Trencherman

`This post-apocalyptic successor to Heart of Darkness excavates the traumas of a nation ... Trencherman can be read as one of the foundational texts of post-1994 South African speculative fiction.'

-- Patrick Flanery * Guardian *

`Every now and then a novel rises out of the slew of new fiction titles and makes an extraordinary claim on one's attention - such as Eben Venter's Trencherman.'

-- Leon de Kock * The Sunday Times *

`Trencherman struck me as a remarkable literary achievement.'

-- David Pike * The Witness *

`The South Africa [in Trencherman] is a dystopia to rival JM Coetzee's vision of the country in Disgrace ... Eben Venter is a consummate stylist who skillfully conjures a gathering sense of menace.'

-- Gillian Slovo * FT *

`Eben Venter is one of the notable voices in white South African writing post-Apartheid.'

-- Aidan Hartley * Spectator *

`Fascinating and captivating ... This is a deeply unsettling and thought-provoking portrayal of an imagined future and a worthy modern successor to Conrad's novel.'

* Nudge Books *

`Macabrely effective ... Trencherman sets out to warn us about the putative failure of democracy in South Africa, but ends up as a gorgeously bleak memorial to the Afrikaner's pessimism and bewildered sense of loss.'

-- Elizabeth Lowry * TLS *

`A masterful book, lovingly translated.'

* Weekend Australian *