Fathers and Fugitives
- Auteur: S.J. Naudé (Zuid-Afrika)
- Soort boek: Zuid-Afrikaanse roman
- Engelse vertaling: Michiel Heyns
- Uitgever: Europa Editions
- Verschijnt: 10 september 2024
- Omvang: 224 pagina’s
- Uitgave: gebonden boek / ebook
- Boek bestellen >
S.J. Naudé Fathers and Fugitives recensie, review en informatie
- “A novel of stylized dislocation… Decades pass in this novel, settings shift from England to Japan to the South African bush, and characters appear and tragically die, yet the pitch of the writing never rises above a murmur…this is a work of hypnotic, self-annihilating prose.” (Wall Street Journal)
- “In a certain sense the novel can be read as a contemporary Disgrace, but it’s far subtler and more nuanced. It is a masterpiece that avoids judgements and conclusions, that simply states and yet grabs hold of the heart. It leaves me breathless with admiration. What a world-class author we have in this double Hertzog Prize winner. We will keep our eyes fixed on the horizon.” (Deborah Steinmar, Vrye Weekblad)
- “Cool and intelligent, unsettling and deeply felt, Naudé’s voice is something new in South African writing.” (Damon Galgut, Zuid-Afrikaanse schrijver)
Flaptekst van de roman van de Zuid-Afrikaanse schrijver S.J. Naudé
An inventive and emotionally charged novel about fatherhood and family, loyalty and betrayal, inheritance and belonging.
Daniel is a worldly and urbane journalist living in London. His relationships appear to be sexually fulfilling but sentimentally meager. 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, senile father, Daniel nonetheless 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 considerable 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 with the boy to Japan for an experimental cure and a voyage that will change their lives forever.
S.J. Naudé’s masterful novel is many things at once: a literary 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.
S.J. Naudé (1970, Pretoria, South Africa) is the author of two collections of short stories and two novels. He is the winner of the Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award, the University of Johannesburg Prize, and the kykNet-Rapport prize, and is the only writer to win the Hertzog Prize twice consecutively in its 100-year history. His first novel, The Third Reel, was shortlisted for the Sunday Times prize. His work has been published in Granta and other journals in the US, UK, the Netherlands, and Italy.