Wessel EbersohnReseñas

Wessel Ebersohn's a talented South African writer whose themes closely reflect the issues he's lived through, most prominently the racial strife and injustice of his native country. In this case the book's focus is on the political struggle for liberation. The protagonist, Sam Bhengu, is a freedom fighter who is being held captive by the security apparatus for revolutionary activities. From the very first sentence we learn that Sam has been tortured and is gravely injured. "Sam Bhengu knew that he was dying. Ever since the pain had stopped he had known it." These depressing words are followed by an equally sad series of flashbacks and recollections (Sam's memories are all in italics) and the present (in normal script). There are no chapters, so these demarcations are a good place to pause. The book is starkly realistic, and references real people like Nelson Mandela. Sam, even though laid low, and flawed (he's unfaithful to his wife and neglectful of his son) is heroic in his sacrifices and efforts on behalf of his people. Most starkly, this novel presciently focuses on the physical, the stark and absolute control the white captors have over a black body. In this respect, the book hearkens to one of Ta-Nehisi Coates's main observations and critiques of American society. And this unrelenting emphasis on Bhengu's destroyed body, lorded over by a set of disgusting jailers, is what makes this novel timely, even though it depicts a far off country and events from a generation ago. It could have been written today, in America. It could have been called, Black Lives Matter.

Set in South Africa, Abigail is remembering a traumatic time with Michael Bishop during apartheid - saves friend who rescued her from being killed, but Michael Bishop eludes all

I was lucky enough to receive an advance uncorrected proof of "The October Killings" via the Goodreads First Reads program. The minute I began reading I knew I was in for a treat. Wessel Ebersohn succeeded in pulling me in from the very first line and by the end I simply could not put it down.

From the start, Abigail Bukula and Yudel Gordon make an unlikely pair. As the story progresses, Ebersohn ratchets up the tension as Abigail and Yudel work to uncover who is responsible for a series of murders and how to stop him. The characters were complex and the story satisfying. I can only hope that the wait for next addition to this series won't be too long!

A while back I picked up [b:The October Killings|9460046|The October Killings|Wessel Ebersohn|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317064813s/9460046.jpg|14344926] having no idea that it was part of a series (#4 to be exact). It feels good to go back and see where it all began. I came for the mystery and was rewarded with complex characters and a strong sense of place. The social and political climate of South Africa in the seventies is laid bare in the pages of this book. For this, I can forgive the minor flaws in the plot. It was fairly obvious [to me] from the beginning who was responsible for the murder Yudel was sent to investigate. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series. As I've already read the fourth book I know it only gets better from here.

I'm glad I read the books in this series out of order. This one was so disappointing have I may never given the following books a chance. At least I already know that it gets leaps and bounds better. Oh Yudel, you patronizing dog. It was hard to root for you!

South Africa has some of the most talented crime writers in the world and Wessel Ebersohn proves he is right up there with the best of them in his latest thriller which once again pairs the elderly Jewish prison psychologist Yudel Gordon and the young black lawyer Abigail Bukula.
Enslin Kruger, the most powerful prisoner in Pretoria’s C Max, is dying, but before he goes he wants to revenge himself on Yudel Gordon and to pass on his ‘crown’: he combines the two by setting his successors a competition to murder Yudel’s protégé, the prize being becoming the new prison boss.
Beloved Childe is a beautiful American prison researcher who bewitches Yudel and has him eating out of her hand, making herself up an obvious target: against protocol, she is allowed to visit Kruger’s lieutenant, Oliver Hall, shortly before his release.
Hall is charged with her murder but so is a rival gang leader, Elia Dlomo, who breaks out of prison to achieve his goal. Beloved meanwhile moves to Cape Town and seemingly vanishes while the ruthless killers are on her trail and so, belatedly, is Yudel, with the help of Abigail.
Unbeknown to everyone, Beloved has a past, and Enslin is not the only one capable of plotting an elaborate revenge… Rather than give more away, suffice it to say the only South African prison more dreaded than C Max is the top security lock up in Kokstad. By the end of the book, there is another inmate headed in that direction.
This is the third in the Gordon-Bukula partnership and every bit as exciting and thrilling as the previous two.

Very different type of book for me to read, but well worth it. Excellent writing that paints a clear picture of events that are quite new to me.

Its not often one finds a South African author whose work is so exciting that one’s first action after reading the last page is to boot up the laptop and hunt down his back-list: Wessel Ebersohn is one such writer and his latest thriller, Those Who Love Night, is the book that had me trawling through Abe, Kalahari and Exclusive online.

When I read ‘Klara’s visitors’ over 20 years ago, I didn’t even realize Ebersohn was South African, let alone that he had already published three police procedural thrillers featuring the Jewish criminologist and prison psychologist Yudel Gordon – the first of which, A Lonely Place to Die [1979], received international acclaim.

Yudel was joined last year in The October Killings by the brilliant and beautiful young black lawyer Abigail Bukula and it is she, rather than her mentor, who dominates this latest story. In another departure from his norm, Ebersohn sets most of the action in Zimbabwe, a country which has more in common with the Apartheid era state than it does with the New South Africa.

Abigail receives a bewildering phone call from a lawyer in Harare informing her that the gifted writer Tony Makumba – of whom she has never heard despite being informed he is her first cousin – has been arrested and along with seven others locked in the notorious Chikurubi Prison.

Abigail lost family in the Gukuruhandi massacre in the early 80s and has an ambivalent relationship with Zimbabwe, a country she loves but which suffers under a despotic regime: she is inspired by the brilliance of Tony’s writing however to go to Harare and offer her help.

The atmosphere of repressed chaos, numbing paranoia and claustrophobic tension is brilliantly expressed with a palpable sense of threat looming over every action Abigail takes, from something as simple as entering her hotel bedroom to encountering one of the omnipresent road-blocks. .

The turmoil is evident on every level, influencing everything – even Abigail’s morality as she finds herself sexually infatuated by the charismatic and incredibly powerful Director Jonas Chunga of the notorious Zimbabwean Central Intelligence Organisation.

In tackling the subject of repression under an immoral dictatorship and the mortal threat to creativity under which writers like Tony Makumba suffer in Zimbabwe, Ebersohn can rely on memory rather than imagination because at one stage he too had had to go into hiding, smuggle his manuscript out of the country for publication, and see his work banned.

Betrayal, torture, assassination, death, intolerance, homosexuality, infidelity, cruelty and fear are major themes of Those Who Love Night [the time when throughout history the forces of terror have banged on the door] but, like Pandora’s Box, Hope shines through in the form of love, courage and forgiveness.

An excellent read – although possibly a little predictable in the unlikeness of it’s deliberately outré conclusion – this book is not only thrillingly exciting with an agreeably contemporary feel, it is well-written and enticingly ‘moreish’

Gripping psychological/societal exploration of demented murderer in South Africa--scary