THE FETCH

The coastal settlement of Slangkop near Cape Town comes alive over weekends when mercurial Chas Fawkes holds court at Midden House. Invited to one of his legendary parties, shy, plump librarian Nina Browne is smitten and becomes first his secretary, then his lover. But things are not all as they seem on the glittering surface, as Nina in turn is loved and watched over by Chas's childhood playmate, the hermit-like environmentalist William.

When Chas's estranged alcoholic wife Dolly briefly returns, she steals all William's savings and leaves behind a different treasure, and a dilemma – her baby son, Oro. In a gentler, more innocent way than Chas, young Oro is a catalyst in the Slangkop community. William is forced out of his seclusion and proves a surprisingly good stand-in dad, with a little help from everyone except Chas himself.

William is still desperate to win Nina's heart, but how, when she is so caught up in Chas's slipstream? As the inhabitants of this eccentric seaside community orbit around Chas and his increasingly desperate crises, sex raises questions that love must help them answer.

Finuala Dowling's first poetry collection, I FLYING, won South Africa's prestigious Ingrid Jonker Prize. Her second collection, DOO-WOP GIRLS OF THE UNIVERSE was joint winner of the Sanlam Prize for poetry, and her third, NOTES FROM THE DEMENTIA WARD, won the Olive Schreiner Prize. Her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in several anthologies. She has also written plays and won the Spier/PANSA Audience Award. She is a brilliant performer and has read at the Aldeburgh Festival in the UK and at all South Africa's major literary festivals. Her first novel was WHAT POETS NEED, followed by FLYLEAF. HOME-MAKING FOR THE DOWN-AT-HEART won the M-Net Prize 2012 and was shortlisted for the University of Johannesburg Prize in the same year.