The article considers the concept of ‘home’ and its experiential application in relation to Michiel Heyns’s novel, Lost Ground. A prize-winning novel in South Africa, Lost Ground has taxed interpretation. Is it a detective novel, a novel of ‘gay’ relationships, or a novel of oblique rather than direct political observations on ‘post-apartheid’ South Africa? I argue that the novel is all the above, but tangentially. More centrally, I argue that Lost Ground explores commitment and non-commitment to both a home place and a place of exile; that Heyns is too subtle a novelist to promote an either/or response to a situation which, at least in the narrative, subjects despair to a muted redemption. If the protagonist does not find a home on his ‘home visit,’ neither does he find equanimity in his thoughts of a return to London. Yet, his experience in his brief return to the town of his earlier life grants him fresh insight into his own vulnerability.

中文翻译：

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谁的“失地”？局外人的方面

这篇文章考虑了“家”的概念及其在 Michiel Heyns 的小说《迷失之地》中的经验应用。一部在南非获奖的小说《失落的土地》(Lost Ground) 诠释了繁重的解释。它是一部侦探小说，一部关于“同性恋”关系的小说，还是一部关于“后种族隔离”南非的倾斜而非直接政治观察的小说？我认为小说是上述所有内容，但切线。更重要的是，我认为《失落的土地》探讨了对家乡和流放地的承诺和不承诺；海恩斯是一个过于微妙的小说家，无法促进对一种情况的非此即彼的反应，至少在叙事中，使绝望成为一种无声的救赎。如果主角在他的“家访”中没有找到家，那么他在返回伦敦的想法中也不会平静。然而，