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Olufemi Terry: Wilderness of Mirrors

Our hero is Emil Silva, a young South African living in Johannesburg with his parentsVivian and Errol. He is studying to be a neurosurgeon, but it is a long training and he has decided to take a year out to recharge his batteries. His father is concerned about his nephew,Andres, who is in the south of the country and who is apparently having difficulties.Andres’ father died some time ago and his mother, Celeste, is now struggling with two sons including her older son Torrance.

Emil had not decided what to do with his year out but, at the instigations of his father, he decides he will drive south and visit his aunt and his cousins.

We follow his journey and see the changing countryside. His relatives live in a town calledStadtmutter and as Emil will soon find out it is very different from Johannesburg.

He is welcomed by Andres who is the only one at home when he arrives. It turns out that Torrance has moved out and is living with his girlfriend and is currently out. Emil is able to have Torrance’s bedroom. Celeste arrives later but Emil is tired after his long journey and goes and has a nap. He is woken by what seems to be a argument and finds out that Torrance has arrived and has come to see him. He is not sure why the two brothers were arguing.

We learn that Andres is on disability pension as he has badly hurt his back working in the construction industry. Andres explaining to him what’s going on in the area with a lot of cheap labour provided by the African population and a lot of construction. When you recovers Andres hopes to move into cranes where he is less likely to be injured. Emil soon find out that Andres his supplementing his income by dealing drugs. He makes no secret of it to Emil.

He soon settles in but he is often on his own. He believes that Celeste might be absent for such a long time because she has a lover and Andres is involved in his drug dealing. As he states, he has found idleness but not repose.

However, as he seems to have a little contact with the rest of the family, he decides to make his way into the town and in particular to a supper club recommended by Torrance. It is there that he meets the somewhat enigmatic Lukas Bolling. He may be German, he may not. He may be called.Lukas Bolling, he may not. He certainly seems to have a colourful history and he is certainly friends withBraeem Shaka whom Emil has heard of in demanding reparations for the Creole population. Bolling even offers Emil, a dying woman to operate on.

While,he will continue to cross paths with Lukas, it is through him that he meets Tamsin. She is doing a PhD in psychology but not impractical psychology but the history of psychology.I’m more interested in Freuds’ life…Freud was the final iconoclast. The very last one, just as Einstein was the final genius, maybe. Emil becomes more involved with Tamsin, but even he is unsure just what this means in practical terms. They go to a Shaka rally together and will later meet him through, of course,Bolling. When he is not sure that he he supports Shaka’s views it does give him cause to think about his own life and gradually we get onto one of the key themes of this novel namely that someone who has been wrapped up in a fairly limited life is suddenly being faced with something that is much bigger than he is used to.

We learn about Shaka’s back story, including the fact that he was expelled from Stanford for supportingthe BDS movement. Shaka seems to be in discussion with the state governor, Kob, but his actual plan regarding election is not entirely clear.

We now have several things going on. There is Esme, Tamsin’s mother, who writes crime novels and Emil gets to meet her and find out about her work but also about her husband, Robin who seems to live elsewhere and is a farmer.

He doesn’t see his two cousins as much but there is some concern about their role. Will they stay in Stadtmutter or move? What are their political views and , indeed? What is their sexuality? Why do they always seem to be at odds with one another? What is their relationship with their mother which seems to be somewhat limited, not least because she seems to spend most of her time with her boyfriend,Rinus.

However, our focus is on Emil and his relationship relationships with Tamsin, Bolling, Shaka and his own father who makes an appearance and seems to be somewhat involved in the political situation we are following.

As mentioned, Emil was very much stuck in his own groove of Johannesburg and focused entirely on his medical studies and seemingly not having a girlfriend or indeed a boyfriend. Being in.Stadtmutter, has clearly changed him as he comes out of his shell somewhat, but it’s still not sure where he is going. And then things suddenly change, when it turns out that the police are very much after.Shaka and, somewhat unwittingly, Emil, at the behest of Bolling, who , has left the country, perhaps for good, and leaves Shaka under the protection of Emil, with assistance from Tamsin.

This is definitely something of a strange novel focusing on an aspect of South African politics which most of us will know little about even though he does have themes that are common to other countries such as the issue of racism, reparations, and the rich versus the poor. With his cast of very varied characters, it makes very interesting reading even if we are not always sure wjat the different characters we want out of life.

Publishing history

First published in 2025 by Restless Books