Mad Honey by SJ Naudé
(cover artwork by David Wightman)
£15.00
Published by Umuzi / Penguin Random House South Africa / March 2021
Paperback / ISBN 9781415210673
Signed on inside front cover by David Wightman
From South Africa to Iceland, rural Belgium and the Alps, the stories in Mad Honey radiate out to encompass the globe. In Cape Town, a couple raise their son in leafy suburbia, while their cleaner’s child must face the inequities of their country head on.
Amid Reykjavik’s frozen landscape, a woman takes mad honey with the man who has left her for another, and spends a chilling night with a violent Russian and his companion.
And in New England two lovers face the cruelty of a host who lacks all humanity, while a mother takes pity on a street child she finds on a platform at Park Station.
Crowning this collection is a story cycle featuring a young Namibian and his Japanese friend, who spend a claustrophobic night in a chateau with a dark pool of glowing eels – this after being pulled into a tragedy on the ski slopes of Italy.
Following on from his multi award-winning first collection, published in English as The Alphabet of Birds, SJ Naudé’s second collection of short stories disturbs, surprises and enthrals.
Available in Afrikaans as Dol Heuning.