Peter Rimmer

Vultures in the Wind Peter Rimmer

Luke was close to death. He had been beaten mercilessly and was unrecognisable. Just for names, names of his ANC accomplices.

Matt and Luke are born on the same day, spending an idyllic childhood in the heart of Southern Africa's Transkei, blissfully unaware of the differences between them. But, when they are forced to leave their home, both young boys struggle to find their place in a society where racial segregation is the norm.

Gradually they begin to build their lives until one night Luke is abducted from Matt's Johannesburg flat to a place unknown and brutally assaulted. After spending time in a hospital, Luke a changed man heads for London embarking on his revolutionary fight for freedom. Matt meantime builds his business empire but always wonders whether he was now part of his best friend's hatred.

It would be another twenty-nine years before meeting again. Did either of them find peace, or was their all-too-brief childhood their only comfort in a world driven by political and societal extremes?