E P Killayne

Qandisa E P Killayne

Qandisa is a love story with a sting in the tail. Peter Chard's chief aim in life is to relieve his sexual urge by indulging in no-strings sexual liaisons with as many girls as he can find willing to accommodate him. As there appears to be no shortage of compliant partners, Peter considers himself a happy man. Women are of little interest to him as people, they are merely conduits for his sexual relief; like buses, there is always another one on her way. Chrissie Lenham is a young woman with a troubled past. She is passionate, outspoken, and a fierce defender of the rights of women to self-determination and emotional fulfilment. She and Peter meet as mature students at University. Initially they clash, but later, improbable bedfellows though they seem, they begin an affair. Now for the first time in his life Peter begins to understand that there is more to a relationship between a man and a woman than the sex act. "Qandisa" tells of a man's painful acquisition of wisdom through the experience of joy and suffering in equal measure, and of a woman's determination to vanquish the demons of her past. Drawing on themes of love and sexuality, of dominance and submission, egoism and selflessness, betrayal and revenge the novel explores the nature of human happiness and the price that must sometimes be paid in its pursuit.