No Man's Land
Description:... And the truth? The truth had somehow slipped away, not only from him but also from the TRC. Between him and the truth was a curtain, and the shadows behind the curtain kept on moving and changing shape. Hauled from the breathing spaces of his marriage and job to appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Paul du Toit finds himself in a country that has no place for him anymore. A former Special Forces operative in the 1980s, he is obliged to apply for amnesty for a ‘project’ in which two civilians were killed and to confront questions arising from his long-buried past. No Man’s Land is set at the turn of the millennium in South Africa and London, where Paul becomes part of the large South African expatriate community created by the white diaspora from his country. Adrift in an inhospitable city, in search of a wife who has left him even before his application is judged, he reveals two sides of his nature – one deadly, the other vulnerable. And gradually, through transcripts of Paul’s TRC hearing, this profoundly moving novel explores the dual nature of his history and the troubled question of how ordinary people deal with a pervasive evil.
Show description