I was invited to read an advance copy of this novel by the publisher, which was furnished to me via NetGalley. I have read several recent publications by Gallic Books and I recommend their catalog whole-heartedly. Many of their writers are new to me. I will be eternally grateful because they introduced me to the dark noir stories of Pascal Garnier, which I have collected and am currently reading slowly so as to not run out too quickly. Sort of like eating all the chocolates in a box one per day just to make them last.

The Biblical city of Nineveh is famous for both its disobedience to God as well as its repentance—a study in contrasts. Rose-Innes’ fascinating novel is as well. Katya and her sister grew up basically homeless, carted around by their alternatively abusive and engaging father, who was a pest exterminator, and who has since left their lives. The two sisters have responded differently to their chaotic upbringing. While her sister has rebelled by embracing order and family unity, Katya, who follows in her father’s profession and perhaps more, remains adrift, without relationships, without much in terms of possessions, living in a chaotic hovel that threatens to fall down about her. She resists, at times violently, any attempt to order her world.

Then she gets a chance, through her work, to live in the modern Nineveh, in this case a new housing development in South Africa that is a study in perfection and order on the edge of wild and unruly nature. It offers all things to all people. But all is not right here. There are the bugs. Sheets of them. Oceans of them. Biblical plague quantities of them. Katya must clean out Nineveh or leave, a failure.

She is torn. She rejects attachment to people or things, but she is drawn to Nineveh and the promise of a clean, luxurious place to live, even if temporarily, because it stills a chaos inside her. And strangely enough, she can’t find any bugs—although she knows they are there, somewhere beneath the surface. Actually there is more beneath the surface, both in Nineveh and in herself, that needs finding, and it is only when she breaks through the thin veneer, both in the buildings and in herself, that the past in the form of her dark and dangerous father—and the bugs--invade in waves.

This novel would be ideal for a group discussion. Seldom has a writer taken me so far into a protagonist’s thoughts, motives, and fears. Rose-Innes’ character are masterfully drawn and their development is both realistic as well as enlightening. The layers of metaphor and symbolism in this novel would provide fuel for a group reading or a literature class even as it provides a wonderful and entertaining story. The South-African voice and setting made this novel even more interesting to me, although the themes are certainly universal—siblings, coming to grips with a parent’s neglect and even violence, and processing all of this to develop our own world view and perspective.

The bugs were wicked cool too…

I would like to thank Gallic books for allowing me to read and review this very fine novel.

5 stars.
( )

At least the first half of this book was excellent, but then it got lost in the swamp. It is an ambitious work, but falls a little short of the bar it set for itself. Often poetic, but more often close to poetic. It is by a South African author, so maybe the ideal consumer of this book is someone more familiar with or immersed in that culture than I am. ( )

An unusual story about a 'humane pest controller' who is called to a job at an immense, luxurious residential complex called Nineveh, which has never been lived in because of a persistent problem with pests. The developer tells Katya that he'd already asked one pest controller to do the job, but he got ripped off. The previous pest controller turns out to be Katya's estranged father - but Katya is not like him - is she?

The whole story is an extended metaphor for all the things we don't like to think about and how the cracks will eventually show - whether those cracks are in our own carefully constructed personalities - in our families - or in our societies (this last is only hinted at, in the name of the complex - Nineveh was the largest city in the world until "it was sacked by a coalition of its former subject peoples" {wikipedia}, a name with resonance for this gated community with a shanty town outside its gates). ( )

Katya is a humane pest controller in South Africa. She learnt her craft from her father. They have a difficult relationship and are currently estranged but when she is asked to perform a difficult assignment on a luxury development, Nineveh, she senses his influence at play.

The thread that runs through Nineveh is the search for ‘home’. Katya’s unstable father kept his family constantly on the move and she has struggled to settle. Her sister escaped his influence early and has immersed herself in suburban family life. The developer of Nineveh strives to create perfection, insulated from the poverty that surrounds his development.

The plot is slightly jagged and unresolved, but that’s okay in what is an offbeat story. My difficulty with this book is the sheer amount of description. The author writes beautifully, giving a fresh perspective on everyday experiences. But just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should. Not all the time.

When Katya visits a high-powered client at his office we accompany her through the lobby, up in the lift, along the corridor…We find out how it feels to have a bath and to walk to the mall. We’re never teleported from one place to another but always have to plod there in real time, like the unedited footage from a headcam.

Despite these reservations, this book does stay with you. The pest metaphor is a powerful one. Who decides who gets to live within the walls, and who must be kept out, distanced, even destroyed? How does the outsider, despite everything, find a niche and survive?

Nineveh is definitely worth a read, but you might want to skim a bit.
*
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. ( )