Consuelo Roland lives in Hout Bay, on the coastline of Cape Town, South Africa, with her husband. They share their home with several almost tame animals.

Ever since she can remember she has shamelessly hoarded glimpses of  interesting strangers and random overheard conversations.

The people in Consuelo’s novels exist on the border between real and unreal.  They confront talismanic forces as they walk a tightrope between their everyday lives and another hidden plane of existence where sex and death are the order of business, and secrets are currency.

She likes to call it the chiaroscuro (light-dark) effect – believing that to play with the unbearable lightness of being (forever grateful to Kundera!) and cast a slanted light on the darkness is what fiction is all about.

Consuelo’s short stories, essays and poetry have been featured in The Sunday Times, South Africa Writing, Women Flashing, Writing the Self, Difficult to Explain, Twist, The Face of the Spirit, Africa! My Africa!, Heart of Africa, and New Contrast.

Her debut novel, The Good Cemetery Guide, was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Fiction Prize and the Olive Schreiner Award.

She is deeply grateful that The Good Cemetery Guide has been given a second life by Karavan Press.

When Consuelo is not writing she reads compulsively, watches true-crime and suspense tv series, practices yoga and enjoys  the outdoors. She is currently working on two new novels.