When forty-six year old John Wraith regains consciousness after the horrific car accident that claims the lives of his wife and daughter, he is adrift, bewildered and deeply traumatised. He takes up the offer of time to recuperate in Nature's Valley, a wild, unspoilt coastal settlement at the edge of dense forest and indigenous bush. It is winter and most of the holiday homes are boarded up. It is here that his path crosses that of a damaged family in retreat from their own horrific trauma: Roelf, a devoutly religious man trying to make sense of what has happened to them, and his two children, seventeen year old Jackie and her younger brother Simon. John's uneasy involvement with this trio and particularly with Jackie, for whom he feels a confusing mixture of protectiveness...
Alistair Morgan was born in Johannesburg in 1971. He lives and works in Cape Town. Has previously published Two short stories: ‘Icebergs’ and ‘Departure.’ Both appeared in the Paris Review-issues 183 (Winter, 2007) and 185 (Summer, 2008) respectively. In 2009 he also became the first non- American to win the Plimpton Prize. Alistair Morgan published his debut novel Sleeper’s Wake, with Penguin Books SA in August 2009.
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