Trencherman

Eben Venter (trans. Luke Stubbs)

‘This post-apocalyptic successor to Heart of Darkness excavates the traumas of a nation … Trencherman can be read as one of the foundational texts of post-1994 South African speculative fiction.’

Patrick Flanery, Guardian

‘The South Africa [in Trencherman] is a dystopia to rival JM Coetzee’s vision of the country in Disgrace… Eben Venter is a consummate stylist who skillfully conjures a gathering sense of menace.’

Gillian Slovo, FT

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'It's a powerful book, a dystopic vision of the future of South Africa.'

J.M. Coetzee

A powerful contemporary retelling of Heart of Darkness.

One rainy night in Australia, Marlouw’s sister phones with the request that he fetch her son ‘from that bloody country’. And Marlouw, with his club foot and hardened spirit, believes it is his fate to carry out this instruction.

Drenched in sweat after an ominous flight, his exodus takes him through a South Africa where poverty is rife, infrastructure has collapsed, AIDs has become widespread, and corruption reigns. He is told: ‘the whites who’ve stayed on, stay because they’re not able to leave’. Yet still he journeys deeper into the unknown — past the suffering masses alongside the road to the outer darkness of the rural areas.

There are rumours that Koert is on the old family farm, now in the possession of the family's former workers. That there, guarded and isolated, he has built himself a powerful empire as the King of Meat. Here, on Ouplaas, at the end of Marlouw’s terrible journey, the heart of terror is cut open …

Patrick Flanery, Guardian

Gillian Slovo, FT

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 234mm × 153mm

Extent:336pp

ISBN (13):9781925321135

RRP:$29.99

Pub date:30 May 2016

Rights Held: World English

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Eben Venter

Eben Venter is the critically acclaimed author of Wolf, Wolf (Scribe, 2015). He was raised on a sheep farm in Eastern Cape, South Africa, and migrated to Australia in 1986. He has won numerous awards for his work, and currently holds an honorary appointment as professional associate in the Institute of English in Africa (ISEA) at Rhodes University.

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Trencherman

Eben Venter (trans. Luke Stubbs)

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