Joshua Samuelson, an Indian and 18 years old, meets with Laura on a deserted beach 20 miles south of Durban. She will not marry him but leaves him with a parting gift which is to haunt him forever. Now, 15 years later, a lecherous bachelor and a doctor in Hampstead, Joshua is being tracked by Slagter, the South African hit-man for information he does not possess. Farnsworth, Head of the South African desk of MI-6, assigns Julia, granddaughter of the eleventh Earl of Bromfield, to protect Joshuaand find out why Saul, Laura's husband, should have sent a RED ALERT to Pretoria, before his body is found in an abandoned building in Clapham. It is a novel with many finely etched, memorable characters likeJomo, Joshua's good friend and Saul's 'gay' lover, who is the gentlest man Joshua has ever known. Boko, Jomo's brother, uncompromising member of the ANC, exiled to live in Englandand prone to violence. And Ewa, their beautiful sister, more powerless than them all. Clayborne, who shares his medical practice with Joshuaand his nights with Saul. La Reine, the French stripper at the Coq D'Or, who has a simple goal that befits a simple woman. Joe, Joshua's brother, who, like Joshua, spends his evenings trying to pick up Au Pair girls at the pub. Lysa, the sensuous, Italian waitress, who comes to the pub looking for Joshuaand finds Joe instead. Shari, Saul's Israeli assistant, who helps to run his novelty shop in South Kensingtonand a lot more. Donaldson, Julia's back-up, who loves to talk to her on the telephonebut will not meet her. And the eleventh Earl of BromfieldThe novel, with nerve-tingling suspense, binds the characters in a plot replete with surprising twists. Yet it transcends the ordinary class of the genre, because it probes deeper into the human heartand then rips out what it finds there with an almost brutal candor. It is a literary novel that explores, with brilliance, the roots of racial tensionsnot only in South Africa, but in England as well.
Price history
Aug 20, 2022
€92.33