Unfeeling

At 16, Davey's stuck between becoming the man his father wants him to be, and leaving behind the child he was. Before Davey gets a chance to grow up, however, his placid life is destroyed when his parents are murdered and his family farm “reclaimed.” Neighboring farmers try to care for Davey by engaging him in their community of clubs, church, and boarding school, but one night Davey escapes, embarking on a harrowing trek away from civilization and toward revenge and redemption. Ian Holding’s tense, sparse prose, vivid sense of place, and searing portrait of a boy in a situation almost beyond imagining make this an unforgettable debut.

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Praise for Unfeeling

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‘One of the season’s best books.’ | NEWSWEEK

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‘Sixteen year old Davey Baker’s family has farmed for generations. But one night, while Davey is hiding up in the attic, thugs break in and hack his parents to death. The Baker’s neighbours, Mike and Marsha de Wet, take in the traumatised boy and the family’s farm is ‘reclaimed’. As the de Wets worry about Davey, who returns to boarding school but gradually falls apart, they watch as Edenfields withers. Like the rest of the white farming community they exist on a knife edge, while the black workers are also at the mercy of the gangs ... Fine characterization and sense of place meet tense, spare prose as Davey embarks on a terrifying act of revenge.’ | THE GUARDIAN

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‘Much modern fiction is glossy but empty, but Ian Holding comes from another world. He has courage and wide sympathies ... Holding’s description of Davey’s great trek, living the way that most black Zimbabweans do, is riveting.’ | Maggie Gee | THE TIMES

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‘Holding shows us one corner of this tragic landscape with a raw intensity that mocks his title ... Unfeeling compels attention for the crackling anguish of its mood and the rustling grace of its scenery.’ | Boyd Tonkin | INDEPENDENT

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‘Holding builds up his nightmarish picture with intense detail. His descriptions of the land are haunting, his own love of it poignantly vivid ... his work sings.’ | Rosemary Goring | GLASGOW HERALD

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‘An outstandingly gifted writer and a dauntingly brave one too ... Holding’s novel is written with a devastating blend of control and anger.’ | David Robinson | THE SCOTSMAN

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‘Remarkable ... the novel’s construction is a tour de force, a kind of narrative corkscrew ... gripping.’ | SUNDAY INDEPENDENT

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‘His surefooted prose gives this novel a devastating punch ... a commanding picture of the land and nature as the ultimate power.’ | METRO

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‘Controversial and powerful ... Through the eyes of his teenage protagonist Holding charts the horror and fear of those who suffered eviction and watched as the livelihood they had fought for was torn from underneath them.’ | THE BIG ISSUE

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‘Riveting’ | TIME OUT

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'Delicately and darkly reveals what happens when old colonial white Africa teeters on the brink, and when acts of brutality dehumanise both sides as they struggle for the land and the lives that both believe they were born to inherit' |THE LEEDS GUIDE

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‘Unfeeling is a visceral and compelling narrative about murder, racism and vengeance ... The novel has already been shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, an award given to ‘the best young writer in the world.’ You can expect to see Holding’s name on future prize and bestseller lists.’ | THE EDMONTON JOURNAL

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‘A stunning first novel recommended to me by one of our best booksellers.’ | Heather Reisman |THE GLOBE AND MAIL | Best Books of the Year

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‘A wonderful first novel ... The book is so brilliantly constructed and well written that I couldn’t put it down. The story is harrowing, but not without humour, and the descriptions of the countryside are beautiful.’ | Alma Lee |THE GLOBE AND MAIL | Best Books of the Year

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‘This is a chilling and suspenseful story with a surprise twist. You will be kept engaged, especially in the shifting time spaces that Ian Holding writes so brilliantly.’ | THE VANCOUVER SUN

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‘Holding’s confident and measured prose rarely falters. He is especially strong on interior monologues and natural descriptions ... his narrative jumps around, making the novel seem at once seamless and jarring. This mirrors, in effect, the complex colonial history that Unfeeling examines.’ | THE OBSERVER

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‘Searingly powerful ... you’d have to be made of stone for this book to leave you “unfeeling” ...’ | MANAWATU STANDARD

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‘A brave and compelling story of brutality and human behaviour ...’ | NORTHERN ADVOCATE

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‘Narrated in spare, unfaltering prose, the novel is freighted with a profound sense of foreboding. Structured in rhythmical fragments ... Holding deftly builds a compelling story of a paradise lost.’ | Bron Sibree | THE COURIER MAIL

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‘Ian Holding has a sure feel for narrative ... this novel touches many bases with skill and assurance.’ | Nicholas Reid | SUNDAY STAR TIMES

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‘Only fiction could give us an account of Zimbabwe’s current struggles as searing as this ... a depiction that is as convincing as it is tragic. The breakdown of society is painted with such garish colours of fury which non-fiction could not manage or get away with. A novel of such raw power ... where On the Road meets Gothic Horror burns an indelible impression of 21st-century rural Africa on the reader’s mind.’ |Mike Crean | THE PRESS

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‘An authentic, accomplished literary debut in which a boy’s dreams of eventually taking over the family farm are shattered when his parents are murdered. Sent to boarding school young Davey escapes and begins a harrowing journey across Africa. In a word: timely.’ | WEEKEND GOLD COAST BULLETIN

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‘This searingly powerful novel of loss and revenge in contemporary Zimbabwe introduces a new voice of real accomplishment.’ | GOOD READING MAGAZINE

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‘So powerfully does Zimbabwean-born author Ian Holding’s debut novel Unfeeling connect with his country’s recent history that he is being rightly lauded for his writing ability and his courage.’ | SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

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‘Brilliantly written ... This journey is told in harrowing fashion ... I found the savage beauty of the prose and the narrative compelling.’ | Jennifer Crocker

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‘Deftly humanist in its moral vision ... it’s a fine work, its composition intricate. It describes, without trying to solve, a complex ethical and political dilemma. The novel rails against violent effects of unfeeling, and finds its solution in an ethics of care. Holding’s achievement is to affirm this view without melodrama.’ | Prof. Michael Titlestad, | SUNDAY TIMES SOUTH AFRICA

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‘The rhythm of the taut and angry language takes on a life of its own that grips the reader to the very last word.’ |Brian Joss | TATLER

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‘Unfeeling goes where other novels will not tread. Holding attempts to lend greater understanding to Zimbabwe and a world of postcolonial disaster through his novel in a way that the evening news simply has not.’ | PEAK

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‘Unfeeling is not a problem in this harrowing novel ... it’s a book I couldn’t put down until the last screaming detail and whiplash surprise. It’s ridiculously well-written, and such a complete, double-sided vision of Africa it practically sings its passionate love while documenting horrors I hope I can forget someday. For a reader who wants to understand Africa, the real, complex Africa, this book has it all. And that’s just one of its pluses – as a first novel, this is a terrifying joy.’ |NOVELWORLD

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