BLOT, a novel

149pp., paperback, Batis, Edinburgh, 2026

ISBN: 9781918073065

The new Director of the Bureau of Dead Letters is behaving strangely -  what is his agenda, and is he too unstable to be trusted as chief censor, reviewing the nation's most sensitive materials?

"De Villiers's hero comes from a long line of petty bureaucratic tyrants, but his Nabokov-flavoured prose is a joy to read." J. M. Coetzee

"Blot will appeal to those who delight in language. Its Kafkaesque protagonist may work for the Bureau of Dead Letters but his story is lively, artful and full of surprises. Rick de Villiers’ debut novel is invigoratingly original." David Medalie

Rick de Villiers was born in Pretoria in 1985. He teaches English at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. Blot is his debut novel.