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Nineveh
An elegant and evocative novel about people, place – and pests – by one of South Africa’s most exciting writers.
Katya Grubbs, like her father before her, deals in ‘the unlovely and unloved’. Yet in contrast to her father, she is not in the business of pest extermination, but pest relocation.
Katya’s unconventional approach brings her to the attention of a property developer whose luxury estate on the fringes of Cape Town, Nineveh, remains uninhabited thanks to an infestation of mysterious insects. As Katya is drawn ever deeper into the chaotic urban wilderness of Nineveh, she must confront unwelcome intrusions from her own past.
This third novel by the award-winning Rose-Innes confirms her reputation as one of South Africa’s most noteworthy literary voices.
Katya Grubbs, like her father before her, deals in ‘the unlovely and unloved’. Yet in contrast to her father, she is not in the business of pest extermination, but pest relocation.
Katya’s unconventional approach brings her to the attention of a property developer whose luxury estate on the fringes of Cape Town, Nineveh, remains uninhabited thanks to an infestation of mysterious insects. As Katya is drawn ever deeper into the chaotic urban wilderness of Nineveh, she must confront unwelcome intrusions from her own past.
This third novel by the award-winning Rose-Innes confirms her reputation as one of South Africa’s most noteworthy literary voices.
207 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2011
8 people are currently reading
952 people want to read
About the author
Henrietta Rose-Innes
24 books100 followersHenrietta Rose-Innes is a South African writer based in Cape Town. Her novel Nineveh was published by Random House Struik in 2011, following a short-story collection, Homing and two earlier novels: Shark's Egg and The Rock Alphabet.
In 2012, her short story 'Sanctuary' took second place in the BBC International Short Story Competition. Nineveh was shortlisted for the 2012 Sunday Times Fiction Prize and the M-Net Literary Award. In 2008, Henrietta won the Caine Prize for African Writing, for which she was shortlisted in 2007. Also in 2007, she was awarded the South African PEN Literary Award. Shark's Egg was shortlisted for the 2001 M-Net Book Prize.
Her short stories have appeared in various international publications, including Granta, AGNI and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011. A collection of short pieces, translated into German, was published in September 2008 as Dream Homes.
In 2012, her short story 'Sanctuary' took second place in the BBC International Short Story Competition. Nineveh was shortlisted for the 2012 Sunday Times Fiction Prize and the M-Net Literary Award. In 2008, Henrietta won the Caine Prize for African Writing, for which she was shortlisted in 2007. Also in 2007, she was awarded the South African PEN Literary Award. Shark's Egg was shortlisted for the 2001 M-Net Book Prize.
Her short stories have appeared in various international publications, including Granta, AGNI and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011. A collection of short pieces, translated into German, was published in September 2008 as Dream Homes.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
November 15, 2016
Katya Grubbs is the owner of Painless Pest Relocations, a humane pest control company. A successful pest removal at the home of property developer Martin Brand earns her the opportunity to tackle the pest problems at Nineveh, Brand's residential sanctuary for the wealthy in the middle of bustling Cape Town, South Africa. The mysterious "gogga" has invaded the gated paradise, making it uninhabitable. The job is more challenging than expected because there are no obvious signs of an infestation. As Katya searches for any clue related to the hidden bug problem, she also has to address the past that she's attempted to distance herself from.
Katya is a complex and irritable character. She got her start in the pest control industry by working for her father's extermination business, but they are now estranged. She eschews attachments and hates change. Her relationship with her sister Alma is difficult because of their unconventional childhood. Their undependable, dishonest father never gave them the opportunity to put roots down anywhere and both sisters are marked with scars from the past. The sisters live completely opposite lives as adults. Alma has settled down into a manicured community with her perfect family, while Katya lives alone in controlled chaos. It's in her family where Katya begins to search for signs of her father escaping his boundaries, as she seeks hints of the Grubbs' bloodline in their features.
Katya's living space seems to be falling apart around her, in large part because of a new development being constructed across the street. The job at Nineveh requires Katya to stay on the premises and she is immediately attracted to the sterile and controlled environment. She feels as if “these volumes of coolly defined space” were "dreamed up out of her own cluttered mind." But as a pest control expert, she knows there is always something lurking under the surface. Despite the aggressive attempts to create a gated-off haven in Nineveh, the outside world keeps creeping in. Katya begins to pay attention to the many different worlds that exist on top of each other in South Africa. Her experience at Nineveh also causes her to reassess instances of childhood neglect that she had always viewed as accidents. She realizes the world in in a constant state of flux and questions the futility of keeping everything in its proper place. She begins to accept the inevitability of change and stops forcing herself fit into a specific mold.
This short book will be interesting for anyone who likes strange, character-driven stories with atmospheric settings that are an integral part of the story. The descriptions of nature and architecture give us insight into Katya’s state of mind. Her family issues, professional struggles, personal growth, and the world around her are all intertwined. I usually prefer more human interaction, so the abundance of descriptive settings and inner reflection were sometimes a little too much for me. A scene at the end was so descriptive and almost unreal that I lost my ability to visualize. Even so, I loved the strangeness and the complexity of Katya’s story. The author is brilliant! All the interwoven layers would reward a reread and a discussion. This isn't science fiction, but I think fans of Lauren Beukes (Slipping) and Helen Phillips will appreciate the uniqueness of this author's work.
