Dodging Cows

Dodging Cows starts in late 1999 with a farmer, Luke Ayres preventing the lynching of a suspected rapist. His farm is on the market subsequent to an attack on his family, and he is contemplating leaving the country. The story traces Ayres' life up to and ultimately beyond this decision.

Part One: Follow the adventures of a young boy growing up on a farm in southern Natal barely aware of a country divided along racial lines

Part Two: Luke falls in love, has a short but tumultuous university career and goes into the army. As a section leader in an infantry company, he sees action in South West Africa and Angola. He loses friends in combat, but more sinister forces break his heart back home.

Part Three: Ten years have passed. Nelson Mandela is released; Apartheid is in its violent death throes. Luke Ayres embraces marriage and fatherhood; South Africa embraces democracy. Criminality replaces repression. There is a brutal attack on the family farm, and Luke fears he may lose all he holds dear again. The final denouement is Ayres' confrontation of the two men, from polar ideologies that have impacted so harshly on his life.