"THE GOOD CEMETERY GUIDE is set against the background of Anthony Loxton's lonely childhood.
Anthony lives in Kalk Bay, a small seaside town, with his mother, Ma, and fulfils his role as the third-generation funeral director at the Loxton Funeral Parlour. Events unfold on a daily basis, drawing together the living and the dead in unexpected ways. Facing the prospect of a bleak dutiful future, he conducts a secret parallel existence as Tony the Fox, louche guitarist who plays at a local music bar and has brief unsatisfactory liaisons with women who frequent the locale.
When a nubile one-night-stand (Lily) makes a dramatic appearance in a body bag at the funeral parlour his two worlds collide. Anthony breaks the cardinal unspoken rule of the funeral business by getting 'involved' in the last stage of Lily's life, knowing that nothing can ever be the same again."
The Good Cemetery Guide can be pre-ordered (available September 09) from amazon.com
Consuelo Roland is a writer of narrative fiction with a passion for stories, films, photographs, animals, gardens and the world of nature. She is married, has a son at university, 3 dogs, a cat and a parrot. Ron Irwin is her agent. Consuelo lives in Cape Town, and The Good Cemetery Guide is her first novel. It made the short list for the Sunday Times fiction prize in 2006.
Consuelo's website is: goodcemeteryguide.com: