Fathers and Fugitives
"A masterly, hypnotic book I read in just two sittings."--Edmund White
A propulsive, enigmatic novel that moves fluidly between London, Germany, Belgrade, Cape Town, and Tokyo, Fathers and Fugitives is a formally inventive and emotionally charged book about fatherhood and family, loyalty and betrayal, inheritance, loss, and belonging.
Estranged from his elderly, senile father, Daniel nonetheless returns to South Africa to care for him during his final months. Shortly after arriving in Cape Town, however, Daniel learns of an unusual clause in the old man's will: he will inherit his share of his father's estate only if he spends time with Theon, a cousin whom he hasn't seen since they were boys, and who lives on a sprawling farm in the Free State. With the conditions bearing on Daniel's inheritance shifting in real time, Theon and Daniel travel to Japan to seek out an experimental cure for the son of the woman Theon lives with. The trip 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.
"Coolly funny, frequently surprising and in parts almost overwhelming in its emotional force...One of the best novels of the year."--The Guardian
Author: S. J. Naudé
Publisher: Europa Editions
Published: 10/14/2025
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.20w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9798889661375
About the Author
Naudé, S. J.: -
S.J. Naudé is a writer from South Africa. He is the author of two collections of short stories and two novels. Fathers and Fugitives is his first novel to appear in the United States. Naudé is the winner of the Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award, the University of Johannesburg Prize, and the kykNet-Rapport prize, and is the only writer to win the Hertzog Prize twice consecutively in its 100-year history. His first novel, The Third Reel, was shortlisted for the Sunday Times prize. His work has been published in Granta and other journals in the US, UK, the Netherlands, and Italy.
Heyns, Michiel: -
Michiel Heyns is a South African novelist and translator. He is the author of ten novels and a book on the Nineteenth-century novel. Two of his translations were short-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and another long-listed for the Man International Booker Prize.