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For book review consideration—EYE BROTHER HORN, new South African historical fiction


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Hi there! My name is SarahBelle Selig and I’m with Catalyst Press, a woman-owned North American indie publisher of African authors, including 2022 Caine Prize winner Idza Luhumyo, 2022 Windham Campbell Prize winner Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, 2022 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award shortlisted Sifiso Mzobe, 2022 Nommo Award shortlisted Mbozi Haimbe, and more.

 

I’d like to put forward for book review consideration our upcoming historical fiction title from Commonwealth Book Prize shortlisted author Bridget Pitt.

 

Eye Brother Horn

Bridget Pitt

January 31 2023

ISBN 9781946395764 | $18.95 

Adult historical fiction; literary fiction

278 pages

 

Select praise for Eye Brother Horn

“Unique and bold. This critique of the colonial enterprise is unlike any other you have read before. Through an ingenious use of African indigenous knowledge systems, Pitt tells the story of two brothers, connected by blood, who must not only navigate but also survive the delicate and often volatile ecosystem created by their histories and traditions. This is one of those wonderful stories that both break and mend the heart.” —Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, Recipient of the 2022 Windham Campbell Prize, author of The Theory of Flight and The History of Man

 

Eye Brother Horn is a brilliant novel—subtle, imaginative, and richly rendered. Pitt has crafted a tale that is at once intimate and expansive, tender and unflinching. Her characters reach beyond the page and their message, one of both censure and hope—remains with you long after the end.” —Amanda Skenandore, author of The Nurse’s Secret and The Second Life of Mirielle West

 

“By providing a fascinating fantastical glimpse into the past, this remarkable book informs the present. Eye Brother Horn reveals the brutality of colonial rule which shaped racial domination and severed our relationship with nature and provides an extraordinarily powerful parable for our times.” — Professor Ian Goldin, Founding Director of University of Oxford’s Oxford Martin School, author of Age of Discovery: Navigating the Storms of Our Second Renaissance

 

“Beautifully and urgently told. […] This compelling historical novel illuminates the present as much as it does the past.” — Margie Orford, The Eye of the Beholder 

 

About Eye Brother Horn

A Zulu foundling and a white missionary’s child raised as brothers in a world intent on making them enemies. A sweeping tale of identity, kinship, and atonement set in 1870s South Africa, from Commonwealth Book Prize shortlisted author Bridget Pitt.

 

Moses, a Zulu baby discovered on a riverbank, and Daniel, the son of white missionaries, are raised as brothers on the Umzinyathi mission in 19th century Zululand, South Africa. As an infant, Daniel narrowly escapes an attack by a rhino and develops an intense corporeal connection to animals which challenges the religious dogma on which he is raised. Despite efforts by his adoptive mother to raise the boys as equals, Moses feels like an outsider to both white and Zulu society, and seeks certainty in astronomy and science. Only through each other do the brothers find a sense of belonging.

 

At Umzinyathi, Moses and Daniel are cushioned from the harsh realities of the expanding colony in neighboring Natal—where ancient spiritualism is being demonized, vast natural beauty faces rampant destruction, and the wealth of the colonizer depends on the engineered impoverishment of the indigenous. But when they leave the mission to work on a relative’s sugar estate and accompany him on a hunting safari, the boys are thrown into a world that sees their bond as a threat to the colonial order, and must confront an impossible choice: adapting to what society expects of them or staying true to each other.

 

With elements of magic realism, Eye Brother Horn is the heart-wrenching story of how two children born of vastly different worlds strive to forge a true brotherhood with each other and with other species, and to find ways to heal the deep wounds inflicted by the colonial expansion project.

 

About the author

Bridget Pitt is a South African author and environmental activist who has published poetry, short fiction, non-fiction and three novels (Unbroken Wing, Kwela, 1998; The Unseen Leopard, Human & Rousseau, 2010; Notes from the Lost Property Department, Penguin, 2015). Two were long-listed for the Sunday Times Literary Awards. Her second novel was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize (2011) and the Wole Soyinka African Literature Award (2012). She has recently co-authored a memoir of the spiritual wilderness guide, Sicelo Mbatha (Black Lion: Alive in the Wilderness, Jonathan Ball, 2021). Her short fiction has received a Commonwealth nomination and has been published in anthologies in South Africa, Canada, and the United Kingdom. 

 

Digital or print copy available for review.

 

Many thanks,

 

SarahBelle Selig

 

Publicist, Catalyst Press

sarahbelle@catalystpress.org 

Front Cover, Eye Brother Horn.jpg

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Hi Troy, thanks so much for getting back to me! She does not. She is a white South African, born and raised and still lives in Cape Town. Can I organize a print copy for a reviewer, or do you prefer digital copies? Happy to do either--we should be getting our print copies in next week. Thanks so much!

6 hours ago, Troy said:

Hi @SarahBelle Selig I missed this post.

 

Impressive resume. Does Bridget self-identify as Black? We would still consider the book for review, given the content.

 

 

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Hi Troy, that's great news, thank you so much. We appreciate it and hope you love it! Could you tell me the best way to get you a copy, and to what address to send it? 

 

And absolutely! Thanks so much for starting a page for us. I've attached a photo of Sifiso. Here's a list of titles that would be relevant for AALBC:

Books by Black authors or illustrators:

9781946395078 The Lion’s Binding Oath by Ahmed Ismail Yusuf

9781946395412 The Theory of Flight by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

9781946395566 The History of Man by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu

9781946395474 Madame Livingstone by Christophe Cassiau-Haurie and Barly Baruti (graphic novel)

9781 946395030 Love Interrupted by Reneilwe Malatji

9781946395634 All Rise by Richard Conyngham and 6 South African artists (graphic novel)

9781946395573 Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa, from Short Story Day Africa (anthology)

9781946395238 Unmaking Grace by Barbara Boswell 

 

Not by Black authors but with Black main characters (all children’s and YA):

9781946498984 Shaka Rising: Legend of the Warrior Prince by Luke Molver (graphic novel)

9781946498939 King Shaka: Zulu Legend by Luke Molver (graphic novel)

9781946395665 The Cedarville Shop and the Wheelbarrow Swap by Bridget Krone

9781946395160 Small Mercies by Bridget Krone

9781946395313 This Thing Called the Future by J.L. Powers

9781946395320 Under Water by J.L. Powers

9781946395689 On My Papa Shoulder’s by Niki Daly 

9781946395047 We Kiss Them With Rain by Futhi Ntshingila

9781946395658 Fly High Lolo by Niki Daly

9781946395467 You’re a Star Lolo by Niki Daly

9781946395337 Here Comes Lolo by Niki Daly

9781946395344 Hooray for Lolo by Niki Daly 

 

Let me know what other information I can get you! We’ve got some amazing titles coming up in 2023 that I’ll definitely submit in the new year as well. Thanks again!

 

3 hours ago, Troy said:

@SarahBelle Selig sure send at copy. please keep in mind we don’t review at lot of books at no cost to the publisher. 
 

Also can you provide a headshot of Sifiso and let me know which other books isbn and title are appropriate for the site: https://aalbc.com/authors/imprint.php?imprint=Catalyst+Press

 

 

 

Sifiso Mzobe.jpeg

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