OUT NOW
The President
PRONK’s first title is a provocative political thriller by Xander Beattie.
When a salacious fictional story about the nation’s president is published online, the ruling party and its supporters are enraged. As pressure grows for the story to be erased, its young author flees into hiding, carrying with him an explosive secret — and plans for revenge.
Deftly plotted and gorgeously told, The President is a nail-biting exploration of bigoted backlash against provocative art. Set in South Africa in 2012, Xander Beattie’s novel is painfully relevant to our contemporary moment, where — in too many places around the world — powerful demagogues scapegoat the marginalised, imperil human rights and brutally suppress artistic expression.
The editions
Two collectable, limited editions of The President were published by PRONK in 2025. Both were printed and hand-bound by PULP Paperworks in Johannesburg, and based on a design by Catarina Pereira of Voodoo Voodoo studio in Berlin.
The Artist Edition
The Artist Edition has an exposed spine, a debossed foil cover, and was bound kettle-stitch by hand. Each copy comes with a fine art print by the infamous South African artist Brett Murray entitled All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go1. The book and print were showcased at the 2025 Joburg Art Fair and can be purchased from PULP Paperworks in South Africa2. Proceeds from the sale of both go to the Pride Shelter Trust
The Pocket Hardback
Made by hand by our friends at PULP, the new A6-sized Pocket Hardback has a red Wibalin cover with pink gloss deboss stamps on the front cover, spine and back cover. Copies are now available to purchase online in the United States from our US Shop and in the United Kingdom from The Common Press.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Xander Beattie
Impactful, immersive and exquisite storytelling meets nuanced and razor-sharp insights about South Africa’s fraught political and cultural milieux.
Xander Beattie is the fiction writing alter ego of Alexander Matthews who started out his media career in London as an assistant to MONOCLE’s editor-in-chief, Tyler Brûlé, and later served as the magazine’s Southern Africa correspondent for several years.
Running the gamut of politics, culture, the environment and travel, his other bylines include the BBC, Mail & Guardian and Business Day. Born in Cape Town (South Africa) in 1988, he has written widely for media, business and non-profits, though fiction is his first (and most enduring!) love.
Xander lives with his husband, two cats and hundreds of books in a remote cabin in Northern California. Subscribe to a swimming pool library, his newsletter, for occasional notes on swimming, reading, nature and more.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I get a book?
In the United States, the Pocket Hardback is now available to purchase online from our shiny new shop. (FYI: we have awesome notebooks stocked there too!)
In Great Britain, copies of the Pocket Hardback are now available for purchase in-store and online from The Common Press, London’s queer bookshop.
While copies of the Artist Edition are sold out in the United States, they are still available in South Africa for purchase from PULP’s online store (for delivery to South African addresses only).
A hardback sounds nice, but what if I really want the Artist Edition book+print combo?
If you live overseas and still have your heart set on getting an artist edition book+print combo, then please contact Pulp Paperworks via email and they should be able to figure something out.
What about other formats and other stockists?
We are also planning other formats, including a mass-market paperback, eBook and audiobook (available from the usual suspects).
What comes next for PRONK?
The President is just the start. As a little publisher with big ambitions, we intend to bring more beautiful print objects (including books, zines and chapbooks/pamphlets) into the world in the years to come. Find out more about PRONK here.
- The artwork was printed on Risograph at Dream Press in Cape Town. ↩︎
- Outside of South Africa, the Artist Edition is currently stocked by Et al. in San Francisco. ↩︎