Overview

"''They will use the flashing patrol light to force the sky-blue Honda to pull over--an old trick, but it often worked. They will manacle their captives and switch license plates. They will drive the four men back toward the dunes. In the first instance, there will be knives and bludgeons. Then gasoline to incinerate the bodies and the Honda. Dirty work, but someone had to do it."" Permanent Removal is a beautifully written political thriller focusing on the nature of justice, truth, betrayal, socio-political and ethical quandaries, complicity and moral agency. The novel introduces readers to a cast of players whose destinies intertwine in a particularly gruesome murder. The novel is set in apartheid South Africa and fictionalizes the events leading up to the assassination of the Cradock Four. South African security forces set up a roadblock to intercept a car near the city of Port Elizabeth. Two of the four anti-apartheid activists in the car were secretly targeted for assassination. The police abducted the four and murdered them in cold blood. Their burnt bodies were found later near the Port Elizabeth suburb of Bluewater Bay. These murders are one of apartheid's murkiest episodes. On the day of the funeral of the Cradock Four, President PW Botha declared a State of Emergency. It was the beginning of the end. Permanent Removal is an intriguing fictionalized exploration of political executions and culpability/loss during the apartheid heyday."

Full Product Details

9781947856936

Table of Contents

Reviews

So you thought the bad old ways had died with the birth of the new, that the whispers and lies of the past had been forgotten in the freshly minted land of Mandela. You'd be dead wrong. Alan Cowell's high-speed thriller rips a wormhole in the rainbow nation and throws us back to a time when right and wrong were fixed in blood and love came off second best. In a broodingly atmospheric story that piles on the suspense, Cowell lays bare the fragile human hearts that beat uncertainly in the aftershock of apartheid. There are no heroes here except dead ones. And even they're not perfect. --Charlotte Bauer A political thriller by legendary New York Times correspondent who knows South Africa, it's history, it's secrets and its intrigue so well. --Robin Wright, author and former Africa correspondent When old friends reluctantly revisit their role in The Struggle against apartheid, they find they have secrets to hide, betrayals to forget and new loves to pursue. Permanent Removal is a tautly told tale of inner torment--contemporary, courageous, compelling. --John Borrell, author of The White Lake, and former Time magazine bureau chief in Africa With a journalist's eye for detai, and a consummate knowledge of time, place, and circumstance won the hard way, Alan Cowell weaves a spellbinding tale of a society steeped in blood and deception, and still far from truth or reconciliation. Permanent Removal should be required reading for every South African, and for everyone who wants to know, or thinks they know, about the struggle to end apartheid, and its legacy. --Allen Pizzey, CBS News Cowell has done it again, proving himself master of all genres. Paris Correspondent was the funniest of novels on modern journalism. Now, Permanent Removal raises the bar for political thrillers. It's taut, romantic and, at the end, a shock. You'll love it. --Charles Glass, author of Americans in Paris, Deserters, and Syria Burning A refreshing new work by an author who delves into the brutal past and the trembling present in an approach which is both stimulating and provocative, and certain to cause controversy. Disturbing, unusually structures, and entralling. --Wilf Nussey, author and retired foreign correspondent

"""So you thought the bad old ways had died with the birth of the new, that the whispers and lies of the past had been forgotten in the freshly minted land of Mandela. You'd be dead wrong. Alan Cowell's high-speed thriller rips a wormhole in the rainbow nation and throws us back to a time when right and wrong were fixed in blood and love came off second best. In a broodingly atmospheric story that piles on the suspense, Cowell lays bare the fragile human hearts that beat uncertainly in the aftershock of apartheid. There are no heroes here except dead ones. And even they're not perfect."" --Charlotte Bauer ""A political thriller by legendary New York Times correspondent who knows South Africa, it's history, it's secrets and its intrigue so well."" --Robin Wright, author and former Africa correspondent ""When old friends reluctantly revisit their role in The Struggle against apartheid, they find they have secrets to hide, betrayals to forget and new loves to pursue. Permanent Removal is a tautly told tale of inner torment--contemporary, courageous, compelling."" --John Borrell, author of The White Lake, and former Time magazine bureau chief in Africa ""With a journalist's eye for detai, and a consummate knowledge of time, place, and circumstance won the hard way, Alan Cowell weaves a spellbinding tale of a society steeped in blood and deception, and still far from truth or reconciliation. Permanent Removal should be required reading for every South African, and for everyone who wants to know, or thinks they know, about the struggle to end apartheid, and its legacy."" --Allen Pizzey, CBS News ""Cowell has done it again, proving himself master of all genres. Paris Correspondent was the funniest of novels on modern journalism. Now, Permanent Removal raises the bar for political thrillers. It's taut, romantic and, at the end, a shock. You'll love it."" --Charles Glass, author of Americans in Paris, Deserters, and Syria Burning ""A refreshing new work by an author who delves into the brutal past and the trembling present in an approach which is both stimulating and provocative, and certain to cause controversy. Disturbing, unusually structures, and entralling."" --Wilf Nussey, author and retired foreign correspondent"

So you thought the bad old ways had died with the birth of the new, that the whispers and lies of the past had been forgotten in the freshly minted land of Mandela. You'd be dead wrong. Alan Cowell's high-speed thriller rips a wormhole in the rainbow nation and throws us back to a time when right and wrong were fixed in blood and love came off second best. In a broodingly atmospheric story that piles on the suspense, Cowell lays bare the fragile human hearts that beat uncertainly in the aftershock of apartheid. There are no heroes here except dead ones. And even they're not perfect. --Charlotte Bauer A political thriller by legendary New York Times correspondent who knows South Africa, it's history, it's secrets and its intrigue so well. --Robin Wright, author and former Africa correspondent When old friends reluctantly revisit their role in The Struggle against apartheid, they find they have secrets to hide, betrayals to forget and new loves to pursue. Permanent Removal is a tautly told tale of inner torment--contemporary, courageous, compelling. --John Borrell, author of The White Lake, and former Time magazine bureau chief in Africa With a journalist's eye for detai, and a consummate knowledge of time, place, and circumstance won the hard way, Alan Cowell weaves a spellbinding tale of a society steeped in blood and deception, and still far from truth or reconciliation. Permanent Removal should be required reading for every South African, and for everyone who wants to know, or thinks they know, about the struggle to end apartheid, and its legacy. --Allen Pizzey, CBS News Cowell has done it again, proving himself master of all genres. Paris Correspondent was the funniest of novels on modern journalism. Now, Permanent Removal raises the bar for political thrillers. It's taut, romantic and, at the end, a shock. You'll love it. --Charles Glass, author of Americans in Paris, Deserters, and Syria Burning A refreshing new work by an author who delves into the brutal past and the trembling present in an approach which is both stimulating and provocative, and certain to cause controversy. Disturbing, unusually structures, and entralling. --Wilf Nussey, author and retired foreign correspondent

Author Information

Alan S. Cowell is an award-winning New York Times journalist. He was assigned to Johannesburg in the mid-1980s and was awarded the prestigious George Polk Award for courageous reporting. The government of the day ordered him to leave in early 1987 and he was not allowed to return until the early 1990s. Since then he has been a regular visitor, most recently covering the Oscar Pistorius trial and anchoring coverage of the death of President Mandela.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available