Six Fang Marks and a Tetanus Shot

Mixing mirth with tragedy, this multi-layered novel investigates the eviscerating effect of trauma on a young boy's mind. Experimental in several ways, the book is set up as a bizarre and disturbing scrapbook belonging to Ace and Rem, two South African brothers. The reader of the scrapbook is a war correspondent who has traveled from Amsterdam to South Africa to talk to the boys, hoping to find their connection to events across two continents that have left a trail of shattered lives. Deft characterization shows the growing ties between the boys and the journalist, and, despite the horrors, the result is an engrossing story that is both cynical and tenderly hilarious.