We recommend:

CONFESSIONS OF A GAMBLER (Rayda Jacobs)

“Confessions of a Gambler centres, almost incongruously, around a Muslim woman in Cape Town who develops a compulsive gambling problem. Her name is Abeeda Ariefdin, or Beeda, and she is, in no particular order, a faithful Muslim, mother to four sons, the ex-wife of a cheating ex-husband, a sister, daughter, neighbour, employer and friend to some of the most delightful characters ever to wend their way into a novel.”

“The book is absolutely gripping and the reader is thrust from one drama to the next, all underpinned by the deterioration of Beeda’s state of mind, as she is drawn into the ever-darker world of the hopelessly addicted gambler.”

“Jacobs’s writing is littered with typically SA phrases and she switches between Afrikaans, English and African languages throughout, lending her writing a very chatty feel.” (Lisa McLeod, The African Review of Books)