Karoo boy - Softcover

Blacklaws, Troy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1919930256 ISBN 13: 9781919930251

Publisher: Double Storey, 2004

Synopsis

Fourteen-year-old Douglas Thomas watches in horror as his twin brother Marsden is killed in a fluke accident. In an instant, the secure world of his childhood in seaside Muizenberg is turned upside down. As a result of Marsden’s death, the family falls apart. Douglas and his mother move upcountry to Klipdorp, a small town in the Karoo. Here they have to adjust to an arid, unforgiving place. We watch as, against the backdrop of the bitter conflict of 1970s South Africa, Douglas develops a clearer insight into himself and his place in the world.

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

His language is as rich as the sea smell which is lodged in Douglas’ being. -- Natal Mercury, 18 March 2004

Karoo Boy is beautifully written and hauntingly evocative, A South African version of The Catcher in the Rye perhaps. -- Sunday Independent, South Africa, 11 April 2004

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: Double Storey
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1919930256
• ISBN 13: 9781919930251
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192