The Book of War

Winner of the M-Net Literary Award for debut novel, 2013.

An illiterate child is stranded on the southern tip of Africa. The British and the Xhosa have been at war for eighty years and the boy signs up in the hope of steady meals. His new commander has assembled an assortment of convicts, sailors, and drunkards from the gutters of Cape Town. They will be used to test the effectiveness of a revolutionary new weapon.

The irregulars embark on journey through a landscape prowled by wild beasts, and the distinction between man and animal becomes ephemeral. Based on firsthand accounts of the War of the Prophet, The Book of war converts the bare facts of history into something terrible and strange.