Diets, political turmoil, and page-turners

This week, Patricia McCracken looks at the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Chris Hani's murder; making good health a habit; a tense whodunit in Botswana; and a tale of two women amidst the turmoil of war.

- Patricia McCracken

Hani: A Life Too Short by Janet Smith & Beauregard Tromp (Jonathan Ball, R310)

Many of us still remember where we were when we heard that Chris Hani had been murdered. It was far more than a family’s tragedy; it was a moment that shook South Africa and threatened to derail the already teetering progress towards the country’s new life in 1994. As the authors reflect: “You can’t put away the pain of murder. It’s a bloodied baton handed from one generation to the next.”

That is why this biography, first published in 2009, has been reissued in a new edition with an epilogue. It hardly needs more publicity: it was a bestseller from the start and reprinted six times in its first four years of publication. But the 30th anniversary urges us to look back and reconsider these seminal events.

A wealth of research has gone into this highly readable biography by newspaper editor and award-winning author Smith and award-winning investigative journalist Tromp, and it will reward your reading time.

The Noom Mindset by Eve Adamson for Noom (Headline, R355)