An act of terror - André Brink (First UK edition)

Thomas Landman is a photographer: Kat Bester is a senior policeman. Both have roots deep in South African history, but, from opposing sides of the political fence, both have taken a conscious decision to break the rules. Bester uses his wide and powerful network of contacts to exploit corruption and violence to defend the system. Landman reluctantly takes to violence as the only hope of overturning the system Bester and his like protect.

About the tensions of pursuit and chase, André Brink weaves a remarkable polyphonic novel that gives voice to the hidden intricacies of an entire society, the subtle half-forgotten mechanisms that hold the land and its people both together and apart. In their very different ways, the policeman and the photographer discover that there are no easy answers - and no easy questions.

The act of terror that sets Bester and Landman in direct opposition triggers a remorseless pursuit that leads the hunter and the hunted across the entire face of South Africa, across magnificent landscapes and squalid townships, from placid rural certainties to the criminal fringe of the cities, into the violent past of Africa, and finally into explosive conflict.

A stunningly suspenseful story of a chase, and a profound meditation on the ethics of violence, An Act of Terror is André Brink's masterpiece.