Daniel is a journalist, moving between London and Cape Town, until his elderly father passes away.

There is an unusual clause in the old man’s will: Daniel will only inherit his half of the estate once he has paid his estranged cousin a visit on the family farm in the Free State. It is a visit that will result in Daniel, his cousin and a sick young boy making a hopeful trip to Tokyo – a journey that will change all of their lives.

An exquisite, tender novel by the award-winning writer SJ Naudé.

Daniël voer ’n trekvoëlbestaan tussen Londen en Kaapstad.

Wanneer sy bejaarde pa sterf, bevat dié se testament ’n ongewone klousule: Daniël sal slegs sy deel van die boedel erf indien hy besoek aflê by sy neef Theon, op die ou familieplaas in die Vrystaat. Dié besoek lei tot ’n ander reis – hy en sy neef neem ’n siek seuntjie na Tokio, met die hoop dat ’n nuwe soort behandeling die kind sal genees.

’n Aangrypende roman deur die bekroonde skrywer SJ Naudé.

"The astonishingly diverse stories in SJ Naude remarkable collection "The Alphabet of Birds" count among the best in Afrikaans. . . . This collection is truly unmissable."--Andre Brink

If death comes to a loved one, can we grieve alone? When all around is in ruins, can we confine our lives to one beautiful room constructed out of art, or love, or family ties? What is behind emotions and words? Is it something in the language that birds use?

A mother dying of cancer neglects her family and herself on a desperate mission to help AIDS sufferers; a musician travels to America, England, and Dubai to see her stranded siblings before returning to her plundered home in Johannesburg; a man trails his gay lover through Berlin's party scene looking for an antidote. Almost crushed by loss, everyone in these stories is searching for answers.

SJ Naude grew up in South Africa, where he studied law. After practicing law in New York and London for many years, he returned to South Africa. The Afrikaans version of "The Alphabet of Birds" was awarded several prizes, including a South African Literary Award. Naude currently lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

Scott Pack: Books of the Year 2018 Shortlisted for The Sunday Times Literary Awards (South Africa) Twenty-two-year-old Etienne is studying film in London, having fled conscription in his native South Africa. It is 1986, the time of Thatcher, anti-apartheid campaigns and Aids, but also of postmodern art, post-punk rock, and the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. Adrift in a city cast in shadow, he falls in love with a German artist while living in derelict artists' communes. When Etienne finds the first of three reels of a German film from the 1930s, he begins searching for the missing reels, a project that turns into an obsession when his lover disappears in Berlin. It is while navigating this city divided by the Wall that Etienne gradually pieces together the history of a small group of Jewish film makers in Nazi Germany. It is a desperate quest amid complications that pull him back to the present and to South Africa. However, his search for the missing film continues. Ambitious and cosmopolitan, the material of S. J. Naude's The Third Reel is as disparate as the cities in which the book is set. Architecture, cinematography, sex, music, illness, loss and love all collide in this exquisitely wrought, deeply affecting novel.