Josh, a young South African poet, loses his soul mate to a drug overdose. Incapable of dealing with her death, he seeks out the supernatural and visits a traditional African faith healer. The faith healer empathizes with him and makes a deal, giving him what she calls the “gift of seduction.” She urges him to seduce others to distract him from his pain. As one seduction dissolves into the next, Josh develops into a master, but the pain lingers and scars him.
When his sister, Sally, is diagnosed with end stage lung disease, there is no money for her hospital bills nor for an operation, forcing Josh to think of an extreme strategy to make money. With the help of brothel owner Captain Morgan, Josh sets himself up as a “Relationship Wrecker”: a professional disruptor of romantic relationships. He is hired by parents who don’t approve of their children’s partners, wives attempting to curb their husband’s adulterous affairs and by husbands trying to gain an advantage in divorce proceedings. As Josh juggles the responsibilities of his new job with his family commitments, his conflict with ghetto gangsters and his sense of morality, his journey transforms into something dangerous, revelatory and utterly unpredictable.
Author: Jason Staggie
Genre: Transgressive/Literary fiction
Status: Unpublished, Edited manuscript
Rights: All rights available
Words: 70,000