The Smell of Apples

infobox Book |
name = The Smell of Apples
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Mark Behr
cover_artist =
country = South Africa
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = Queillerie (RSA), Abacus (UK)
release_date = 1993
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 200 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-349-10756-4

"The Smell of Apples" is a 1993 debut novel by South African Mark Behr, also published in the same year in Afrikans as "Die Reuk van Appels".

Mark Behr describes the Afrikaner mentality and in apartheid South Africa as seen through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy called Marnus, the son of an Army General.

The Smell of Apples won the M-Net Award and the Eugene Marais Prize and the Betty Trask Award in the United Kingdom

There is also a movie based on the book planned for a release in 2009, starring Julian McMahon and Gillian Anderson

Plot summary

Marnus Erasmus is a young boy growing up in South Africa during the time of apartheid. His father is a general in the South African army and a firm believer in the apartheid system. Marnus has been taught to always tell the truth and consequently represents innocence. Marnus and his father have a very close relationship, they go skinny dipping together in the sea, go fishing and share the shower cubicle at home. Marnus' best friend is Frikkie and he has always been scared of Marnus' father. The reason why Frikkie has always been afraid of Marnus's father is not explained until the end of the novel.

A guest comes to stay at Marnus' house. He is a general from Chile and there is an undertone of military secrets and deals between Marnus' father and the general. Marnus suspects the general is flirting with his sister and begins to spy on him at night and, looking through a crack in the flooring in his upstairs bedroom, believes he sees his sister's reflection in the general's mirror. The next night Marnus again spies on the general's room. He sees a man he thinks is the general sodomising Frikkie. Marnus’ world is shattered when he discovers that the man is actually his father, and not the general. Despite knowing the truth, Marnus keeps it to himself and never reveals what he knows to his mother. In the last pages of the novel, his sister tries to approach him about what is truly happening, but Marnus demands she leave his room.

The book shows the hypocrisy in both the political world and in family relationships and describes how a loving father and national hero can harbour secret paedophilic desires.

In a parallel plot line Marnus is a lieutenant in the army and fights in the Angolan war.