The Weight of Skin by Alastair Bruce is out from Umuzi in January 2020.

‘You would not think it to look at you, but your voice, when you use it: akin to a god’s. You must be careful what you do with it.’

Exiled Jacob Kitara takes in injured compatriots and nurses them in a boarded-up building. Social unrest has emptied the streets of London, movement into and out of the country has been suspended, and those who remain are in hiding.

When a young man makes his appearance, insisting that he is Jacob’s son – a man presumed dead, torn from Jacob’s life by war and guilt over the fate of the boy’s mother – Jacob is driven to anger.

But can this stranger offer Jacob a chance to reach back to a different continent, to the foot of Africa from where he has been banished, to atone for the past?

The Weight of Skin is a poignant tale of personal and political responsibility, and of the intricate narratives of family and nationality that bind us.

About the author

Alastair Bruce is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Wall of Days and Boy on the Wire. He was born in Port Elizabeth, spending a large part of his childhood on a smallholding outside the city. He currently lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife and two young children.

 

Categories Fiction South Africa

Tags Alastair Bruce New books New releases Penguin Random House SA The Weight of Skin Umuzi