Trencherman (Paperback)

Trencherman is the story of Marlouw's life-changing return to a post-apocalyptic South Africa - but it is also a voyage into the self.

One stormy nignt in Australia, Marlouw receives a call from his sister to save her son from 'that bloody country'. Handicapped by a clubfoot and a prudent spirit, Marlouw nevertheless answers what he perceives to be the call of destiny. In a journey recalling that of Marlow in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, he departs for Africa. Marlouw's quest is to find his adventurer nephew, Koert, and to return him to the safety of Melbourne. There are rumours that Koert has ended up on the old family farm, now owned by the former workers, and that he has built himself an empire as the King of Meat.

Venter portrays a turbulent, ruined South Africa where the socio-political landscape is riven by factions, and the infrastructure is in ruins after a massive explosion in the south of the country. As the Journey progresses, the primal fear that haunts Marlouw and has devastated his people is relentlessly exposed.