Dodging Cows

Cows wandering on roads are an everyday hazard in rural South Africa. They appear suddenly, and their movements are unpredictable. Hitting them can have dire consequences. Dodging Cows is one man's journey from carefree childhood to lazy student to conscripted soldier to passionate farmer, buffeted by the fault lines in South Africa's history. Gritty and uncompromisingly authentic, this thought provoking novel stirs all the emotions.

Part One: Follow the adventures of a young boy growing up on a farm in southern Natal barely aware of a country divided along racial lines

Part Two: Luke falls in love, has a short but tumultuous university career and goes into the army. As a section leader in an infantry company, he sees action in South West Africa and Angola. He loses friends in combat, but more sinister forces break his heart back home.

Part Three: Ten years have passed. Nelson Mandela is released; Apartheid is in its violent death throes. Luke Ayres embraces marriage and fatherhood; South Africa embraces democracy. Criminality replaces repression. Luke fears he may lose all he holds dear again. The final denouement is Ayres' confrontation of the two men, from polar ideologies that have impacted so harshly on his life.