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ABOUT THIS BOOK

PUBLISHER:

Bloomsbury Publishing
FORMAT: Paperback
ISBN: 9781408886090
RRP: £12.99
PAGES: 320
PUBLICATION DATE: April 4, 2019

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Home > Fiction from Scotland > Gay & Lesbian Literature > You Will Be Safe Here

You Will Be Safe Here

By Damian Barr

South Africa, 1901, the height of the second Boer War. Sarah van der Watt and her son are taken from their farm by force to Bloemfontein Concentration Camp where, the English promise: they will be safe.

Johannesburg, 2010. Sixteen-year-old outsider Willem just wants to be left alone with his books and his dog. Worried he’s not turning out right, his ma and her boyfriend send him to New Dawn Safari Training Camp. Here they ‘make men out of boys’. Guaranteed.

You Will Be Safe Here is a deeply moving novel of connected parts. Inspired by real events, it uncovers a hidden colonial history and present-day darkness while exploring our capacity for cruelty and kindness.

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Damian Barr

Damian Barr is a journalist, writer and host of his own Literary Salon. You can follow him on twitter @damian_barr and insta @mrdamianbarr. His Salon is at www.theliterarysalon.co.uk and you can find out more about him and his chickens at www.damianbarr.com

Barr’ first novel is You Will Be Safe Here – a Guardian, Observer and Financial Times pick for 2019. The Times call it ‘searing’. John Boyne, in the Irish Times, says: ‘It tells a story so powerful and upsetting that it’s a useful reminder of how fiction can illuminate the indignities visited upon those the world has mistreated and then forgotten.’