Description

A compelling novel about fatherhood and family, loyalty and betrayal, inheritance and belonging.

“Magnificent.”-The Sunday Times

Daniel is a queer journalist living in London. His relationships appear to be sexually fulfilling but sentimentally meagre. He has no relationships outside of sexual ones, and can seem at once callow and, at times, cold to the point of cruel with his lovers. Emotionally distant from his elderly father, Daniel returns to South Africa to care for him during his final months. Following his father’s death, Daniel learns of an unusual clause in the old man’s will: he will only inherit his half of his father’s estate once he has spent time with Theon, a cousin whom he hasn’t seen since they were boys, who lives on the old family farm in the Free State. Once there, Daniel discovers that the young son of the woman Theon lives with is seriously ill. With the conditions bearing on Daniel’s inheritance shifting in real time, Theon and Daniel travel to Japan for an experimental cure and a voyage that will change their lives forever.

S J Naude’s masterful novel is many things at once: a literary page page-turner full of vivid, unexpected characters and surprising twists; a loving and at times shockingly raw portrayal of its protagonist’s complex psyche; and a devastatingly subtle look into South Africa’s fraught recent history.

Publisher Review

“Cool and intelligent, unsettling and deeply felt, Naude’s voice is something new in South African writing.” * Damon Galgut, Booker Prize winning author of The Promise * “This outstanding novel packs an enormous punch for its size….magnificent.” * The Sunday Times * “A strange and beautiful book that unfolds unexpectedly.” * TLS * “A novel of entanglements, interventions and failures, which constantly returns to the image of the fragile connection between child and parent.” * The Irish Times * “A sad, but gorgeously written book. Its bleakness is relieved by Naude’s richly metaphoric style, elegantly translated from the Afrikaans by Michael Heyns.” * New York Journal of Books * “A novel of stylized dislocation… this is a work of hypnotic, self-annihilating prose.” * The Wall Street Journal * “An astonishing and deeply moving novel. There seem to be no limits to Naude’s powers as a writer.” * Rapport (South Africa) * “What a mesmerizing, moving book, written-and translated by the wonderful Michiel Heyns-with such crystalline clarity.” * Neel Mukherjee, Bomb Magazine * “Naude’s gift for gut-wrenching sequences in these early chapters is even more pronounced in subsequent entries […] Naude’s compassion for his characters makes it a worthwhile reading experience.” * ShelfAwareness * “One of the most moving books I have read all year, a book as surprising as it is unsettling.” * Largehearted Boy * “Coolly funny, frequently surprising and in parts almost overwhelming…. one of the best novels of the year.” * John Self, The Guardian *