Pretoria: Five people with distinct lives, living in different sections of the city, but all tied together in ways they have yet to understand. Ben and Freya are orphaned twins, and Freya believes them to be as close as twins can be, but Ben has kept secrets from Freya that  have led to his murder.

Mr October is a widowed father, a rugby coach at a high school, and a devout Christian, but harbours a dark past that haunts him. Slick is a selfharming drug dealer, who, shaped by the brutal lessons of his mentor, Mama Africa, knows retribution is a vital aspect of staying in control.

And Nolwazi is an inspector with the Brooklyn Police Department, who wants to do her job properly, but is thwarted by an over-worked system and corrupt peers.

Why did Ben die? Who killed him? Who will be the one to achieve justice? And is justice even a possibility? 

A gripping literary debut, Talion captures the dark and messy consequences of grief, anger and revenge.  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Beyers de Vos is a writer, editor and journalist who lives and works in Cape Town. He was prose editor for the literary journal New Contrast,  and holds a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Cape Town. Talion (Wrok  in Afrikaans) is his first novel.

Talion is published by Penguin Random House South Africa