The Folly — Ivan Vladislavic

Condition : Good.
First Edition, David Philip, 1993, Medium-format Paperback – SA Fiction – 152pp. ISBN 9780864862372.

Grimly humorous and playfully serious, Ivan Vladislavić’s classic first novel is a comic and philosophical masterpiece.

A vacant patch of South African veld next to the comfortable, complacent Malgas household has been taken over by a mysterious, eccentric figure with “a plan.” Fashioning his tools out of recycled garbage, the stranger enlists Malgas’s help in clearing the land and planning his mansion. Slowly but inevitably, the stranger’s charm and the novel’s richly inventive language draws Malgas into “the plan” and he sees, feels and moves into the new building.
Then, just as remorselessly, all that seemed solid begins to melt back into air.

When The Folly first appeared it was read as an evocative allegory on the rise and fall of apartheid. Twenty years on, this remarkably open text is sure to strike a new set of chords.

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