BOOKS

Domestic Terror (Kwela)

Every day more than three women in South Africa, on average, are murdered by their male intimate partners. This book looks at the stories of South African women who were subjected to unimaginable periods of fear and terror, who endured sustained physical, emotional and psychological attacks, all at the hands of men.

Dr Nechama Brodie explores decades of brutal domestic violence and coercive control and she examines women’s changing rights and current legal protections. 

Farm Killings in South Africa (Kwela)

Dr Nechama Brodie challenges many of the myths used to narrate farm killings. She includes nearly a century of news reports, statistical data, legal cases and expert research on violence on farms, including violence experienced by farm labourers and in black communities surrounding mostly white-owned farmlands.

Farm Killings in South Africa provides a compelling and heart-breaking record of the reality of violence in South Africa.

Amazon (US) – Kindle edition and paperback.
Amazon (UK) – Paperback and Kindle editions.
Kobo – E-book
South Africa: Find the paperback or e-book version at all good bookstores and online retailers.

Femicide in South Africa (Kwela)

South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, and a femicide rate that is more than five times the world average.

In this book, Dr Nechama Brodie looks at the story of femicide in South Africa over the past forty years. She interrogates police, public health and media data, exploring the history of violence against women in an entirely new way that contextualises and challenges the state and public response to what has, in reality, been a crisis for decades. 

Buy this book at all good bookstores in South Africa.
E-book available on Amazon
E-book available on Kobo

Rule of Law (Pan Macmillan)
Glynnis Breytenbach with Nechama Brodie

Over a legal career spanning 26 years, advocate Glynnis Breytenbach earned a reputation as one of the country’s most formidable state prosecutors, her infamous stare piercing the defences of many. Now a member of parliament and the Democratic Alliance’s shadow minister for justice, Glynnis finally shares how her life in and out of court shaped her into the outspoken, sometimes hard-headed, always principled woman she is, and the public figure she never wanted to be.

‘[Rule of Law] captures the former prosecutor’s forthright, often amusing, sometimes scary and shocking battle to ensure justice for all’ Sue Grant-Marshall

Three Bodies (Pan Macmillan)

The first body was found in the Hartbeespoort Dam. An unidentified woman, presumably drowned, washed up on the banks of an exclusive golf estate. Next came the discovery of a grisly crime scene deep underground in Johannesburg, somehow connected to a second woman found dead in the Jukskei River where it ran through Alexandra. When the body of a third woman is pulled out of the Vaal River, south of Joburg, Captain Reshma Patel starts to wonder if a serial killer is at work – or if the mutilated corpses have anything to do with the spate of cash-in-transit heists she’s busy investigating. When a fourth woman goes missing Reshma and her partner, former police officer Ian Jack, have to figure out who is behind the killings – and to stop them, before they can strike again.

Buy the ebook version of Three Bodies from Kobo
Buy the kindle edition of Three Bodies at Amazon.com

Knucklebone (Pan Macmillan)

Sangomas and cops don’t mix. Usually. But this is Joburg, a metropolis that is equal parts flash and shadow, and where not everything can be easily explained. Ian Jack, a disillusioned former police officer, teams up with Reshma Patel, a colleague from his old life, to investigate a routine housebreaking gone bad. But when they uncover links to a possible animal poaching and trafficking syndicate, things go from complicated to dangerous to downright evil.

The Cape Town Book (Struik)

Cape Town, the ‘Mother City’. A metropolis with a 100 000-year history of human habitation. A landscape dominated by the mountain and the sea, transformed by centuries of colonisation and decades of apartheid… The Cape Town Book (Struik Travel & Heritage) presents a fresh picture of South Africa’s first city, weaving together its places and the stories of all the people who live in it. This remarkable, comprehensive social history of Cape Town is a must-have for locals and visitors.

Buy The Cape Town Book from:
Amazon (US) – Kindle edition. Paperback from other resellers.
Amazon (UK) – Paperback and Kindle editions.
South Africa: Find the paperback or e-book version at Takealot, Exclusive Books, Readers Warehouse, and all good bookstores.

I Ran For My Life (Pan Macmillan)
Kabelo Mabalane with Nechama Brodie

An exceptional memoir from the self-proclaimed ‘pantsula for life’, bad-boy kwaito singer, recovered drug addict, and now eight-time Comrades Marathoner Kabelo Mabalane,  I Ran For My Life

Buy this book at all good bookstores (South Africa).
E-book available on Amazon

Maverick – Extraordinary Women From South Africa’s Past
(2nd edition; Umuzi)
Lauren Beukes and Nechama Brodie

This updated edition of international bestselling author Lauren Beukes‘ first (non-fiction) work includes expanded and updated original chapters, plus three new chapters on Cissie Gool, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, and Eudy Simelane.  

The Joburg Book (Pan Macmillan)

From ancient rivers filled with gold and deep-impact meteorites, through the dark decades of Apartheid and beyond the fragile transition into democracy, The Joburg Book (Pan Macmillan) captures the city’s often uneasy relationship with its past and its future, exploring the history of the city of gold through its geography and its communities. The Joburg Book includes hundreds of historical photos, local area maps, and places of interest. The Joburg Book has sold over 10 000 copies. A revised and expanded edition of the book was released in 2014.

Nechama Brodie’s fine pop-culture history of the city, The Joburg Book, became my bible …’ – Lauren Beukes

Inside Joburg (Pan Macmillan)

Inside Joburg (Pan Macmillan) is a pocket guide to the history and heritage of the city of Johannesburg that takes the reader – resident or visitor – on a journey through the city’s spaces, from its geography and history through to recommended places to shop, eat and relax.  

“Even though I understood that the city was the economic hub of the country and was draped in colourful history, I could never see this beauty. Until I read Brodie’s guide to the city, that is.”
– Daily News

“… it’s perfect for the visitor and resident alike to carry around while visiting Joburg’s many interesting things to see and do.”
– Lucille Davie, Joburg.org

Bloody Satisfied (Burnet Media)

Edited by Joanne Hichens, Bloody Satisfied (Burnet Media) is an anthology of South African crime-thriller short stories – the first of the Short Sharp Stories award annual short story anthologies. Nechama Brodie’s unusual crime-and-magic story, “Feet of Clay”, was highly commended by the judging panel.