___________________
I received this book for free from NetGalley and Gallic Books/Aardvark Bureau. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. This edition will be published November 15, 2016.
Caterpillars, like migrating wildebeest - very slow, small ones - have a strong herding impulse. They sense a stirring, they start to push. Perhaps they feel some dim invertebrate anxiety: that the swarm has not yet been consummated, that this is not the right tree, that a better tree awaits, that they will be left behind. This is as far as her study of caterpillar psychology goes.
Katya is a complex and irritable character. She got her start in the pest control industry by working for her father's extermination business, but they are now estranged. She eschews attachments and hates change. Her relationship with her sister Alma is difficult because of their unconventional childhood. Their undependable, dishonest father never gave them the opportunity to put roots down anywhere and both sisters are marked with scars from the past. The sisters live completely opposite lives as adults. Alma has settled down into a manicured community with her perfect family, while Katya lives alone in controlled chaos. It's in her family where Katya begins to search for signs of her father escaping his boundaries, as she seeks hints of the Grubbs' bloodline in their features.
[Katya looking through a book that compares old photos of Cape Town to how it looks now:] "Each person snapping the shutter had been trying to fix the city as it was, but there is no fixing such a shifting, restless thing as a discontented city. If you strung these pictures together in a giant flip-book, or put them together to make a jerky film reel, year on year, the city would be hopping and jiggling, twitching and convulsing in a frenzy of urban ants-in-the-pants. Colonial cities are itchier than most, no doubt, fidgeting in the sub-Saharan light; harsh, even in a sepia world.
Katya's living space seems to be falling apart around her, in large part because of a new development being constructed across the street. The job at Nineveh requires Katya to stay on the premises and she is immediately attracted to the sterile and controlled environment. She feels as if “these volumes of coolly defined space” were "dreamed up out of her own cluttered mind." But as a pest control expert, she knows there is always something lurking under the surface. Despite the aggressive attempts to create a gated-off haven in Nineveh, the outside world keeps creeping in. Katya begins to pay attention to the many different worlds that exist on top of each other in South Africa. Her experience at Nineveh also causes her to reassess instances of childhood neglect that she had always viewed as accidents. She realizes the world in in a constant state of flux and questions the futility of keeping everything in its proper place. She begins to accept the inevitability of change and stops forcing herself fit into a specific mold.
She likes to put distance between herself and her father. It’s necessary, she thinks, for both of them. She is like a ball of string unravelling, always connected, but lighter the further she goes.
This short book will be interesting for anyone who likes strange, character-driven stories with atmospheric settings that are an integral part of the story. The descriptions of nature and architecture give us insight into Katya’s state of mind. Her family issues, professional struggles, personal growth, and the world around her are all intertwined. I usually prefer more human interaction, so the abundance of descriptive settings and inner reflection were sometimes a little too much for me. A scene at the end was so descriptive and almost unreal that I lost my ability to visualize. Even so, I loved the strangeness and the complexity of Katya’s story. The author is brilliant! All the interwoven layers would reward a reread and a discussion. This isn't science fiction, but I think fans of Lauren Beukes (Slipping) and Helen Phillips will appreciate the uniqueness of this author's work.
Everything’s in motion, changed and changing. There is no way to keep the shape of things. One house falls, another rises. Throw a worn brick away and someone downstream will pick it up and lay it next to others in a new course in a new wall – which sooner or later will fall into ruin, giving the spiders a place to anchor their own silken architecture. Even human skin, Katya has read, is porous and infested, every second letting microscopic creatures in and out. Our own bodies are menageries. Short of total sterility, there is no controlling it.
___________________
I received this book for free from NetGalley and Gallic Books/Aardvark Bureau. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. This edition will be published November 15, 2016.
August 15, 2018
This book has been on my to-read shelf for so long that I can't remember why I bought it. I found it very enjoyable - fresh, funny, readable, gripping and thought-provoking.
The unconventional heroine is the decidedly unglamorous Katya Grubbs, who runs her own humane pest control business in Cape Town with her young nephew.
She finds herself called in by Brand, a property developer whose luxury apartment development Nineveh has been stalled by a mysterious plague of stinging beetles. Katya has her own problems with her unscrupulous father, a more traditional pest controller who was previously been employed at Nineveh and is still lurking and creating trouble.
The whole thing builds to a satisfying conclusion and its central imagery of grandiose modernity being undermined by a mixture of rampant nature and downtrodden humanity works at an allegorical level too. A very promising and original book - I will certainly read more by Rose-Innes.
The unconventional heroine is the decidedly unglamorous Katya Grubbs, who runs her own humane pest control business in Cape Town with her young nephew.
She finds herself called in by Brand, a property developer whose luxury apartment development Nineveh has been stalled by a mysterious plague of stinging beetles. Katya has her own problems with her unscrupulous father, a more traditional pest controller who was previously been employed at Nineveh and is still lurking and creating trouble.
The whole thing builds to a satisfying conclusion and its central imagery of grandiose modernity being undermined by a mixture of rampant nature and downtrodden humanity works at an allegorical level too. A very promising and original book - I will certainly read more by Rose-Innes.
November 21, 2016
Nineveh is an unusual novel that is quite short but feels much longer and quite dense.
I don't recall ever reading anything written by a South-African author or with a South African setting, which is quite strange. I've definitely never read anything that involved pest relocators/controllers. That was quite new and interesting. Unless you suffer from insectophobia, in which case, stay away.
