Justin Cartwright with Up Against The Night

We’re delighted to be hosting Whitbread Novel Award-winning and Booker Prize-shortlisted author Justin Cartwright! His latest novel, Up Against The Night, is an intimate exploration of one man’s relationship with South Africa and its turbulent history, released earlier this year to critical acclaim. Cartwright‘s compelling narrative follows Frank McAllister who, having become both wealthy and alienated in England decides to return to his native South Africa with his lover, Nellie. Meanwhile, he waits for his daughter to arrive from California where she has been in rehab. In South Africa, however, more turbulence awaits as Frank’s cousin’s chaotic and violent life spills over him as he is drawn into a world of violence and delusion that is to threaten the family. Justin Cartwright possesses that rarest of novelist’s skills – the ability to create fiction which is intensely serious but which also vividly encompasses the absurdity and comedy of life.Up Against the Night is a subtle, brilliant novel about South Africa, its beautiful, superbly evoked landscape, its violent past and its uncertain present.  Join us at the bookshop as Justin introduces us to this enthralling work!