Karoo Boy - Softcover

Blacklaws, Troy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0156030659 ISBN 13: 9780156030656

Publisher: Mariner Books, 2005

Synopsis

After a freak accident, Douglas's twin brother is dead, and his family's fragmentation begins. His mother packs up their home in Cape Town and takes him to a tiny backwater town in the semi-desert Karoo region, where she withdraws into her painting. Douglas, a city kid in an insular community, makes only two friends: a beautiful girl named Marika, with her adventurous spirit and tyrannical father; and an old garage worker named Moses, with his junkyard Volvo and dreams of driving away to Cape Town.

Against the backdrop of the bitter conflict of 1970s South Africa, Douglas develops a clearer insight into himself and his place in the world, a world where dreams and reality meet in a surprising twist. Blazing with color and light, Karoo Boy offers a sensuous and lyrical evocation of South Africa that leaves a lasting impression and ultimately ends on a note of hope.

About this title

Review:

... his may, in time, turn out to be the voice we have been expecting from his generation. -- Andrew van der Vlies, TLS, London

Blacklaws's sensual, cinematic first novel ... renders keenly the atmospherics of 1970's South Africa - the hereditary hostilities, the epidemic suspicions. -- Rob Nixon, The New York Times Book Review

There are scenes of terrible violence and injustice which never feel melodramatic or overplayed. -- Margaret Stead, The Guardian, London

From the Author:

Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country was the novel that stirred me to write of Africa. I still hear Mister Slater’s resonant, textured voice reading from the novel all those years ago in Paarl Boys’ High, while I stared out the window and dreamt of being a writer.
I wrote Karoo Boy partly as a reply to Disgrace, as I found Coetzee's South Africa relentlessly bleak. I have not shied away from violence and cruelty, but have focused on a sensuous, filmic evocation of South Africa, ending on a note of hope.

About this edition

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0156030659
• ISBN 13: 9780156030656
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208