Pre-Order NOWHERE here (Out on February 23)
(also reviewed)
Order DUST DEVILS here - Read the Review
Order ISHMAEL TOFFEE here - Read the Review
Order VILE BLOOD here - Read The Review
Order CAPTURE here - Read the Review
Order SACRIFICES here - Read the Review
Order MAN DOWN here - Read the Review
People find it comforting to believe they can change the world on the internet. Solve real problems with keyboards and solidarity. Why not, right? It's cheap and it makes you feel like you matter. Nobody really cares about South Africa in the age of social media though because technically it's a free country. Its problem was solved long ago by the super powers of Nelson Mandela. Carrying a history of violence and chaos like a ball-and-chain isn't considered a problem by the social justice warriors of Occident. It's why it's good that we have people like Roger Smith to remind us that it is and his new novel Nowhere might be his most stunning portrait yet of a country adrift.
So, the president of South Africa murders his wife in a drunken rage. Simple enough, no? Not in South Africa. The president's choice of hiring rugged apartheid survivor Steve Bungu to fix his "problem" sets off a chain off event that sends shockwaves across the country. Bungu blackmails retired decorated detective Joe Louw into "investigating" the murder and wrap up a neatly-written story for the media. In another case, Disaster Zondi (a recurring Roger Smith character) travels to the desert to arrest a white supremacist leader for the murder of a seemingly well-liked farmer. Things only take the long and painful way down from there.
Nowhere soft of fits the classic mold of Roger Smith novels. It's unrepenting, hyperviolent, political, character-driven and profoundly heartbroken. It doesn't hold many surprises for long-time readers, except for the scope and ambition. If Smith tried to peel one layer of South African chaos in each of his previous books, he strips the entire thing in Nowhere. It is by far its more intricate and byzantine novel, yet also its most satisfying if you don't Smith's trademark hellfire endings. This is no a spoiler, by the way. The ending of every Roger Smith novel are beautiful, tragic and thoroughly Godless. Nowhere just swings for the fences a little harder than the others.
The characters of Nowhere maybe aren't as developed as those in Capture or Sacrifices because of the epic scope of the novel, yet political fixer Steve Bungu's one of Roger Smith's best creations yet. I'm not the most familiar with South African politics, but to me he was the embodiment of the country's reality, where ex-apartheid regime members and those they oppressed now have to live together and somehow forget about a traumatic past. Bungu's finding himself alone and alienated at the crossroads between his violent past and an uncertain future. His ordeal is moving because he is in a position of power. Theoretically, the choice is his.
I read a lot. More than normal people do, so the reasons why I do it are quite clear to me: I read to challenge myself and my perception of the world I live in. Step out of my comfort zone and explore other selves through fiction. That is why Roger Smith and I are a good fit. His novels are relentless and unflinching and Nowhere might just be his most relentless yet. Imagine a trip into a crumbling, dystopian society torn by centuries of war, hatred and hopelessness, except that this place exists and it's Roger Smith's South Africa, laid bare to you in Nowhere for better or worse. Great novel. Great author. But get ready for an exhausting emotionally journey that will put you on your back for a couple days. Nobody walks away from a Roger Smith novel intact. Especially not this one.