HARRY MAC

A moving coming of age story set against the politically charged backdrop of early apartheid South Africa.

It is 1961, and while the world seems to be on the brink of nuclear confrontation, South Africa is entering its own decade of silence under apartheid. Twelve-year old Tom MacGregor lives with his family in a quiet suburban lane where people only see and hear what they choose. Tom's family call him Wagter, the Watcher; always seeing and hearing more than he should. One night Tom overhears his father, Harry Mac, discussing a plot to assassinate the South African Prime Minister. A newspaper editor and vocal critic of apartheid, Harry is ferocious and unapproachable. Weighed down by this terrible secret, Tom turns to his neighbour Sol, a psychiatrist and the father of his best friend, Millie. As Tom's political awareness gradually grows, he discovers the quiet lane is thick with secrets, not least Sol's. Suddenly Millie and Tom's neighbourhood, with its 'ghost house', its enigmatic wounded soldier and its growing rumblings of political dissent, seems anything but safe. Tom's struggle to make sense of this place in this quickly changing world forms the basis of this dramatic story. Russell Eldridge is an award-winning journalist and former newspaper editor who has worked in Australia and South Africa. He is a founding member of the Byron Bay Writers Festival, and is a highly regarded moderator of author panel discussions at Byron Bay and the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. Russell has written and performed stand- ?up comedy. He has also written short stories and poetry, and co- ?wrote and edited a History of South African Tennis. Shame, his first novel, won the Varuna-Litlink Unpublished Manuscript Award.