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A review by scribepub
Trencherman by Luke Stubbs, Eben Venter
It's a powerful book, a dystopic vision of the future of South Africa.
J.M. Coetzee
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, The 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
Eben Venter is one of the notable voices in white South African writing post-Apartheid.
Aidan Hartley, Spectator
Fascinating and captivating … This is a deeply unsettling and thought-provoking portrayal of an imagined future and a worthy modern successor to Conrad’s novel.
Nudge Books
Macabrely effective … Trencherman sets out to warn us about the putative failure of democracy in South Africa, but ends up as a gorgeously bleak memorial to the Afrikaner’s pessimism and bewildered sense of loss.
Elizabeth Lowry, TLS
A masterful book, lovingly translated.
Weekend Australian
J.M. Coetzee
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, The 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
Eben Venter is one of the notable voices in white South African writing post-Apartheid.
Aidan Hartley, Spectator
Fascinating and captivating … This is a deeply unsettling and thought-provoking portrayal of an imagined future and a worthy modern successor to Conrad’s novel.
Nudge Books
Macabrely effective … Trencherman sets out to warn us about the putative failure of democracy in South Africa, but ends up as a gorgeously bleak memorial to the Afrikaner’s pessimism and bewildered sense of loss.
Elizabeth Lowry, TLS
A masterful book, lovingly translated.
Weekend Australian