The variegated canvas of modern South Africa in a political novel
Modern South Africa, with its entrenched population of people of Indian origin, is probably not as easily understood here as it was during its apartheid days. Back then, black was black and white was white, quite literally—and there were none of the shades of grey contributed by the easy migration of Ethiopians, Pakistanis, Senegalese…and of Chinese commodities. The rainbow nation that the founding fathers of post-apartheid South Africa had wanted has indeed materialized. So have displacement, doubt and despair.
Not surprisingly, the resultant social churning that has disturbed, even destroyed, the status quo for the privileged classes is ripe for the picking in contemporary fiction from South Africa. So it is with Imraan Coovadia’s third novel,
High Low In-between. Set in KwaZulu-Natal, it has already won TheSunday Times (South Africa) fiction award and is in the running for several more prizes.
Full report
here Mint
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