Today's review is written by my friend Casey. Casey and I shared an office when I first started working as an admin assistant. I cannot thank her enough for our coffee/chocolate breaks, Nando's lunches and just staring out of windows at the outside world like we were caged mice. Also she is reviewing a South African novel which is great!
Casey Louw
ZOO CITY is written by South African author, Lauren Beukes. It is
part-mystery, part thriller in that the very details of this page-turner
divulge little of the plot and the unpredictability of the book in general
makes this all the more exciting for the reader. It won the 2011 Arthur C.
Clarke Award in 2011 and the 2010 Kitschies Red Tentacle for best novel.
This book is forged around main character, Zinzi December.
The lifeblood of the plot thickens as the reader discovers that each of the
books’ criminals are “animaled” or marked with shame and have to permanently
have an animal in their company. Zinzi’s animal is a sloth that lazes around
her neck as she goes about her daily business. Other hardened criminals each
have a different animal that marks their dark pasts.
The novel takes place in Johannesburg and mores specifically
Hillbrow. Zinzi is “animalled” because she gets into a disastrous situation
where her brother is killed. Zinzi used to be a journalist and is privy to
various addictions which form haunting habits of which she hopes to rid
herself.
The plot thickens as Zinzi owes her dealer
money and has to make ends meet as well as repay the debt. Zinzi is gifted in
that she has the perceptive ability to find peoples’ lost possessions and as
such finds herself entwined in various webs of strangers’ lives in an attempt
to find things they have lost that mean much to them for sentimental or
nostalgic reasons. The storyline gets
juicy when Zinzi gets nudged into the vicarious lives of
a brother and sister pop band, where the sister has strangely disappeared and
is nowhere to be found; much to the distress of those close to her. Zinzi
willingly takes this job as it will be her means to repay the debt she owes to
her dealer.
Here's some more about Casey:
I love to write, any time anywhere. I enjoy a good read
but find little time for it, so when I find a good book I tend to burrow under
a blanket on the couch for a while. I love the outdoors and travelling. I’m at
my happiest around friends and family! I love languages of which I can converse
in German and skate by with Afrikaans, which is terrible as I am half
Afrikaans. I love South Africa where I find my home, for the people - our
ribbon of culture entwined in our talents as artists, musical genies, foodies,
teachers and people bulging with voluptuous artistic ability.
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