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CRUEL CRAZY BEAUTIFUL WORLD
Fiction (Literary Fiction) 214 pages
Jacana Media (South Africa) - August 2012
'Mesmerizing and evocative' Deon Meyer, author of TRACKERS
South Africa, 2004. Jerusalem (half Muslim, half Jew) is a young student with poetic leanings. Zero, his buccaneering father, will no longer fund his ephemeral lifestyle. So he is sent away from the city to Hermanus to learn to stand on his own two feet by selling ethnic curios to tourists. During his forced exile he takes on a Tanzanian refugee boy as his fellow trader and falls for the beautiful yet elusive Lotte. At the same time Jabulani, a Zimbabwean teacher, loses his job for making a satirical remark about Mugabe and heads south in a bid to find a life beyond the chaos of Zimbabwe. Across the border he is captured and held as a slave worker on a marijuana farm, but escapes, and heads towards the Cape where his life will intersect with Jeru's. The characters work out their intertwining destinies against a landscape of breathtaking natural beauty and a backdrop of casual violence and xenophobia. It's a world one will not easily forget; its scents and colours and energetic characters will linger long in readers' imaginations. -
BAFANA BAFANA
Fiction (Young Adult Novel)
Jacana Media (South Africa) - September 2009
‘My children wouldn’t let me stop reading BAFANA BAFANA because they were so eager to know what happens next to Pelé. We were all taken up by the charm and the magic and the suspense. The art work is not a mere illustration to the story but has artistic impact in its own right.’ -- Zakes Mda, author of THE WHALE CALLER
‘A magical fable. Troy Blacklaws effortlessly conjures up the sights, sounds and rhythms of the South African landscape.’ -- Vikas Swarup, author of Q&A (SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE)
BAFANA BAFANA is a story of soccer, dreams, magic and Mandela
With illustrations by Andrew Stooke. A wonderfully poetic quest tale, set in South Africa in the run-up to the next football World Cup (to be held in South Africa in 2010). -
BLOOD ORANGE
Fiction (Literary Fiction) 205 pages
Double Storey (SA) - August 2005
Shortlisted for the Prix Femina Etrangere 2008.
‘Tantalizingly beautiful.’ -- Bishop Desmond Tutu
‘Troy Blacklaws beautifully lays bare how it took raw guts for a young white boy to resist apartheid.’ -- Antjie Krog, poet and author of COUNTRY OF MY SKULL
A poetic semi-autobiographical narrative, set in the green hills of Natal and the coastline of the Cape. This stirring account of the coming of age of a South African schoolboy, and his attempts to make sense of race, the rituals of sex, and the harsh demands of the state, is a bitter-sweet evocation of a land both cruel and fruitful. -
KAROO BOY
Fiction (Literary Fiction) 256 pages
Duckworth Publishers - July 28, 2005
Shortlisted South African Sunday Times Fiction Award, 2005
Shortlisted for the Prix Femina for foreign fiction 2006.
'KAROO BOY is told in the voice of a spectacularly original young male protagonist, who in his own way is as captivating and memorable as Holden Caulfield. With his supple and inventive use of the language, Blacklaws creates fully realized characters and vivid imagery that shimmers against a stark backdrop.'
-- John Berendt, author of MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL
Film rights optioned to Videovision.
Biography
South African writer, photographer, and English teacher. Also the author of the semi-autobiographical BLOOD ORANGE (SA: Double Storey 2005; Holland: Ambo Anthos 2006).
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Related news
- Troy Blacklaws’ African football fable sold to Donzelli in Italy
- KAROO BOY longlisted for International Literature Award - House of World Cultures, Berlin
- Troy Blacklaws' BAFANA BAFANA! sold to Jacana
- Troy Blacklaws shortlisted for Prix Femina for the second time
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