Paradise

“Laced with perfectly pitched black humour, Paradise is populated with brilliantly drawn and unforgettable characters. I loved it.” – Sarah Lotz

“Fast-paced and slickly-written, Paradise is both an uproarious comedy about lawlessness and a serious allegory about bondage. Greg Lazarus once again presents a cast of engaging, believable characters, not least of whom is the adorable klutz, Hershel Bloch.” – Finuala Dowling

“Paradise is full of vivid characters that leap out, grab you by the throat and drag you back into the pages with them.” – Paige Nick

Maja Jellema is in Cape Town to do what she does best – steal. Her new employer wants a certain item from a building in Loop Street, and the only thing that stands between Maja and her prize is Hershel Bloch, the bumbling building manager. But what seems like the easiest job Maja has ever seen is about to get a whole lot more complicated . . .

Will Maja be able to finish the job in time to save her no-good brother from large Dutch men with no sense of humour?

Can Hersh turn his topsy-turvy world around before he gets fired from Black Enterprises for being the worst estate agent in the history of the universe?

Will Surita finally make peace with her father and stop using her judo skills on people who just want to hug her?

Can the rage-filled waitresses at The People’s Republic – the greatest socialist coffee shop in all of Cape Town – produce even one cup of coffee without backchat?

Only time will tell. And it’s running out.

ISBN-13: 9780795706660
Purchase now

When in Broad Daylight I Open My Eyes

Whom do you trust when nothing is as it seems? In the aftermath of her mother’s sudden death, psychologist Maria Petros confronts disturbing questions.What is the secret society that her mother frequented? Who is the philosopher Maria meets in a therapy session, and why is he pursuing her with such vigour? As she delves into her mother’s strange life, she finds herself seduced . . . and facing grave danger.

When in Broad Daylight I Open My Eyes is set in a familiar yet sinister Cape Town. It explores, in evocative and erotic fashion, the extent to which people prey on one another.

Women24: ‘An enthralling and thought-provoking read’

Noseweek: ‘The authors are fiendishly clever at building and sustaining suspense… Now we have the sophisticated wickedness of False Bay to titillate our dreams – nightmares, courtesy of Greg and Lisa.’

Child magazine: Broad Daylight is one of the ‘good reads’ for adults in the July issue of Child magazine.

Fine Music Radio interview: ‘It grabbed me from the first word I read – it’s just great writing.’

The Big Issue: ‘…succeeds in being the type of novel that makes you think, while at the same time being an indulgent easy read that you quickly become absorbed in. …Through the investigation, our protagonist comes across eccentric, malicious characters who are eerily refreshing…When in Broad Daylight I Open My Eyes leads the reader to consider the impact of choice, desire for power and our cruel tendency to use each other for our own gains.’

Business Day’s Wanted Magazine: ‘…this is an intelligent, sophisticated and sometimes profound read, exploring the urge for humans to both connect with and conquer each other.’

Cape Town Magazine’s Recommended Book List: ‘When in Broad Daylight I Open My Eyes is a thought-provoking psychological thriller that thrusts readers into a very sinister Mother City. Evocative, erotic and rife with complex characters and their contradictory desires, the novel is a pacey page-turner…’

Cape Times: ‘I picked up When in Broad Daylight I Open My Eyes, by Greg Lazarus, to assess which reviewer to give it to, but got hooked in by its menacing undercurrents of violence. It consumed me quickly.’

Michael Sears, co-author of the award winning Detective Kubu novels: ‘The completely believable and absorbing characters drive this intense psychological thriller. First rate!’

Heat magazine: Names When in Broad Daylight I Open My Eyes as one of its three books of the week, together with Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and Ronaldo: The Journey of a Genius.

Khuluma magazine: ‘When in Broad Daylight I Open My Eyes is a sexy, intellectual and gripping page-turner, and it will make you view Cape Town in a more sinister light, where nothing is as it seems and the people you come into contact with daily could be sadists or sociopaths… Who knows, maybe one of them is someone close to you.’

leweekly.co.za: ‘…a good old-fashioned keep you up all night, make you check twice under the bed and three times behind the curtains, whodunit psychological thriller. It’s set in a Cape Town rendered so gritty and edgy that you’ll wonder why Hitchcock didn’t set all his films here. It’ll make you suspect everyone you’ve ever met is a psychopathic, kleptomaniac mass-murderer. And it’ll make you want to arm yourself to the hilt every time you’re within a mile of Newlands Forest.’

Crime Beat: ‘…explores ideas of appearance and reality, knowledge and mysticism, experience and identity through a group of characters that draw you in and make you begin to take another look at the seemingly mundane people around you in the supermarket. … Like watching a tightrope walker high above you, Greg Lazarus succeeds in writing a novel that disturbs as it thrills, exploring the fine line between desire, obsession and violence.’

The Book of Jacob

‘The Book of Jacob is a startlingly honest, superbly adult and intelligent insight into the existential earthquake that is the arrival of a first child.’ – Tom Eaton

‘Finally – a mother and father get together to tell it like it is in one beautiful, messy, emotional, sleep-deprived nappy bag of a story. Two voices, one child and a sackful of love make up the heart-warming tale that is The Book of Jacob.’ – Sam Cowen

When Lisa and Greg embark on the life-changing journey of becoming parents, they discover that nothing could have prepared them for the overwhelming changes a baby would bring. In this candid and often amusing account of their child’s conception, birth and first year, they share their experience of adjusting to life with a newborn. Parenthood affects every facet of Lisa and Greg’s previously serene and secure life as a couple, irrevocably altering their own relationship as well as their relationships with others.

Witty, warm and moving, this true-life story illuminates the frustrations, the joys and, above all, the love inspired by the birth of a child.

“This beautifully written, almost hypnotic first-hand account of the first years of parenthood, from the perspectives of each parent, is an incredibly honest antidote to the stereotypical expectations thrust upon new parents. I was aching with sympathy one moment and laughing the next, as I read bits aloud to my husband to prove we weren’t alone in our experiences. After reading this book, I found myself wanting to add Lisa and Greg as friends on Facebook, because their story felt like the confidences of a best friend. As a new parent, I found this book enriching, comforting and uplifting. I also found it almost impossible to put down.” – Shape magazine

“It is this kind of humour that pervades The Book of Jacob — a book which had me giggling — and occasionally shedding a tear — from the preface all the way through. In honest, often hilariously funny or poignantly sad style, this couple ¬provide his and her versions of their daily toils in raising a baby during that tumultuous first year.

If I had the power, I’d make this book mandatory reading for anyone ¬contemplating having a child. They wouldn’t be allowed to procreate until they’d passed a stringent comprehension test on its contents… This is a courageous, sometimes achingly honest work that has been a long time coming.” – Natal Witness

“There’s possibly another “genre of one” that The Book of Jacob belongs to, too: the parenting book that is celebrated as much for its writing as for its subject. It is, quite simply, splendidly written.”

- BookSA

“It’s devastatingly, fabulously honest, but funny and comforting too…Thank goodness for these two people’s willingness to lay it all out there. Because that’s the kind of reading material that truly prepares you for the wonderful – but challenging – journey of giving new life.” – The Argus

ISBN-13: 9781770200227
Purchase now