The main character, Katya Grubbs, is a Painless Pest Relocator, who's attempting to get rid of what's considered vermin, by catching and releasing in other places. She's an unusual woman, a bit of a loner, partly due to her rough upbringing. She's become a pest controller, just like her father, whom she is estranged from.
This is a somewhat allegorical novel, with an environmental message, about the destruction man causes to the environment and to the many creatures, big and small.
South Africa's dysfunctional socio-economical structures and functions are apparent.
There are some beautiful descriptive passages and the writing has merit. At times, though, the novel sags and lags, nothing happens, and you wait and wait for Katya to discover those insidious bugs that she was hired to find in Nineveh, a new housing development that apparently swarms with some mysterious insects. Nineveh seems fantastical and surreal. Some strange things occur.
Nineveh is an interesting novel, with a gripping premise, setting and characters, and some excellent writing, but uneven in parts. But it was different enough that it made me curious to read something else writte Rose-Innes.
3.5 stars
I've received this novel via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publishers, Gaalic Books, for the opportunity to read and review this novel.
Cover: 5 stars
I don't recall ever reading anything written by a South-African author or with a South African setting, which is quite strange. I've definitely never read anything that involved pest relocators/controllers. That was quite new and interesting. Unless you suffer from insectophobia, in which case, stay away.
The main character, Katya Grubbs, is a Painless Pest Relocator, who's attempting to get rid of what's considered vermin, by catching and releasing in other places. She's an unusual woman, a bit of a loner, partly due to her rough upbringing. She's become a pest controller, just like her father, whom she is estranged from.
This is a somewhat allegorical novel, with an environmental message, about the destruction man causes to the environment and to the many creatures, big and small.
South Africa's dysfunctional socio-economical structures and functions are apparent.
There are some beautiful descriptive passages and the writing has merit. At times, though, the novel sags and lags, nothing happens, and you wait and wait for Katya to discover those insidious bugs that she was hired to find in Nineveh, a new housing development that apparently swarms with some mysterious insects. Nineveh seems fantastical and surreal. Some strange things occur.
Nineveh is an interesting novel, with a gripping premise, setting and characters, and some excellent writing, but uneven in parts. But it was different enough that it made me curious to read something else writte Rose-Innes.
3.5 stars
I've received this novel via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publishers, Gaalic Books, for the opportunity to read and review this novel.
Cover: 5 stars
January 2, 2020
Nineveh by Henrietta Rose-Innes is an unusual story that can function as an allegory.
Katya Grubbs is a young woman who has taken over her estranged father’s pest control business in Cape Town. Unlike her father who has no qualms about squashing or otherwise obliterating pests, Katya believes in the more humane form of pest elimination. She captures the unwanted pests and relocates them to agreeable surroundings. More comfortable with insects than people, Katya is a loner, socially adrift, and lives in a crumbling hovel. Her skin, dotted with insect bites and scars, is a tell-tale sign of her profession. Her internal scars are tell-tale signs of growing up with an alcoholic, dishonest, and abusive father who denied his family a permanent home; a mother who mysteriously disappeared when Katya was a small child; and a sister who ran away.
Katya is hired by a property developer to rid his luxury gated community, euphemistically named Nineveh, of elusive insects—a type of beetle whose periodic emergence coincides with the rains. The infestation is severe enough to bring construction to a screeching halt. Katya spends a few nights on the property but can find no trace of these insects. And then the rains come. Thousands of beetles mysteriously emerge, invading the property overnight. They crawl up and down walls, into buildings, in and out of gutters, through cracks, and up trouser legs. Every nook and cranny harbors a multitude of creepy crawlers. Katya recognizes their overwhelming numbers render futile any attempt to control them. Her father re-enters her life to help but proves more of a hindrance than a help.
The novel can be read as an allegory that sets up parallels between humans and insects overstepping their boundaries. Nineveh initially exudes a fortress-like security, surrounded by walls, gates, two guards, and a dog. Access to parts of the compound is restricted to those with fingerprint clearance. But Katya soon discovers the security is illusory. Bathroom tiles, copper pipes, furniture, and other odds and ends are routinely smuggled out of the compound through a network of underground tunnels to be sold in the nearby shanty town. Katya’s father is the culprit. He wades through swamp-like underground areas, teeming with insect and amphibian life, to climb up walls, pass through cracks, and enter through windows. He sells what he steals.
Katya concludes although walls and gates may act as a temporary deterrence, they cannot permanently keep out those determined to enter. Similarly, tame landscapes, manicured lawns, and pest control companies cannot indefinitely deter insects and pests. Attempts to relocate or restrict any life form to its designated space is futile. Boundaries of separation are fluid. Movement and flux are inevitable. Something or someone will find a way to burrow into a vacant space so that no space is vacant for long.
Rose-Innes’ prose is lush, rich in detail, and highly effective in evoking an atmosphere of the tumult lurking beneath the surface. Whether it is insects or pests, details of a traumatic childhood, outsiders denied access, or even political movements fermenting underground, sooner or later all will surface in the prohibited space to make their presence felt.
An original story, brilliantly executed, and highly recommended.
