Verdict: carrot
With the news that K Sello Duiker’s novels are set for translation into several languages, BOOK SA finds this review of Thirteen Cents by Grace Kim very timely. Kim is new to the SA Lit reviewing scene; see also her piece on of Yvette Christiansë’s Unconfessed.
It is always a jarring to read a novel based in a place with which you are familiar. Turning pages, you smile to yourself as you read descriptions of places that you walk through every day. And as you read about what the fictional characters do there, you are reminded of your own experiences within and the history of that space, recognizing in the literary realm something of the real world. Sometimes the place is captured so realistically that when you find yourself walking past the actual statue, or coastal ocean view later that day, you wonder if that boy you just passed was the basis for one of the main characters, or if that man sitting with a pen and notebook on the bench is the author. When I learned that Thirteen Cents was about Cape Town, I became excited to see what K. Sello Duiker had to write about a city I love very much. But it did not take long for me to realize that this was a Cape Town I was neither familiar with, nor desired to know.
Book Details
Please register or log in to comment
