Bitter Eden

For this posthumously published novel, South African writer Afrika, who died in 2002, drew on his own experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II to explore the sexual feelings that can develop among ostensibly straight POWs. The story is narrated by Tom Smith, a South African soldier captured by the German army in North Africa in 1941 and sent to various camps in Italy and Germany. At first, he is looked after by fellow prisoner Douglas Summerfield, who makes Tom’s welfare his top priority. Then Tom meets another POW, the English tank crewman Danny, who stirs Douglas’s jealousy. Tom and Danny become close, though they don’t become lovers, as the war’s end nears and their German guards develop itchy trigger fingers. Amid the deprivations of camp life, Tom passes the time by taking roles in amateur theatricals put on by Tony, an openly gay prisoner, who convinces him to play Lady Macbeth. Afrika has done an excellent job of foregrounding a theme that was only a subtext in previous POW novels like James Clavell’s King Rat and Laurens Van der Post’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. This is a short novel that manages to encompass a great many emotions while plumbing the multiple contradictions of its title. (Feb.)