My book reviews are also available at www.tamaraaghajaffar.com
Katya Grubbs is a young woman who has taken over her estranged father’s pest control business in Cape Town. Unlike her father who has no qualms about squashing or otherwise obliterating pests, Katya believes in the more humane form of pest elimination. She captures the unwanted pests and relocates them to agreeable surroundings. More comfortable with insects than people, Katya is a loner, socially adrift, and lives in a crumbling hovel. Her skin, dotted with insect bites and scars, is a tell-tale sign of her profession. Her internal scars are tell-tale signs of growing up with an alcoholic, dishonest, and abusive father who denied his family a permanent home; a mother who mysteriously disappeared when Katya was a small child; and a sister who ran away.
Katya is hired by a property developer to rid his luxury gated community, euphemistically named Nineveh, of elusive insects—a type of beetle whose periodic emergence coincides with the rains. The infestation is severe enough to bring construction to a screeching halt. Katya spends a few nights on the property but can find no trace of these insects. And then the rains come. Thousands of beetles mysteriously emerge, invading the property overnight. They crawl up and down walls, into buildings, in and out of gutters, through cracks, and up trouser legs. Every nook and cranny harbors a multitude of creepy crawlers. Katya recognizes their overwhelming numbers render futile any attempt to control them. Her father re-enters her life to help but proves more of a hindrance than a help.
The novel can be read as an allegory that sets up parallels between humans and insects overstepping their boundaries. Nineveh initially exudes a fortress-like security, surrounded by walls, gates, two guards, and a dog. Access to parts of the compound is restricted to those with fingerprint clearance. But Katya soon discovers the security is illusory. Bathroom tiles, copper pipes, furniture, and other odds and ends are routinely smuggled out of the compound through a network of underground tunnels to be sold in the nearby shanty town. Katya’s father is the culprit. He wades through swamp-like underground areas, teeming with insect and amphibian life, to climb up walls, pass through cracks, and enter through windows. He sells what he steals.
Katya concludes although walls and gates may act as a temporary deterrence, they cannot permanently keep out those determined to enter. Similarly, tame landscapes, manicured lawns, and pest control companies cannot indefinitely deter insects and pests. Attempts to relocate or restrict any life form to its designated space is futile. Boundaries of separation are fluid. Movement and flux are inevitable. Something or someone will find a way to burrow into a vacant space so that no space is vacant for long.
Rose-Innes’ prose is lush, rich in detail, and highly effective in evoking an atmosphere of the tumult lurking beneath the surface. Whether it is insects or pests, details of a traumatic childhood, outsiders denied access, or even political movements fermenting underground, sooner or later all will surface in the prohibited space to make their presence felt.
An original story, brilliantly executed, and highly recommended.
My book reviews are also available at www.tamaraaghajaffar.com
October 13, 2016
I was invited to read an advance copy of this novel by the publisher, which was furnished to me via NetGalley. I have read several recent publications by Gallic Books and I recommend their catalog whole-heartedly. Many of their writers are new to me. I will be eternally grateful because they introduced me to the dark noir stories of Pascal Garnier, which I have collected and am currently reading slowly so as to not run out too quickly. Sort of like eating all the chocolates in a box one per day just to make them last.
The Biblical city of Nineveh is famous for both its disobedience to God as well as its repentance—a study in contrasts. Rose-Innes’ fascinating novel is as well. Katya and her sister grew up basically homeless, carted around by their alternatively abusive and engaging father, who was a pest exterminator, and who has since left their lives. The two sisters have responded differently to their chaotic upbringing. While her sister has rebelled by embracing order and family unity, Katya, who follows in her father’s profession and perhaps more, remains adrift, without relationships, without much in terms of possessions, living in a chaotic hovel that threatens to fall down about her. She resists, at times violently, any attempt to order her world.
Then she gets a chance, through her work, to live in the modern Nineveh, in this case a new housing development in South Africa that is a study in perfection and order on the edge of wild and unruly nature. It offers all things to all people. But all is not right here. There are the bugs. Sheets of them. Oceans of them. Biblical plague quantities of them. Katya must clean out Nineveh or leave, a failure.
She is torn. She rejects attachment to people or things, but she is drawn to Nineveh and the promise of a clean, luxurious place to live, even if temporarily, because it stills a chaos inside her. And strangely enough, she can’t find any bugs—although she knows they are there, somewhere beneath the surface. Actually there is more beneath the surface, both in Nineveh and in herself, that needs finding, and it is only when she breaks through the thin veneer, both in the buildings and in herself, that the past in the form of her dark and dangerous father—and the bugs--invade in waves.
This novel would be ideal for a group discussion. Seldom has a writer taken me so far into a protagonist’s thoughts, motives, and fears. Rose-Innes’ character are masterfully drawn and their development is both realistic as well as enlightening. The layers of metaphor and symbolism in this novel would provide fuel for a group reading or a literature class even as it provides a wonderful and entertaining story. The South-African voice and setting made this novel even more interesting to me, although the themes are certainly universal—siblings, coming to grips with a parent’s neglect and even violence, and processing all of this to develop our own world view and perspective.
The bugs were wicked cool too…
I would like to thank Gallic books for allowing me to read and review this very fine novel.
5 stars.
The Biblical city of Nineveh is famous for both its disobedience to God as well as its repentance—a study in contrasts. Rose-Innes’ fascinating novel is as well. Katya and her sister grew up basically homeless, carted around by their alternatively abusive and engaging father, who was a pest exterminator, and who has since left their lives. The two sisters have responded differently to their chaotic upbringing. While her sister has rebelled by embracing order and family unity, Katya, who follows in her father’s profession and perhaps more, remains adrift, without relationships, without much in terms of possessions, living in a chaotic hovel that threatens to fall down about her. She resists, at times violently, any attempt to order her world.
