The Hunters, book review: ‘The moral turpitude of colonialism unfolds’

‘Riveting’: The Hunters by Kat Gordon. Photograph: Sarah Birch

The inter-war years have long fascinated – the toppling of established moral orders, economic gyrations and reconfigurations of geopolitics.

And this period has particular resonance today when political polarisation is again rising to alarming levels.

Set in inter-war Kenya, Kat Gordon’s second novel The Hunters is a rich and riveting coming-of-age story shot through with passion and betrayal.

Cut emotionally adrift by a fierce mother and a father absorbed by his job running the colony’s railway, the beautiful and impulsive 14-year-old Theo Miller becomes plaything of the dashing ‘Happy Valley set’, a group of decadent aristocrats whose focus lies almost exclusively on bodily pleasures.

Gradually the moral turpitude of colonialism unfolds and Theo has to recover his moral compass.

The Hunters is an excellent summer read – enthralling and thought-provoking at the same time.

The Hunters by Kat Gordon is published by the Borough Press.

RRP: £14.99.

ISBN: 9780008253066.

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