The Shouting of Men

First published in 1991 by Pan Macmillan as The Brannigans, The Shouting of Men is now available here:

This novel is based to a large degree on the history of Hermanus, my hometown to which I returned in 1991.

Brannigan Bay in 1912: tranquil, remote, a fishing village untouched by the the worldliness of big business of nearby Cape Town, and home to the Brannigans for three generations.

Jay Brannigan’s life revolves around the sea, on which he makes his living, his sick mother and the exuberant, yet headstrong Maga de Vries, with whom he shared his childhood and whom he intends to marry. Their future seems secure, traditional and unquestioned … Until the advent of Preston Whitehead, the spoiled, wealthy heir to an extensive commercial fishing concern.

Immediate rivals for Magda’s love and for pre-eminence in Brannigan Bay, the corrosive antipathy between the two men, equally strong-minded and self-willed, deepens until the structure of the bay community and the hopes of the next generation are threatened at every level.

The novel spans two world wars and moves from Brannigan Bay to England and Johannesburg where the Ossewag-Brandwag, a group sympathetic to the German cause, embroils all the characters in a conflict which rushes them to a fatal climax.

It is a saga of conflict, violence and love in which reconciliation can only be achieved in death.

You can find the Kindle edition here.

separator