Then she gets a chance, through her work, to live in the modern Nineveh, in this case a new housing development in South Africa that is a study in perfection and order on the edge of wild and unruly nature. It offers all things to all people. But all is not right here. There are the bugs. Sheets of them. Oceans of them. Biblical plague quantities of them. Katya must clean out Nineveh or leave, a failure.
She is torn. She rejects attachment to people or things, but she is drawn to Nineveh and the promise of a clean, luxurious place to live, even if temporarily, because it stills a chaos inside her. And strangely enough, she can’t find any bugs—although she knows they are there, somewhere beneath the surface. Actually there is more beneath the surface, both in Nineveh and in herself, that needs finding, and it is only when she breaks through the thin veneer, both in the buildings and in herself, that the past in the form of her dark and dangerous father—and the bugs--invade in waves.
This novel would be ideal for a group discussion. Seldom has a writer taken me so far into a protagonist’s thoughts, motives, and fears. Rose-Innes’ character are masterfully drawn and their development is both realistic as well as enlightening. The layers of metaphor and symbolism in this novel would provide fuel for a group reading or a literature class even as it provides a wonderful and entertaining story. The South-African voice and setting made this novel even more interesting to me, although the themes are certainly universal—siblings, coming to grips with a parent’s neglect and even violence, and processing all of this to develop our own world view and perspective.
The bugs were wicked cool too…
I would like to thank Gallic books for allowing me to read and review this very fine novel.
5 stars.
November 17, 2016
Katya Grubbs runs a Cape Town pest service with a difference: she doesn’t kill the wasps, pigeons and feral cats her customers report; she relocates them. Her humane approach contrasts with her estranged father Len’s old-fashioned extermination business. One day Katya meets Mr Brand, who has a larger project to propose. An infestation has delayed the opening of Nineveh, his high-end residential development; he hires Katya to find out how the beetles are getting in. Insects and the notion of metamorphosis are certainly physical facts in the novel, but at the same time they provide a metaphorical link to Kafka. The offbeat look at a dysfunctional family is wryly funny, as when Katya muses that she could title her memoirs “Life among the Vermin.” This brief, strange novel, Henrietta Rose-Innes’s third, asks how we cope with life’s unavoidable changes.
My full review appeared in Stylist magazine’s Book Wars column on 8 November 2016.
My full review appeared in Stylist magazine’s Book Wars column on 8 November 2016.
September 18, 2016
Easy to say I loved this book, more difficult to explain quite why. It is certainly unusual. It comes down to the overwhelming sense of futility of trying to control wild things - landscape (and its teeming wildlife) and people. Solid, engaging characters and relationships for sure, but the 5 stars are on account of the quite brilliant setting and atmosphere.
With thanks to Gallic Books/Aardvark and NetGalley for my copy. I'm so glad her work is being published in the UK - I'm impatient to get my hands on her next book.
With thanks to Gallic Books/Aardvark and NetGalley for my copy. I'm so glad her work is being published in the UK - I'm impatient to get my hands on her next book.
June 15, 2016
Este libro lo terminé hace unos días y ya siento que extraño a los personajes. Me encantó el estilo descriptivo de la autora pues siempre da una sensación de mayor intimidad entre el lector y Katya, la protagonista. Varios conflictos (modernidad vs origen, posturas raciales, coloniales, la identidad, las relaciones filiales) se hilan en una historia simple: el combate de una plaga en un lujoso complejo arquitectónico. Fue una sorpresa agradable que me ha dejado un excelente sabor de boca.
March 4, 2020
There is so much stuffed in this little book and it becomes so dense, so cluttered and clumsy that trudging through it all becomes a chore. Still, Innes gives us a brilliant little story about a dysfunctional family, a perpetually irritated woman and bunch of allegories.
The MC here has a pest control agency. Her deal is that she relocates her pests and at the start of the book she is called to investigate an infestation at a gated community. It is at this moment the allegory to Kafka's metamorphosis become absolutely clear but Innes goes far deeper than that. It isn't just that. We are also here for these little creatures finding their own footing in the grand scheme of things. We are here for modern South African socio-environmental impacts and development that has displaced many animals and, well, insects.
I do wish there were moments that paused a little bit more and reduce the pages where nothing much happened. For a short book, this is tedious. Also, for a short book, it took me longest to read.
The MC here has a pest control agency. Her deal is that she relocates her pests and at the start of the book she is called to investigate an infestation at a gated community. It is at this moment the allegory to Kafka's metamorphosis become absolutely clear but Innes goes far deeper than that. It isn't just that. We are also here for these little creatures finding their own footing in the grand scheme of things. We are here for modern South African socio-environmental impacts and development that has displaced many animals and, well, insects.
I do wish there were moments that paused a little bit more and reduce the pages where nothing much happened. For a short book, this is tedious. Also, for a short book, it took me longest to read.
September 22, 2025
Este ha sido uno de esos libros que al final me djan con la pregunta "que se supone que lei?que sentido tenia esta lectura?"
Y entiendo el transfondo de la relacion de Katya y su padre y su trabajo y sus decisiones de vida. Y que toda la historia de Ninive y los escarabajos es solo el escenario.
