckoning by Fairbanks, Eve (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
Place: South African Literary Journeys by Fox, Justin (Umuzi)
Zondo at Your Fingertips by Holden, Paul (Jacana Media)
Corrupted: A Study of Chronic Dysfunction in South African Universities by Jansen, Jonathan (Wits University Press)
I am Ella by Jowell, Joanne (Kwela)
Standing Up for Science: A Voice of Reason by Karim, Salim S Abdool (Pan Macmillan)
Milk the Beloved Country by Khumalo, Sihle (Umuzi)
Son of a Whore by Lategan, Herman (Penguin Fiction)
Capture in the Court: In Defence of Judges and the Constitution by Mafora, Dan (Tafelberg)
The Plot to Save South Africa: The Week Mandela Averted Civil War and Forged a New Nation by Malala, Justice (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
Dolly Rathebe: Queen of African Jazz Blues & Mbaqanga by Mazibuko-Msimang, Nokuthula (Xarra Books)
Shoot to Kill: Police and Power in South Africa by McMichael, Christopher (Inkani Books)
Impossible Skies: Life with My Brother, the Artist Walter Meyer by Meyer, Frans (Melinda Ferguson Books)
Statues and Storms: Leading Through Change by Price, Max (Tafelberg)
The MiG Diaries: Fighter Pilot Memoirs and Accounts of Cuban, SAAF and Angolan Air Combat in Southern African Skies by Reid, Lionel with Lt-Col González Sarría, Eduardo (Burnet Media)
The Race To Be Myself by Semenya, Caster (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
Maye! Maye!: The History and Heritage of the Kwa Mai Mai Market by Sithole, Sipho (Jacana Media)
Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage by Steinberg, Jonny (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
The Lion’s Historian: Africa’s Animal Past by Swart, Sandra (Jacana Media)
The End of Eden: Wild Nature in the Age of Climate Breakdown by Welz, Adam (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Wake Up, This Is Joburg by Zack, Tanya, photography by Lewis, Mark (Duke University Press)
Dearest MaRiky: A Mother’s Journey through Grief, Trauma and Healing by Zondo, Louisa (Jacana Media)

WIN

A GIFT VOUCHER OF R1500

To win a gift voucher of R1500 for Exclusive Books, choose which book is your favourite from either our fiction or non-fiction longlist and tell us why. Email your answer, name and contact number to win.longlist@sundaytimes.co.za. Only one entry per person. Competition closes on Friday 9 August 2024. Ts and Cs apply