Sunderland | Ken Barris

Author: Ken Barris
Publisher: Jacana Media (2015)
ISBN-10: 1431410799
ISBN-13: 9781431410798
Condition: Very Good. Light scuffing to the edges of the cover and a few of the pages. Else an internally clean, well bound copy.
Binding: Softcover
Pages: 199
Dimensions: 23.5 x 15.5 x 1.6 cm
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by Ken Barris
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Unhappily married Cape Town academic Art Berger is offered what appears to be a professional lifeline to reconstitute the final papers of the great South African writer Charles de Villiers into book form. He is uncomfortable about the role of ghostwriter, but the project becomes literary detective work he cannot give up. Introduce de Villiers beautiful daughter, Lynda, and Art is ensnared.

Sunderland alternates between sections, mostly in journal form, chronicling Art struggle to make sense of de Villiers fragmented and disordered text, and sections scenes, notes, outlines from that very work. A novel of literary ideas as much as of character, this fascinating collaboration by two of South Africa's finest wranglers of words comes to a literal crescendo. It is a finely tuned masterpiece to read in one sitting.