Pero al final sigo sin saber
2.54 stars
Y entiendo el transfondo de la relacion de Katya y su padre y su trabajo y sus decisiones de vida. Y que toda la historia de Ninive y los escarabajos es solo el escenario.
Pero al final sigo sin saber
2.54 stars
February 1, 2020
A twisted tale about the life that is crawling in the dark corners, underneath and how the ground beneath you may not be as solid as it seems. Actually it may not be there at all. About bug, rodents, pigeons and all the animals we label pests. And the humans, we regard much in the same way, living in parks and in dark street corners. And the families we love and hate and have complicated relationships with. And houses and cars and life (and lots of caterpillars & beetles).
It is an odd tale of who we are, who we want to be, and how we got there.
It is an odd tale of who we are, who we want to be, and how we got there.
February 13, 2017
well, I inhaled that book in just over an hour...
November 16, 2020
A fabulous book. Part allegory, part eco-criticism, Rose-Innes manages to unsettle you from the get go, raising the hair on your arms and the back of your neck and heightening your nerves. You don't know why you're on edge, only that the tension is building, and that something disquieting—allegory? some seething supernatural force?—is leaking through every crack and pore.
July 16, 2017
(4 stars, rounded up because it's a small press novel)
Henrietta Rose-Innes is a beautiful writer and I was lulled by the lush prose in this novel. It's quiet, but lovely.
Henrietta Rose-Innes is a beautiful writer and I was lulled by the lush prose in this novel. It's quiet, but lovely.
November 11, 2013
Henrietta Rose-Innes has written a well-crafted and fascinating book about people living in the new South Africa. Katya is a humane pest-controller working in an about-to-be-opened luxury estate, Nineveh, which is threatened by two kinds of infestations. The insects are unpleasant, but it is the humans that are the real problem (and no, they are not squatters).
Obviously, it would be unfair to give away too much of the plot, but it is safe to say that Katya's relationship with her employer, her family, her co-workers and her neighbours is at the very heart of this tale of conflict, reconciliation, and adapting to the new realities of life, whatever they are and however they have come about.
If you want to discover an exciting author, new to readers in the UK, this book will deliver what you are looking for.
Obviously, it would be unfair to give away too much of the plot, but it is safe to say that Katya's relationship with her employer, her family, her co-workers and her neighbours is at the very heart of this tale of conflict, reconciliation, and adapting to the new realities of life, whatever they are and however they have come about.
If you want to discover an exciting author, new to readers in the UK, this book will deliver what you are looking for.
June 14, 2017
3.5 rounded up
A funny little book, the novel itself isn't very long but the writing is quite dense. The story follows Katya, a pest "relocator" who lives in Cape Town, who gets called to solve the problem of an insect infestation at a new high end apartment complex on the edge of town. This admittedly doesn't sound like the best or most exciting plot for a novel, but I found myself totally immersed in the writing, and the author created a great sense of atmosphere.
This is one of those novels where it's hard to pinpoint exactly what I liked about it, but I would really recommend checking this one out!
A funny little book, the novel itself isn't very long but the writing is quite dense. The story follows Katya, a pest "relocator" who lives in Cape Town, who gets called to solve the problem of an insect infestation at a new high end apartment complex on the edge of town. This admittedly doesn't sound like the best or most exciting plot for a novel, but I found myself totally immersed in the writing, and the author created a great sense of atmosphere.
This is one of those novels where it's hard to pinpoint exactly what I liked about it, but I would really recommend checking this one out!
December 5, 2017
Spooky and atmospheric.
October 30, 2017
For someone that hates bugs as much as I do, this would not be the ideal selection. Curiously, I didn't mind the bugs at all, and there are quite a few of them.
Katya Grubbs (quite a good name for someone in the pest business) is not an exterminator, as she values the lives of the creepers and crawlers she is called to erase from this earth, but a relocator, taking them where they will thrive and live happily ever after, without bothering any humans.
Her father was also in the business, but a traditional exterminator and quite a nasty human being.
When Katya is hired by a local (and very rich) businessman to eradicate the pests in an estate he constructed (the Nineveh of the title), she is faced with a huge problem. The whole place is uninhabitable due to some very strange bugs. To her surprise, her father was involved before her in this, which is not good news.
Good plot, good characters, a very good book from a new to me author.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Katya Grubbs (quite a good name for someone in the pest business) is not an exterminator, as she values the lives of the creepers and crawlers she is called to erase from this earth, but a relocator, taking them where they will thrive and live happily ever after, without bothering any humans.
Her father was also in the business, but a traditional exterminator and quite a nasty human being.
When Katya is hired by a local (and very rich) businessman to eradicate the pests in an estate he constructed (the Nineveh of the title), she is faced with a huge problem. The whole place is uninhabitable due to some very strange bugs. To her surprise, her father was involved before her in this, which is not good news.
Good plot, good characters, a very good book from a new to me author.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
April 6, 2020
This was an ideal book to read in Corona virus lockdown! The heroine Katya Grubb, unlovely and unloved in green overalls is immersed In Pests of all kinds and traverses her strange isolated life and unlikely occupation running ‘Painless Pests Relocation’ This takes her to contrasting sites and clients. She has remote relationships with her organized middle class sister and her coworker nephew. Her notorious rough,lawless estranged father is a larger than life character in the book. The author has an amazing gift for description not only of characters but also of place: squalor, filth, wild nature and degradation alongside manicured parklike gardens with large dwellings. Opulence contrasting with the stark modern pristine architecture of Nineveh where most of the action takes place. I found this book visual rather than plot driven but it leaves much to think about The transience of human constructs, building developments and lifestyles overtaken by invasions of nature and natural events.
