Fathers and Fugitives

A compelling novel about fatherhood and family, loyalty and betrayal, inheritance and belonging. "Magnificent."—The Sunday Times Daniel is a queer journalist living in London. His relationships appear to be sexually fulfilling but sentimentally meagre. He has no relationships outside of sexual ones, and can seem at once callow and, at times, cold to the point of cruel with his lovers. Emotionally distant from his elderly father, Daniel returns to South Africa to care for him during his final months. Following his father’s death, Daniel learns of an unusual clause in the old man’s will: he will only inherit his half of his father’s estate once he has spent time with Theon, a cousin whom he hasn’t seen since they were boys, who lives on the old family farm in the Free State. Once there, Daniel discovers that the young son of the woman Theon lives with is seriously ill. With the conditions bearing on Daniel’s inheritance shifting in real time, Theon and Daniel travel to Japan for an experimental cure and a voyage that will change their lives forever. S J Naudé’s masterful novel is many things at once: a literary page page-turner full of vivid, unexpected characters and surprising twists; a loving and at times shockingly raw portrayal of its protagonist’s complex psyche; and a devastatingly subtle look into South Africa’s fraught recent history.

About the Author :
S J Naudé is the author of two collections of short stories, The Alphabet of Birds and Mad Honey, and two novels, The Third Reel and Fathers and Fugitives. He is the winner of the Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award, the University of Johannesburg Prize, the kykNet-Rapport prize and is the only writer to win Hertzog Prize twice consecutively in its 100-year history. The Third Reel was shortlisted for the Sunday Times prize. His work has been published in Granta and other journals in the US, UK, Netherlands and Italy. Michiel Heyns is a South African author, translator and academic. He went to school in Thaba 'Nchu, Kimberley and Grahamstown, and later studied at the University of Stellenbosch and Cambridge University before serving as a professor of English at the University of Stellenbosch, from 1983 until 2003. 

Review :
“Cool and intelligent, unsettling and deeply felt, Naudé’s voice is something new in South African writing.” "This outstanding novel packs an enormous punch for its size….magnificent.” “A strange and beautiful book that unfolds unexpectedly.” "A novel of entanglements, interventions and failures, which constantly returns to the image of the fragile connection between child and parent." “A sad, but gorgeously written book. Its bleakness is relieved by Naude’s richly metaphoric style, elegantly translated from the Afrikaans by Michael Heyns.” “A novel of stylized dislocation... this is a work of hypnotic, self-annihilating prose.” “An astonishing and deeply moving novel. There seem to be no limits to Naude’s powers as a writer.” “What a mesmerizing, moving book, written—and translated by the wonderful Michiel Heyns—with such crystalline clarity.” “Naudé's gift for gut-wrenching sequences in these early chapters is even more pronounced in subsequent entries [...] Naudé's compassion for his characters makes it a worthwhile reading experience.” “One of the most moving books I have read all year, a book as surprising as it is unsettling.” "Coolly funny, frequently surprising and in parts almost overwhelming.... one of the best novels of the year."