Overview
'Those in the know claim Michael K disembarked from a diesel-smoke-spewing truck one overcast morning, looked around, and without missing a beat, chose a spot where he set down a small bucket (red, burnt and disfigured) that contained an assortment of seedlings, some fisherman's twine and a rudimentary gardening tool - probably self-made.' How is it that a character from literary fiction can so alter the landscapes he touches, even as he - in his self-imposed isolation - seeks to avoid them? How is it that Michael K, bewildered and bewildering, can remain so fragile yet so present, so imposing without attempting to be so? In this response to JM Coetzee's classic masterpiece, Life & Times of Michael K, Nthikeng Mohlele dabbles in the artistic and speculative in a unique attempt to unpack the dazed and disconnected world of the title character, his solitary ways, his inventiveness, but also to show how astutely Michael K holds up a mirror to those whose paths he inadvertently crosses. Michael K explores the weight of history and of conscience, thus wrestling the character from the confines of literary creation to the frontiers of artistic timelessness.
Full Product Details
Author: Nthikeng Mohlele
Publisher: Pan Macmillan South Africa
Imprint: Picador Africa
Dimensions:
Width: 15.60cm
, Height: 3.00cm
, Length: 23.40cm
Weight: 0.213kg
ISBN: 9781770104792
ISBN 10: 1770104798
Pages: 144
Publication Date: 01 March 2018
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
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Reviews
'A work of reflective intensity, re-imagining a memorable character from JM Coetzee's world of stark and sparse prose and transplanting him in Mohlele's ornate and lyrical one.' - ZAKES MDA 'Mohlele writes his story beautifully with a tactile sensuality. He arranges words, sentences and paragraphs like a gifted composer.' - SUNDAY TIMES
'A work of reflective intesity, re-imagining a memorable character from JM Coetzee's world of stark and sparse proseand transplanting him in Mohlele's ornate and lyrical one.' - ZAKES MDA
Author Information
NTHIKENG MOHLELE was partly raised in Limpopo and Tembisa Township, and attended the University of the Witwatersrand, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Dramatic Art, Publishing Studies and African Literature. He is the author of four critically acclaimed novels: The Scent of Bliss (2008), Small Things (2013), Rusty Bell (2014) and Pleasure (2016). Pleasure won the 2016 University of Johannesburg Main Prize for South African Writing in English as well as the 2017 K. Sello Duiker Memorial Prize at the South African Literary Awards. It has also been longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Michael K is Mohlele's fifth novel.
