The Crack - Hardcover

Christopher Radmann

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1780745281 ISBN 13: 9781780745282

Publisher: Oneworld Publications, 2014

Synopsis

Gentle but highly strung, Janet must support her Afrikaner husband in his new job as a plain-clothes policeman and specialist interrogator. Hektor-Jan heads off to work on New Year's Day, aware that he is unbearably close to a bloody drama about to unfold. As Janet's world tightens and threatens to fracture, she must look to her children and cling to the support of Alice, her black maid, and Solomon, her ever-faithful gardener. All too conscious of her own emotional fragility, Janet watches her mother slip into the folds of 'Old Timers' disease. And next door, the lurking, unfathomable Doug is up to no good. As the crack in the swimming pool widens, can Janet bridge the gaps that threaten them all? Written with tenderness and disquieting power, Christopher Radmann exposes a brutal centre that cannot hold - and reveals how in apartheid South Africa, things must crack and fall apart.

About this title

About the Author

Christopher Radmann is from South Africa but has lived in England for the last twelve years. He is Head of Sixth Form and Head of English at a boarding school in Hampshire, England, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Review

`A taut and imaginative novel about apartheid-era South Africa, full of niggling symbolism, imperfectly concealed secrets and fractured lives.' -- D. J. Taylor `Compelling... Radmann's prose is stark, concise and harrowing... a worthy read exploring the effects of injustice entrenched in society's familial roots' * Curious Animal * `A feat of skilful empathic writing... give[s] us the certainty that Radmann is capable of writing a truly psychological thriller' * Eurocrime *

Edition details

• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1780745281
• ISBN 13: 9781780745282
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336