Fathers and Fugitives - by S J Naudé

Book Synopsis

A debut literary page-turner from a new South African voice about fatherhood and family, loyalty and betrayal, inheritance and belonging.

Daniel is a worldly and urbane journalist living in London. His relationships appear to be sexually fulfilling but sentimentally meager. A young gay man with no relationships outside of sexual ones, he can seem at once callow and, at times, cold to the point of cruel with his lovers. Emotionally distant from his elderly, senile father, Daniel nonetheless 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 considerable 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 with the boy 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-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.

Review Quotes

Praise for Fathers and Fugitives

"A novel of stylized dislocation... Decades pass in this novel, settings shift from England to Japan to the South African bush, and characters appear and tragically die, yet the pitch of the writing never rises above a murmur...this is a work of hypnotic, self-annihilating prose."--Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

"An extraordinary South African novel about fathers and sons that wrong-foots the reader... At first I thought I knew exactly what kind of book I was reading... But from its slim form Naudé starts to fashion something inexplicably vast... Packing so much into such a small space, Naudé's tale--sublimely translated by Michiel Heyns--appears to be about small things and ends up being about everything. Naudé turns his book's modest beginnings into a heart-swelling investigation of South African legacy."--The Sunday Times

"Coolly funny, frequently surprising and in parts almost overwhelming in its emotional force... The quality of Naudé's prose and his dry vision of the world make this a late entry for one of the best novels of the year."--The Guardian

"What delighted me about this novel was the repeated surprise of Naudé's sentences, his wry, cool vision of the world through Daniel's eyes and the move from cynicism to an almost symphonic emotional richness at the peak of the novel... The discovery of the year."--John Self, The Critic, A Best Book of 2024

★ "Naudé is an extraordinary writer, going deep into the psyches of his characters while maintaining a startling aura of mystery. This deserves a wide readership."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

★ "Uncompromising...devastating... Fathers and Fugitives is an important addition to South African literature."--Shelf Awareness, starred review

"A compelling, unforgettable read."--The National Book Review

"Cool and intelligent, unsettling and deeply felt, Naudé's voice is something new in South African writing."--Damon Galgut, Booker Prize-winning author of The Promise

"A masterly, hypnotic book I read in just two sittings. Written in Afrikaans, Fathers and Fugitives is as forlorn as the world it evokes."--Edmund White, author and winner of the 2019 National Book Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award

"Fathers and Fugitives surprises on every page, with its unexpected allegiances and betrayals, infused with both tenderness and cruelty. Naudé's writing is agile, reaching across continents and time zones, and finding new forms for contemporary experience. I was utterly engrossed."--Ivan Vladislavic, author of Double Negative and The Distance

"Reminiscent of J M Coetzee...Fathers and Fugitives is an astonishing and deeply moving novel. There seem to be no limits to Naude's powers as a writer."--Louise Viljoen, Rapport

"This moody, melancholy heartbreaker of a novel, with a push and pull between the global and hyper-local, sweeps you off your feet."--Jonathan Amid, News24

"A masterpiece that avoids judgements and conclusions...It leaves me breathless with admiration. What a world-class author we have."--Deborah Steinmar, Vrye Weekblad