Small Circle of Beings

<p><b>FROM THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF <i>THE PROMISE</i></b><br><b><br>Damon Galgut's first collection of stories transports us to 1980s South Africa where politics begins at home.<br></b><br><b>An exquisite early work by the twice Man Booker-shortlisted Damon Galgut.<br></b><br>The family - that small circle of beings where love should flourish - can be an arid and alienating territory where hatred and violence may ignite. The title novella is set in a house far out of town, at the end of a dust road that rises up into the mountains. The desperate bondage of family life is revealed to a mother as she sits at her son's bedside where he lies sick, perhaps dying. Galgut's understated prose unpicks the emotional paradoxes of family life with a surprising, surreal twist.<br><br>In a world where some of the most intimate relationships are those between strangers, <i>Small Circle of Beings</i> describes how children must learn to pull away from their parents if they are to find their own way.</p>