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  • These Are Not Gentle People

  • By: Andrew Harding
  • Narrated by: Roger Davis
  • Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (17 ratings)

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These Are Not Gentle People cover art

These Are Not Gentle People

By: Andrew Harding
Narrated by: Roger Davis
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Summary

At dusk, on a warm evening in 2016, a group of 40 men gathered in the corner of a dusty field on a farm outside Parys in the Free State. Some were in fury. Others treated the whole thing as a joke - a game. 

The events of the next two hours would come to haunt them all. They would rip families apart, prompt suicide attempts, breakdowns, divorce, bankruptcy, threats of violent revenge and acts of unforgivable treachery.             

These Are Not Gentle People is the story of that night and of what happened next. It's a murder story, a courtroom drama, a profound exploration of collective guilt and individual justice and a fast-paced literary thriller.              

Award-winning foreign correspondent and author Andrew Harding traces the impact of one moment of collective barbarism on a fragile community - exploding lies, cover-ups, political meddling and betrayals - and reveals the inner lives of those involved with extraordinary clarity.

The book is also a mesmerising examination of a small town trying to cope with a trauma that threatens to tear it in two - as such, it is as much a journey into the heart of modern South Africa as it is a gripping tale of crime, punishment and redemption. 

When a whole community is on trial, who pays the price?

©2019 Andrew Harding (P)2019 Quercus Editions Limited

Critic reviews

"A smartly paced true crime thriller with a vivid cast of characters...as tense as it is disturbing." (John Carlin, author of Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation)

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Not a gentle story but absolutely riveting

I took long bus journeys to keep listening. Thrilling, painful, bleak, human(?) Eish, South Africa!

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant. Heartbreaking.

A difficult listen. Racism, violence, poverty, politics, conspiracy, incompetence, torture. But so necessary. (Some words incorrectly pronounced but that's standard for books on SA).

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1 person found this helpful