Mahala (South Africa)
ISBN: 9781906300043 Price: £7.99 Due for release Apr 09
By Chris Barnard
Translated by Luzette Strauss
DEEP IN the African bush, Delport lives alone, and in fear. For nine long years he has endured nights of mosquitoes and mysterious drumming, and days of burning sun, waiting for his past to catch up with him. His past arrives in the form of a young woman with a mask that bears an unsettling resemblance to his nemesis.
The arrival of the mask coincides with the death of one of his employees. His self-imposed exile in the wilderness of southern Africa begins to have him questioning not just those around him, but those whose very existence is questionable.
From one of South Africa’s great writers comes this psychological thriller of existential proportions which delves into the angst of a generation.
Barnard, one of the writers of what is known as the sixties’ generation of South African writers, spent time in Paris and encouraged Breyten Breytenbach to have his first works published. Now, 40 years later, Breytenbach is one of South Africa’s best known writers.
A work of literary fiction, set in the wilderness of southern Africa, Mahala encapsulates the angst of a generation of white South Africans who had such power but lived with such (hidden) fears.