Synopsis
SUBSTITUTES
by Frank Swales
A novel, approx. 90,000 words
Ed Stranton, a young Englishman, emigrates with his family to find work in South Africa in the mid 1970s. It is the time of the Soweto riots, and although he has no interest whatever in politics, Ed finds himself being forced to take sides. As a liberal foreigner he deplores the violence of the police state, but he does not have the courage of his convictions.
His difficulties are compounded by the breakdown of his marriage. On their arrival in the country the Strantons had hired a young Zulu girl, Anna, as a servant and nursemaid. When Ed's wife moves out Ed begins a relationship with Anna and so puts himself outside South African law.
Unknown to Ed, Anna's life has other complications. Besides having problems with her black boyfriend she is beaten up by a brutish Afrikaner neighbour, and is forced to have sex with him.
There are covert threats that her relationship with Ed is about to be exposed to the authorities. Suddenly and unexpectedly, Anna disappears. Ed is desperate and goes in search of her in the black township.
Anna surfaces many months later in police custody, charged with infanticide. Ed is thought to be the father. He faces death amid the squalor of the township when Anna's spear-wielding boyfriend challenges him to a fight to the finish.
This fast moving story is played out against an authentic South African background which pulsates with life and danger.
