From the author of Six Fang Marks and a Tetanus Shot, winner of the UJ Prize for Best First Book
Alma Nel leaves her home on the edge of the Kalahari to retrieve the body of her gay son in Amsterdam.
Driven by guilt and grief, she resolves to reconstruct Staal's life and the events leading up to his death, undertaking a bizarre quest in a strange and surreal world.
Guided by a coke-dealing Rastafarian, Alma opens a psychedelic can of worms, meeting many of Staal's friends and acquaintances - scissor queens, leather men, rent boys, daredevils. But not everyone is sympathetic towards Alma.
Some of Staal's friends would prefer to keep their secrets hidden in the darkrooms of the night. As her quest progresses, Alma discovers that a mysterious stranger is several steps ahead of her, also trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle.
"So moving, so humane and so compulsive that I could not settle to any other novel." - Karin Schimke, Cape Times
Praise for Six Fang Marks and a Tetanus Shot
"One of the best debuts we've read in ages." - GQ
"De Nooy's debut is beautiful, as is his second book, The Big Stick. His style is raw and macho, as well as - almost - hypersensitive." - Ivo Weyel, Esquire
"Funny and sad and beautiful, it will stay with you long after you have finished."
- Lindsay Slogrove, The Mercury
"A finely crafted novel, peppered with visceral and black humour." - Mike Chandler, Dispatch
