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YOUR WINTER READING LIST AFTERLAND BY LAUREN BEUKES The new novel by international-award-winning South African author Lauren Beukes is set in a future where most of the men are dead and Cole and her twelve-yearold son Miles are on the run from the most dangerous person she knows: her sister. Miles is one of the lucky survivors of a global pandemic. But, in a world of women, that also makes him a hot commodity. The Department of Men wants to lock him away in quarantine, forever
THE ASIAN ASPIRATION BY GREG MILLS
maybe. A sinister cult of neon nuns wants to claim him for its own – the answer to their prayers. And boy
In 1960, the GDP per capita in South
traffickers are close on their heels, thanks to Billie, Cole’s
East Asian countries was nearly
ruthless sister, whom Cole thought she left for dead. In
half of that of Africa. By 1986, the
a desperate chase across a radically changed America,
gap had closed and today the trend
Cole will do whatever it takes to get Miles to safety.
is reversed, with more than half of
Because she’s all he’s got.
the world’s poorest now living in
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Sub-Saharan Africa. Why has Asia developed while Africa lagged?
FIFTY INVENTIONS THAT SHAPED THE MODERN ECONOMY BY TIM HARFORD
The Asian Aspiration chronicles the
Who thought up paper money? How did the
lifted a billion people out of abject
contraceptive pill change the face of the legal
poverty within a single generation
profession? Why was the horse collar as important
– the largest such shift in human
for human progress as the steam engine? How
history. The relevance of Asia’s
did the humble spreadsheet turn the world of
example comes as Africa is facing a
finance upside-down? The world economy defies
population boom, which can either
comprehension. A continuously changing system
lead to crisis or prosperity; and as
of immense complexity, it offers over ten billion
Asia is again transforming, this time
distinct products and services, doubles in size every
out of low-cost manufacturing into
fifteen years, and links almost every one of the
high-tech, it leaves a void that is
planet’s seven billion people. It delivers astonishing
Africa’s for the taking. But far from
luxury to hundreds of millions. It also leaves
the determinism of ‘Africa Rising’,
hundreds of millions behind, puts tremendous
this book calls for unprecedented
strains on the ecosystem, and has an alarming
pragmatism in the pursuit of
habit of stalling. How can we make sense of this
African success. •
untold stories of explosive growth and changing fortunes: the leaders, events and policy choices that
bewildering system on which our lives depend? WWW.SILVER DIGEST.CO.ZA
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