Karina Book

Book of the Week Special at The Book Lounge: The Fourth Boy by Andrew Robert Wilson

Journalist Grant Asher (1980s Cape Town) gets told by his mother on her deathbed that his father (who was unknown to Grant) was both gay and Jewish. Grant decides to try to find his father, which leads him to Oudtsthoorn and the news that his father has just been murdered. Grant becomes a somewhat reluctant investigator which leads him to suspect that there may be a serial killer murdering people who were part of a group of the five hundred Polish Jewish orphans who were freed from Siberia in the 1940s and were taken in by South Africa. ~ Mervyn Sloman

Set mostly in the Klein Karoo, The Fourth Boy explores notions of belonging and a myriad of other longings which I found profoundly moving. It tells the story of a young man’s search for his father against the backdrop of the 80s in apartheid South Africa and the fate of five hundred Polish WWII refugee children who arrived in Oudtshoorn in 1943. It is also a story of love, loss and betrayal. The tenderness with which Andrew Robert Wilson portrays the relationships – love and friendship – at the centre of the novel – is remarkable, and the way he resolves its greatest mystery is simply masterful. ~ Karina Szczurek, Karavan Press

You can purchase the book here (20% off):

The Book Lounge Book of the Week Special