March 24, 2017
Definitely the best book about a South African pest control worker that I'll ever read.
Sometimes it's just nice to loose yourself in someone else's sensibility. I liked being Katya. I liked the way she observes her nephew, her sensitivity to space and sensation, her soft spot for creepy crawlies. I've never read a South African novel before, but the setting was evocative without piling on the kind of cultural detail that plucks me out of the book and sets me reading Wikipedia articles instead.
This was a sensuous, relaxing evening read which I savoured chapter by chapter.
Sometimes it's just nice to loose yourself in someone else's sensibility. I liked being Katya. I liked the way she observes her nephew, her sensitivity to space and sensation, her soft spot for creepy crawlies. I've never read a South African novel before, but the setting was evocative without piling on the kind of cultural detail that plucks me out of the book and sets me reading Wikipedia articles instead.
This was a sensuous, relaxing evening read which I savoured chapter by chapter.
October 25, 2020
Strange book and weird story, but nonetheless captivating. Rose-Innes wrote multilayered book, about hidden places and stories, about what's below the surface but matters most in the end.
I am not sure what to think of it though. Neither of how to interpret it as an "allegory of a troubled nation" as mentioned on the back flap.
I am not sure what to think of it though. Neither of how to interpret it as an "allegory of a troubled nation" as mentioned on the back flap.
January 23, 2024
No me gustan los libros con descripciones largas pero Nínive hace que valga la pena. Sus descripciones son demasiado necesarias para enviarnos al mundo de los insectos, "los de abajo", las plagas. Es una lucha entre lo pulcro y lo sucio, entre el resplandor y la oscuridad. La mejor parte es que todo, todo está lleno de belleza.
May 15, 2019
an enjoyable read.
August 15, 2022
The first half of the novel feels great as a reader: strong characters, unresolved family trauma, a pest removal job in a mysterious decaying luxury residence. The narrative gleams with opportunities at this point, and often a sentence reminds you of the author's intelligence and talent. Unfortunately the second half of the novel - the return of lost protagonists, rushed and confused action sequences and a convenient epilogue - severely disappoints. There are ideas that could have worked so well given the setup of the plot and of the setting, but instead we are left with a low-stake ending where the tension that the author successfully weaved is entirely gone.
July 23, 2017
I liked this book but I also expected the beetles to be magical or fantastical in some way. In fact they are a Metaphor. As long as you know this going in, you will not suffer from unmet expectations.
February 5, 2017
Sexily apocalyptic, impressively plotted, and profoundly creepy-crawly. I was fascinated by the themes of civilization vs. wilderness, and the cracks in walls and floors that we don't peer through, the underground worlds and layers that we don't notice.
March 19, 2017
Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Actually 3.5 Stars
This story is about family and dealing with your past. Katya has a lot of that to do. Growing up her father was a renowned pest-exterminator, but not a good person. Still she decided to follow into his footsteps, but instead of killing the insects she captures and relocated them. She thought she was done with her past, that she had dealt with it (mostly at least), but her childhood days still haunt her. Nineveh, a luxury estate in work, has been invaded by the mysterious "gogga" (an afrikaans word for all types of insects and bugs). This insect however knows how to make itself rare and on her search for the insect, Katya has to search her past as well.
While I've read a couple of books set in South Africa already, I've never read one about pest-extermination, nor about pest-relocation. This was definitely a very interesting book.
My first thought was that I really liked the cover and it fits the story nicely.
Katya is a fascinating main character. She is very complex and interesting. She hates change and is glad to have found a place to stay, after her father kept moving with his children when she was young. She prefers to be alone and doesn't have many attachments. Her house is bare. Her relationship with her sister is barely existent, the strongest bond they have is through Katya's nephew, who helps Katya with her work sometimes. She prefers insects over people. Because of this not much time is spent with human interaction and rather focused on her thoughts, feelings and discoveries of her past (for example that her father, who she as kid just thought of as strikt, was actually abusive towards her sister and her.)
At times this was too much for me and took away from my enjoyment of the book. However Rose-Innes built a fascinating world with lovely landscapes, so I could enjoy it. I normally don't mind character centric stories but in this case it sometimes felt too much. There also were some scenes that dragged quite a bit, so despite it being a very short book I took a while to read it (and even longer to writer this review). The characters however stayed with me and the writing was truly wonderful.
Actually 3.5 Stars
This story is about family and dealing with your past. Katya has a lot of that to do. Growing up her father was a renowned pest-exterminator, but not a good person. Still she decided to follow into his footsteps, but instead of killing the insects she captures and relocated them. She thought she was done with her past, that she had dealt with it (mostly at least), but her childhood days still haunt her. Nineveh, a luxury estate in work, has been invaded by the mysterious "gogga" (an afrikaans word for all types of insects and bugs). This insect however knows how to make itself rare and on her search for the insect, Katya has to search her past as well.
While I've read a couple of books set in South Africa already, I've never read one about pest-extermination, nor about pest-relocation. This was definitely a very interesting book.
