On That Wave of Gulls

Vernon R.L. Head

ISBN 10: 1431432997 / ISBN 13: 9781431432998

Published by Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd, ZA, 2023

About this Item

From the bestselling author of The Search for the Rarest Bird in the World comes On That Wave of Gulls. An audacious novel, the tale is told by three characters - an architect, a Khoisan vagrant and a seagull, all of whom recount their lives in Cape Town. Hieronymus Vos is an overweight, white architect, recently fallen on hard times, and married to a beautiful, black British-Caribbean woman. Although he hates the ocean, his practice has, until recently, been doing very well by designing glitzy millionaires' mansions on the Atlantic Seaboard. Pooi is a homeless man, recently arrived from the Kalahari, with a patchy grip on reality. He thinks he is the moon and wants to teach himself to swim so that he can reach Robben Island and fulfil a promise. The third narrator is Calypso, a female seagull who needs to find a mate and lay an egg to pass on her legacy and her identity. On That Wave of Gulls is a shrewd and lyrical tour de force by a natural storyteller. The everlasting story of how men and women relate in the closed system of violence, abuse and intimacy is masterfully told in this vivid novel.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781431432998

Bibliographic Details

• Title: On That Wave of Gulls
• Publisher: Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd, ZA
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1431432997
• ISBN 13: 9781431432998
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 500 grams

About this title

Synopsis

“The only thing that seagulls ever want is the fucking sea.”

From the bestselling author of The Search for the Rarest Bird in the World comes On That Wave of Gulls. An audacious novel, the tale is told by three characters – an architect, a Khoisan vagrant and a seagull, all of whom recount their lives in Cape Town.
Hieronymus Vos is an overweight, white architect who has fallen on hard times. He is married to a beautiful, black British-Caribbean woman. Although he hates the ocean, his practice has, until recently, been doing very well by designing glitzy, millionaires’ mansions on the Atlantic Seaboard. Pooi is a homeless man, recently arrived from the Kalahari, with a patchy grip on reality. He thinks he is the moon and wants to teach himself to swim so that he can reach Robben Island and fulfil a promise. The third narrator is Calypso, a female seagull who needs to find a mate and lay an egg to pass on her legacy and her identity.
By times heartbreaking and thrilling, this unforgettable novel propels the author into the lives of the novel’s three main characters, throwing light on living and being in Cape Town – a Cape Town that is part wilderness, part glamorous high-rise developments, part ocean. Their interactions are at times fleeting, at times profound, and behind them lies the joy, pain and tragedy of living at the southern tip of Africa.
On That Wave of Gulls is a shrewd and lyrical tour de force by a natural storyteller. The everlasting story of how men and women relate in the closed system of violence.