Taiwan– September 16, 2026 – South African-born author Julian Redwood introduces readers to a chilling world of buried trauma, contested inheritance, and psychological terror in The Goat of Magalies, a rural noir thriller set between South Africa and Taiwan.
Marie Botha has always known that her childhood home, an isolated farm outside Magaliesburg, South Africa, was a cage. Her older brother, Jacob, was a charismatic prodigy obsessed with power and protected by their deeply religious mother, who believed he had been spiritually chosen. Yet the farm held another disturbing presence: Bok, an eerie black-and-gray goat that appeared during moments of terror and left Marie with a haunting warning: “Home is where you owe something.”
Determined to escape, Marie builds a new life in Taiwan and tries to bury everything the farm represents. Years later, her father’s failing health draws her back to South Africa, where she discovers that Jacob, now a revered preacher, is systematically taking control of the family estate.
Using scripture, legal manipulation, and the assistance of a mysterious nurse with a dark past, Jacob tightens his grip on their aging mother. When Marie’s mother dies under suspicious circumstances, a newly rewritten will strips Marie of her inheritance and raises troubling questions about forgery, coercion, and murder.
Caught in a web of family secrets and generational trauma, Marie must challenge her brother’s carefully constructed image and uncover what truly happened. As the shadows of the farm close in, she must also confront the mystery of Bok. Is the goat an ancient supernatural curse, a manifestation of Marie’s deepest fears, or a symbol of the human darkness Jacob is capable of creating?
Blending psychological suspense with the stark atmosphere of rural South Africa, The Goat of Magalies examines how faith can be weaponized, how power corrupts intimate relationships, and how the past continues to demand payment from those who try to escape it.
Amazon reviewer Jarred Davidson describes the novel as “A great read and very well written, metaphorically intricate, allegorically rich yet highly accessible and digestible.”
Readers can purchase The Goat of Magalies by Julian Redwood through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
About the Author
Julian Redwood is a South African-born writer living in Taiwan. Raised in the university town of Potchefstroom, he developed a lifelong fascination with the landscapes, histories, and hidden tensions of rural South Africa. His fiction explores the psychological forces that shape families and communities, often examining the intersections of memory, belief, power, and place. In The Goat of Magalies, Redwood draws upon the atmosphere of the South African countryside to create a suspenseful and unsettling story about inheritance, identity, and the cost of confronting the past.
Learn more about Julian Redwood on Goodreads.
Media ContactCompany Name: Literary TitanContact Person: Julian RedwoodEmail: Send EmailCountry: TaiwanWebsite: http://readandlore.com