My first thought was that I really liked the cover and it fits the story nicely.
Katya is a fascinating main character. She is very complex and interesting. She hates change and is glad to have found a place to stay, after her father kept moving with his children when she was young. She prefers to be alone and doesn't have many attachments. Her house is bare. Her relationship with her sister is barely existent, the strongest bond they have is through Katya's nephew, who helps Katya with her work sometimes. She prefers insects over people. Because of this not much time is spent with human interaction and rather focused on her thoughts, feelings and discoveries of her past (for example that her father, who she as kid just thought of as strikt, was actually abusive towards her sister and her.)
At times this was too much for me and took away from my enjoyment of the book. However Rose-Innes built a fascinating world with lovely landscapes, so I could enjoy it. I normally don't mind character centric stories but in this case it sometimes felt too much. There also were some scenes that dragged quite a bit, so despite it being a very short book I took a while to read it (and even longer to writer this review). The characters however stayed with me and the writing was truly wonderful.
October 14, 2016
Katya is a humane pest controller in South Africa. She learnt her craft from her father. They have a difficult relationship and are currently estranged but when she is asked to perform a difficult assignment on a luxury development, Nineveh, she senses his influence at play.
The thread that runs through Nineveh is the search for ‘home’. Katya’s unstable father kept his family constantly on the move and she has struggled to settle. Her sister escaped his influence early and has immersed herself in suburban family life. The developer of Nineveh strives to create perfection, insulated from the poverty that surrounds his development.
The plot is slightly jagged and unresolved, but that’s okay in what is an offbeat story. My difficulty with this book is the sheer amount of description. The author writes beautifully, giving a fresh perspective on everyday experiences. But just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should. Not all the time.
When Katya visits a high-powered client at his office we accompany her through the lobby, up in the lift, along the corridor…We find out how it feels to have a bath and to walk to the mall. We’re never teleported from one place to another but always have to plod there in real time, like the unedited footage from a headcam.
Despite these reservations, this book does stay with you. The pest metaphor is a powerful one. Who decides who gets to live within the walls, and who must be kept out, distanced, even destroyed? How does the outsider, despite everything, find a niche and survive?
Nineveh is definitely worth a read, but you might want to skim a bit.
*
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley.
The thread that runs through Nineveh is the search for ‘home’. Katya’s unstable father kept his family constantly on the move and she has struggled to settle. Her sister escaped his influence early and has immersed herself in suburban family life. The developer of Nineveh strives to create perfection, insulated from the poverty that surrounds his development.
The plot is slightly jagged and unresolved, but that’s okay in what is an offbeat story. My difficulty with this book is the sheer amount of description. The author writes beautifully, giving a fresh perspective on everyday experiences. But just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should. Not all the time.
When Katya visits a high-powered client at his office we accompany her through the lobby, up in the lift, along the corridor…We find out how it feels to have a bath and to walk to the mall. We’re never teleported from one place to another but always have to plod there in real time, like the unedited footage from a headcam.
Despite these reservations, this book does stay with you. The pest metaphor is a powerful one. Who decides who gets to live within the walls, and who must be kept out, distanced, even destroyed? How does the outsider, despite everything, find a niche and survive?
Nineveh is definitely worth a read, but you might want to skim a bit.
*
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley.
October 25, 2020
Nineveh is a story about uninhabitable places. Already at the beginning Katya lives in a house whose cracks in its walls become larger and larger due to works on a construction site across the road. As Katya yearns for a solid place to settle in for good, Nineveh becomes her object of desire, a place to live in that seems to be well-structured and undisturbed by the outside world. But Nineveh is not what it seems and Katya is not the type to inhabit a place...
The novel contains beautiful writing: people and objects are compared to flora and fauna and the characters are well drawn - while reading you can smell Katya and her father!
The first half of the novel is full of implications hinting at secrets in Katya's past (a mother mysteriously vanished, the father gone, too). Also, Nineveh seems to hide mysterious insects.
The second half of the novel, however, had some lengths and fell a bit flat as the answers to the implications were rather commonplace. This is the reason for me to only give it 3.5 stars.
For me personally, the novel reads as an allegory of accepting oneself - it becomes more and more obvious, that there is a strong resemblance between Katya and her father. Though she thinks him unbearable and has also suffered by his behaviour towards her as a child she has a similar behaviour towards other people.
Nineveh being built on swampland is destined to crumble before even being inhabited - the swamp people take over in the end and Katya having accepted her true character can lead a life independent of buildings prone to cracking...
The novel contains beautiful writing: people and objects are compared to flora and fauna and the characters are well drawn - while reading you can smell Katya and her father!
The first half of the novel is full of implications hinting at secrets in Katya's past (a mother mysteriously vanished, the father gone, too). Also, Nineveh seems to hide mysterious insects.
The second half of the novel, however, had some lengths and fell a bit flat as the answers to the implications were rather commonplace. This is the reason for me to only give it 3.5 stars.
For me personally, the novel reads as an allegory of accepting oneself - it becomes more and more obvious, that there is a strong resemblance between Katya and her father. Though she thinks him unbearable and has also suffered by his behaviour towards her as a child she has a similar behaviour towards other people.
Nineveh being built on swampland is destined to crumble before even being inhabited - the swamp people take over in the end and Katya having accepted her true character can lead a life independent of buildings prone to cracking...
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