The Red Door and Other Stories was released on November 19, 2023.
The stories in The Red Door are quirky, humorous, and eclectic. Many of them are short—less than 1,500 words—in various genres: gripping thrillers, mangled fairy tales, ghastly ghost stories, a horrible horror story, scintillating SciFi, and dark RomComs. K. E. Karl, the author of Our Man in Mbabane (see below), writes light, entertaining tales, and short thrillers with a wry sense of humor. Enjoy!
Currently available on Amazon (see below).
K. E. Karl’s fiction has appeared in the Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Lowestoft Chronicle, the Evening Street Review and the Gumshoe Review. He has lived and worked in Oregon, London, Mbabane, Philadelphia, Maputo, Bangkok, New York, and Zurich. The Red Door and Other Stories is his second published book. See below for his first, Our Man in Mbabane: A Novel Based on a True Story. Karl lives in Philadelphia.
Our Man in Mbabane
A novel based on a true story
K. E. Karl
Our Man in Mbabane was released on December 5, 2022. The novel is based on a true story and includes extensively researched historical events about apartheid South Africa and Swaziland in the late 1970s.
In 1977, an idealistic young American, Frank George, travels to Swaziland and gets a job at the government’s statistical office. On weekdays, he is a typical expat in Mbabane, enjoying a comfortable lifestyle of hikes in the beautiful countryside and raucous parties with friends. But on weekends, he is a covert agent for the African National Congress, delivering weapons into South Africa for the ANC’s fight against apartheid. His encounters with the apartheid regime and its supporters continually remind him of the importance of his mission.
Frank’s exploits bring him face-to-face with armed police, soldiers, and farmers, but he always escapes, aided by his wit, unassuming nature—and white skin. He develops a strong friendship with Terence, a clever and amusing British expat, and embarks on two turbulent romantic relationships.
Over time, Frank feels his commitment to fighting apartheid tested and starts to lose track of the man he once thought he was…
The book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Apple iBooks. See below for links.
See also below the full letter to the Author from Ruth First. Some eBook downloads had trouble with p. 2 of the letter; that has been corrected.
Some additional correspondence between the author and Ruth First is posted below the letter included in Our Man in Mbabane.
About the author: In 1977, K. E. Karl was recruited by the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela’s organization, to travel to Swaziland, find a job, buy a car, and transport munitions into South Africa. For the next three years, he worked at the Swaziland Statistical Office and successfully completed six gunrunning missions. OUR MAN IN MBABANE is a fictionalized version of those events. It includes an epilogue describing his time in Maputo in 1982 when he worked for Ruth First and met with Joe Slovo, two prominent anti-apartheid activists.
Many people who have read my novel, Our Man in Mbabane, have asked me what parts were real and which fictionalized. You can read the memoir version of my story about my support for the African National Congress in the late 1970s at:
http://www.londonrecruits.org.uk/
The article features a cute photo (OK, ‘cute’ may be an exaggeration) of me standing next to the Toyota I used to run guns into South Africa for the ANC.
Ken Keable edited and published the London Recruits book in 2012. It’s a compilation of the stories of people, like Ken and me, who clandestinely supported the ANC in the 1960s through to the end of apartheid in 1990. The website allows for those, like myself, who were not included in the book to publish their stories of their support for the ANC.
Ken’s book is a great read of stories written by ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I can highly recommend it (US Amazon): here
Letter from Ruth First to Kurt Karl, January 27, 1982, included in Our Man in Mbabane
Further correspondence from Ruth First to Kurt Karl, July 28, 1981
Further correspondence from Ruth First to Kurt Karl, Nov 23, 1981 and two telegrams from Oct 9, 1981 and Feb 23 1982
Further correspondence from Ruth First to Kurt Karl, Mar 20, 1982, and a reply telegram from May 14, 1982
