THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A ROCK 'N ROLL SAILOR, a true story

222pp., illus., paperback, Jonathan Ball Publishers, Cape Town, 2026 

ISBN: 9781776195466

Journalist Diane Coetzer recounts the disappearance of her beloved brother-in-law, Anthony John Murray, and his two crew members when their catamaran yacht was caught in a cyclone in the Indian Ocean in 2015. She discusses the desperate search for answers while battling a hostile corporation, explores ambiguous loss (grief without a body, funeral, or official resolution) and family resilience, and pays tribute to Anthony's wild, untethered, rock-'n'-roll life both on land and at sea, told through his personal writings and voice recordings.

"An exploration of the exquisite, little-understood pain of ambiguous loss" Glyis Horning, author of Waterboy

Diane Coetzer worked as an anti-apartheid reporter and South African correspondent for Billboard and was the founding music editor for Rolling Stone South Africa. Her work has appeared in Sunday Times Magazine, Songlines, Daily Maverick and her own Subtrack.