Astonishing, ambitious and fearless sprawl of a novel, this. THIS YEAR'S GREAT AMERICAN NOVELThe Sport of Kings by CE Morgan (Fourth Estate)Astonishing, ambitious and fearless sprawl of a novel, this. Henry Forge, indelibly marked by the patrimony of his wealthy father, a Kentucky tyrant obsessed with the preservation of the family name, dreams of turning the Forge farm into a venue for breeding champion horses - a quest, it turns out, that's as monomaniacal as Ahab's hunt for that white whale. Meanwhile, a young black ex-convict, Allmon Shaughnessy, arrives at the farm, hoping that a job as a groom will free him from poverty. Among the complications he runs into, however, is Forge's daughter, Henrietta. Great lashings of fear, prejudice, class struggles, lust, racism and rage in a beautifully written tale that unfolds against the backdrop of the legacy of slavery.THE ISSUEMeanwhile, an American has had a stab at the Great South African Novel. A former New York Times correspondent, Alan Cowell's political thriller, Permanent Removal (Jacana), takes us back to the darkness of the PW Botha era and, through its protagonist, American diplomat Thomas J Kinzer, explores the events that led up to the murder, in 1985, of UDF activists Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkhonto, Fort Calata and Sicelo Mhlauli, the so-called Cradock Four.The novel is set in the Mandela era, and Kinzer, increasingly haunted by memories of the past, returns to SA to uncover an unsolved mystery, pursue an unexpected romance and come to terms with his own unsuspected role in events that changed the course of history.Permanent Removal, according to the bumf, explores "the painful choices undertaken by many who played a part in the country's real-life transformation - from peaceful activists seeking to join The Struggle, to the business elite who campaigned for change, to the death squad assassins who fought against it."Coincidentally, it was published in the same week in March that Gerhard Lotz, 56, a former Port Elizabeth security policeman who admitted before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission his role in the murder of Goniwe and his comrades, took his own life.Cowell described Lotz and his fellow killers' actions thus: ''They will use the flashing patrol light to force the sky-blue Honda to pull over - an old trick, but it often worked. They will manacle their captives and switch licence plates. They will drive the four men back towards the dunes. In the first instance, there will be knives and bludgeons. Then gasoline to incinerate the bodies and the Honda. Dirty work, but someone had to do it."THE BOTTOM LINE"[The UN monitors] sat drinking coffee after coffee and making jokes about the bar downstairs, which was usually frequented by lithe young Russian girls whom they called 'Natashas'. In a few weeks' time, even the Natashas would flee." - The Morning They Came For Us: Dispatches from Syria by Janine di Giovanni (Liveright)..