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Riotous Assembly

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General Fiction General Fiction
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Pages
249

About This Book

Tom Sharpe's savagely funny first novel is set in South Africa, where the author was imprisoned and later deported. When Miss Hazelstone of Jacaranda Park kills her Zulu cook in a sensational crime passionnel, the hasty, rude members of the South African police force are soon upon the scene: Kommandant van Heerden, whose secret longing for the heart of an English gentleman leads to the most memorable transplant operation yet recorded; Luitenant Verkramp of the Security Branch, ever active in his search for Communist cells; Konstabel Els, with his propensity for shooting first and not thinking later—and also for forcing himself upon African women in a manner legally reserved for male members of their own race. In the course of the bizarre events that follow, we encounter some very esoteric perversions when the Kommandant is held captive in Miss Hazelstone's remarkable rubber room; and some even more amazing perversions of justice when Miss Hazelstone's brother, the Bishop of Barotseland, is sentenced to be hanged from the ancient gallows of the local prison. Not a "political" novel in any previously imagined sense, Riotous Assembly provides a completely fresh approach to the horror of South Africa—an approach at once outrageous and startling in its deadpan savagery. Along with Indecent Exposure, this does for South Africa what Swift's A Modest Proposal did for Ireland.

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Paperback

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Jan 1973 Pan Books (UK) ISBN 0330234234
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Trade Paperback
Apr 1994 Grove Press ISBN 0871131439
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Paperback
Dec 2002 Arrow (UK) ISBN 0099435454
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Hardcover

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Hardcover
Jan 1972 Viking ISBN 0670599077
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Jun 1977 Secker & Warburg ISBN 0436458004
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Dec 2000 Random House (UK) ISBN 0436205033
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eBook

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-- Not Selected ISBN B0051UT73A
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May 2011 William Heinemann (UK) ISBN 1446474674
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Audio

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Audio Cassette
Feb 1996 HarperCollins (UK) ISBN 0001050745
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Large Print

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Hardcover
Dec 1996 ISIS Large Print Books ISBN 0753151618
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