Gallery / Scout Press imprint of Simon & Schuster
The book’s title The Eternal Audience of One would seem to refer to the unrepentant self-centeredness of the young male protagonist Séraphin Turihamwe. At an overview level, focusing on entertainment value, the storytelling is a familiar coming-of-age plot, a series of hookups, mostly casual and a few intense – soft-core graphic. What’s exceptional about author Rémy Ngamije’s version are the intrigues of and insights on sexual, racial, and geopolitical strife in today’s southern Africa. Séraphin was born Rwandan, but his educated family emigrates to Windhoek, Namibia in search of both safety and prosperity. As a result, the label refugee gets appended to him, when he and his family expect to be regarded as residents who deserve a place in the country’s rapidly emerging middle class. But no sooner does overachieving student Séraphin begin to adjust than he decides to attend law school at Remms in Cape Town, South Africa. There he is rapidly thrown into a sophisticated urban environment, along with the predictable pressures of trying to balance the obligations of academic achievement and serious partying.
Cocksure Séraphin, who still harbors secret doubts about his social standing, hangs with a posse of fellow students. These men call themselves the High Lords, facilitating their exploits with liberal rounds of alcohol if not drugs. He has left an Afrikaner girlfriend back home in Windhoek to stumble into a series of hookups with young women who are variously white or black. Although he and his fellows don’t discriminate racially as to their choices in partners, they do share stereotypes among themselves about the characteristics, charms, and preferences of each. For example, a group they call the Benevolent White Girls would not think of sleeping with any of them, but those are avid notetakers in class and are eager to help their black brothers crib. As with Séraphin’s chagrin at being called a refugee, many of his mates, although from indigenous ethnicities in neighboring countries, are regarded as foreigners in Cape Town.
So, it’s mostly partying and texting, along with falling in and out of bed, if not in love. Spoiler alert: chick-magnet Séraphin doesn’t quite settle down by the time the Epilogue wraps, but one can expect, if there is a sequel, it will be set in Windhoek and he will be pleading with the High Lords to stand at his side for the ceremony. Or not?
Releasing June 29, 2021 in trade paperback, Kindle, and EPUB. Audiobook in production.
