Praying Mantis

(Paperback)

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Description

A magical novel from a world class writer about a remarkable historical figure. In his early years, growing up on a Dutch farm in the deep interior of the southern African Cape, Cupido Cockroach became the greatest drinker, liar, fornicator and fighter of his region. Coming under the spell of a woman, the soap-boiler Anna, and the great Dr Johannes Theodorus van der Kemp of the London Missionary Society, Cupido is then made the first Khoi or 'Hottentot' missionary ordained at the Cape of Good Hope. Received into the fold of the Church, Cupido passionately turns against all his early beliefs and is appointed as missionary in a remote and arid region in the North-western Cape. But this also marks the beginning of his decline, as the Society abandons him to his fate. One by one, the members of his congregation disappear into the desert, so that in the end, abandoned even by his wife and children, he is left to preach to the stones and thorn trees and tortoises, returning to the dream-world of his people.

Reviews

From the stones of his country's rich, tragic, tumultuous history, Brink has built a novel that should nourish his reputation for years to come -- Donald Morrison * Financial Times *
Brink's lyrical but spare writing evokes the harshness of the veld and the dream world created by the Bushmen. A book that lingers in the mind long after you have reached the last page * Daily Mail *
A work of fidelity and imaginative freedom * Times Literary Supplement *
Brave, rewarding and dignified * Time Out *

Author Bio

Andre Brink (1935 - 2015) was one of South Africa's most prominent writers and is the author of several novels, including A Dry White Season, Imaginings of Sand, The Rights of Desire, The Other Side of Silence and Philida. He has won South Africa's most important literay prize, the CNA Award, three times and has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His last novel, Philida, was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2012.