The Seed Thief

The Seed Thief is published by Umuzi, an imprint of Penguin Random House South Africa.

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Sometimes the thing you find is not the one you were looking for. When botanist Maddy Bellani is asked to travel to Brazil to collect rare seeds from a plant that could cure cancer, she reluctantly agrees. Securing the seeds would be a coup for the seed bank in Cape Town where she works, but Brazil is the country of her birth and home to her estranged father.

Her mission is challenging, despite the help of alluring local plant expert Zé. The plant specimen is elusive, its seeds guarded by a sect wary of outsiders. Maddy must also find her way in a world influenced by unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies and the selfish motives of others.

Entrancing and richly imagined, The Seed Thief is a modern love story with an ancient history, a tale that moves from flora of Table Mountain to the heart of Afro-Brazilian spiritualism.


“Beautifully crafted and poetically detailed… wide-ranging, sensuous and unusual, this is a dense novel with a slippery, clever plot.”

– KARIN SCHIMKE, CAPE TIMES. ‘THE TOP 100 OF 2015’ (DECEMBER 28, 2015)


“A poetry-infused whirlwind of Southern Hemisphere mysticism and botanical espionage. An understated triumph.”

– NICK MULGREW ON THE SEED THIEF  IN THE SUNDAY TIMES BEST BOOKS OF 2015


“Who knew a tiny star-shaped seed from a near-extinct tree could spark so enchanting, suspenseful, and intensely spiritual a tale as Jacqui L’Ange’s debut novel, The Seed Thief?”

– ANDREA VAN WYK IN HER REVIEW

Longlisted in the Mslexia 2013 Novel Competition.
Longlisted for the 2016 Sunday Times Fiction award.


Purchase The Seed Thief (For South Africans via Takealot)
Purchase The Seed Thief (International via Amazon)