I was born in 1965 in Natal, South Africa. I was uprooted at 9 when my father landed a job on a wine farm in the Cape. At 14 I discovered South Africa was a world pariah and that black men were shot in their struggle for freedom. Baited as a renegade kaffirboetie, I became an outsider at Paarl Boys' High. I studied at Rhodes University and then spent two bitter years as a conscript in the army. I would not carry a gun. Nelson Mandela was in jail during all this time.

I have taught English in South Africa, England, Germany, Austria and Singapore. I now teach in Luxembourg.

In the pipeline: A postapartheid novel called Cruel Crazy Beautiful World.

Interview: LitNet (2004)

I wrote Karoo Boy partly as a reply to Disgrace, as I found J.M. Coetzee’s South Africa relentlessly bleak. I have not shied away from violence and cruelty, but have focused on a sensuous, filmic evocation of South Africa, ending on a note of hope. Coetzee writes of Africa with a scalpel. I write [of it] with a stubby, chewed pencil. — From an interview on Mail & Guardian Online.

Who is Troy Blacklaws? Incurable dreamer, flawed father, unorthodox teacher, avid snowboarder, marathon man, lover of images, word juggler.

Is there something to be learned from this novel [Karoo Boy]? That South Africa is cruel, yet beautiful.

What inspires you? Reading a beautifully written book, like Tim Winton’s Dirt Music. Writing in a café after reading the paper. Seeing a Coen brothers film. Travelling ...

What do you do when you’re not chewing pencils and writing novels? Running, marking papers, playing football ..., playing tennis, throwing a rugby ball to my son, Finn (to remind him of his being half-South African), travelling in search of the sun.

If you could have a conversation with anyone, living or dead, who would it be? And what would you talk about? I would enjoy a coffee in a Parisian café in the Latin Quarter with Albert Camus. I am in awe of The Outsider. I would tell him how the death of the Arab on the beach partly inspired my setting the first chapter of Karoo Boy on Muizenberg beach.

You say Karoo Boy is, in part, a reply to Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee - why do you think people have reacted so strongly to Disgrace? I heard that feelings about Disgrace ran high in South Africa. Hard for me to gauge why, as I have lived overseas for so long. Here in Germany Disgrace is revered. As for me, I felt that Disgrace was flawlessly crafted, but it evoked a South Africa I hardly recognised.

And what does it [Karoo Boy] say about South African literature? That South African literature (if as desolate as Disgrace) ought to come with a warning not to listen to Leonard Cohen while you read if you do not want to go over the edge.

What do you say about South African literature? That it tends to be virile, visceral, raw.