‘South African literature [that] soars above the tortuous apartheid history and redefines globalisation.’
– THE OLIVE SCHREINER PRIZE, on THE THUNDER THAT ROARS

★ In an AI world cut off from itself, fighting for a cause is the most human thing.

Elijah, a troubled young Englishman has recently been imprisoned for murder. Humanity is readjusting to an incident in which terrorists had cut the undersea internet cables. After each world power assumed the other's involvement, a volley of mutual attacks led them all to wipe out the remainder of each other's connectivity, plunging the world into chaos. The UK, now The Revived Union, is run by a post-war techno-democratic government, a civilian-led democracy that defers the most important decisions to The System, a ring-fenced local artificial intelligence network built from scratch that promises to reduce human error in running the affairs of the country and plans to bring the nation back online within a short while. While in Bushy Hill prison, finding his way among rival gangs and merciless guards, Elijah is taken in by a messianic fellow inmate who unites many of these lost and condemned men to question and oppose The System. But the inexplicable suicides of young prisoners as well as a sociopathic killer among the inmates, lead Elijah into a labyrinth of inner and outer entanglements. A dystopian novel about masculinity, family, individual and collective mental health struggles related to the internet's role in our lives (and withdrawal from it),technology and human error, attempts at utopia, competing -isms, modernity vs human nature, and our human need for faith and quest for meaning and collectiveness, especially in times of crises.

Imran Garda
A journalist, news anchor and show host who has reported from dozens of countries. He has presented news and documentariesfrom multiple continents and has interviewed world leaders and influential figures for international news networks Al Jazeera and TRT World.Screen rights to his debut novel, THE THUNDER THAT ROARS (Penguin Random House SA, 2014) were acquired and the book won the OliveSchreiner Prize for Prose (2016). Born and raised in South Africa, Imran began his career at Supersport. He has lived in Qatar, the United Statesand currently resides in Istanbul.