by André Brink
First published 2010
A white painter arrives at his Cape Town studio to discover a dark-skinned woman and two children on his doorstep. The woman embraces him like a lover. The children rush toward him shouting "Daddy!" He has never seen any of them before, yet they welcome him home as family. Across the city, another white man wakes to find his reflection shows a black face staring back. Meanwhile, a concert pianist works alongside a celebrated singer, falling deeply in love but unable to touch her. When they finally sit down for dinner together, armed men surround their table. These three interconnected stories explore identity and belonging in a country where race determines everything. Each man confronts a reality that defies what he believed about himself and his place in South Africa.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, african-literature, contemporary
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, identity-swap
Setting: Cape Town, South Africa
Period: 20th-century
100 pages · Hardcover · Meulenhoff