CATALYST PRESS
THE FARM
ISBN 9781946395221 | paperback | $15.95 | publication date September 2020
Eight Hours, Minute by Minute
Somewhere in South Africa, a farm comes under heavy attack. No shooters in sight. Only one thing is certain: The attackers are savagely resolute. A diverse group of people barricade themselves inside the farmhouse: women, men, and children; bosses and workers; black and white; a police officer; random visitors. Who is the target of the attack? What has motivated it? Politics? Revenge? Greed? Drugs? Weapons? But do the people outside know more than those indoors? The snipers who are trying to operate in the dark of night? Who will die, who will survive? Who is pulling the strings? Who will be the winners, who will be the losers? And how long can eight hours actually be?
Winner of the 2015 German Crime Writing Prize, Max Annas’ taut, terse novel is based on the foundational premise behind John Carpenter’s iconic film Assault on Precinct 13. The resulting work is a highly concentrated piece of literature. Constant changes in perspective, piercing precision. An explosive mixture of psychological thriller and Neo-western with a political subtext. Translated by Rachel Hildebrandt Reynolds.
REVIEWS
“On a remote farm, in what reads like a South African crime novel version of Night of the Living Dead, a diverse group of strangers with little in common are under siege by violent attackers. Those inside must work together not only to survive, but to understand why they’re being targeted in the first place.” —CrimeReads “Five International Novels You Should Read This September”
“Tension and intriguing characters make this a book you shouldn’t start until you have enough time to finish it. It’s hard to put down!” —MIchael Sears, The Big Thrill
“A subtle, intelligent crime novel that leads with action and judiciously drip feeds character and meaning into the story along the way.” —Crime Time
“Max Annas keeps the reader transfixed with a chain of violent events both unrelenting and tragic. With its gritty and isolated setting,The Farm resembles a Western while exposing the persisting, do-or-die inequalities in South Africa—all in an expert translation.” —Steve Anderson, bestselling translator and author of The Preserve and other novels
“Annas’s writing is crisp and tense, with not a word wasted, as we follow the bitter fight for survival.” —Sunday Times (South Africa)
Before writing novels, Max Annas worked as a journalist. A renowned film critic, his first novel, The Farm, is currently under film production in South Africa.
AUTHOR MAX ANNAS
TRANSLATOR RACHEL HILDEBRANDT
With degrees in art history and historic preservation, Rachel Hildebrandt worked as a historical consultant and academic editor before transitioning to literary translation. A recipient of several translation grants from both the Goethe Institut and the Austrian Ministry of Culture, she has published both fiction and nonfiction works in translation, including Herr Faustini Takes a Trip by Wolfgang Hermann (KBR Media), Collision by Merle Kroeger (Unnamed Press), Fade to Black by Zoe Beck (Weyward Sisters Press), and The Happiness Bureau by Andreas Izquierdo (Owl Canyon Press). Her translations have appeared in journals such as Europe Now, Anomaly and Trafika Europe. Rachel is also the founder of Weyward Sisters Publishing, which focuses on bringing contemporary works of crime and noir fiction by women authors from Germany, Austria and Switzerland to English readers.
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