IMTIAZ SOOLIMAN AND THE GIFT OF THE GIVERS

by Shafiq Morton (Bookstorm, R320)

First published in 2014, this second edition has been updated with new chapters to mark the 30th anniversary of Sooliman’s founding of the Gift of the Givers. The organisation first made its name with the speed and success of its response to international disasters, and has since also helped South Africans faced by various emergencies. Many Eastern Cape farmers, for example, may remember the organisation helping to drill boreholes and dig wells at the peak of the drought. Morton notes that for some of the ‘givers’, witnessing the despair and poverty was an unforgettable experience.

Sooliman, a doctor, gave up his medical practice to act on a 1992 challenge from a Sufi teacher in Istanbul who said that “the best among people are those who benefit mankind”. Morton sees Sooliman as a “driven, restless soul […] continually on the move” as he seeks to make good on this challenge.

McNamara is a Star Wars child, as is shown by the playful names he gives to some of his dishes. Others are named with gung-ho energy, giving a jaunty tone to the book.

He’s determined to press home the apparent contradiction of being a biker lookalike and a vegan, although the impulse to create meat substitutes always seems odd to me.

McNamara’s presentation will win many hearts over to veganism and he tells an inspiring tale of an agile catering business start-up that adapts to customer demand and rolls with COVID-19’s punches.

While he’s tracking down a long-missing daughter as a favour for one friend, another friend turns up with an immediate lifeor-death problem.

Nossel is pitched into a web of coincidences and dead ends amid peopletrafficking, the sex trade and a kingpin with a taste for fine art.

Dison laces his pageturning tale with a love song to classic cars and especially to Johannesburg, the bittersweet city of fool’s gold and the occasional nugget of the real thing.