Anne Ousby

The Leopard Man Anne Ousby

Quent Byrant and the Cape leopard are endangered species, both fighting for survival in the new South Africa. Raki van de Venter is Quent?s partner and mother of his child. She has been raised in a strict religious household and endured ten years of a loveless marriage before meeting Quent and falling desperately in love. When he dumps her she struggles on alone and destitute on Pig?s Snout Kloof. Their stories run parallel to each other. The badly injured Quent is holed up in Raki?s kloof house while a group of men toil up the mountainside towards him. The climb will take two hours and in this time Quent recalls his life. Increasingly delirious, his ability to remember wavers. Did he abandon Raki and disown his child? Did he ?steal? the last leopard on the kloof and sell her? Did he kill a child in cold-blood? A boy called Tabo? Quent is alone in the kloof house. Raki is in Cape Town where her son is undergoing urgent medical treatment. At last the men surround Quent but they are wary of him. The Leopard Man has a fierce reputation. Maybe it?s too late for Quent but there?s still hope for Raki and her son. Something of the Leopard Man is worth preserving and Raki has a secret ? a secret she will share with her son.