First published 2003
Silas Ali thought he had buried the past. Twenty years ago, Lieutenant Du Boise locked him in a police van and brutally attacked his wife Lydia as punishment for Silas's work with the African National Congress. Now, as South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission prepares its final report, Silas encounters Du Boise by pure chance on a city street. The sighting shatters the fragile stability the Ali family has built in post-apartheid South Africa. Old wounds tear open, threatening to destroy what little peace Silas and Lydia have managed to create. Their son Mikey, a hip-hop obsessed young man navigating modern South African life, finds himself pulled into conflicts he never expected. The family stands at a crossroads where personal trauma meets national reckoning. Dangor examines how families carry the weight of political violence and whether South Africa's attempts at healing can mend the deepest personal injuries.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, african-literature, contemporary, political-thriller, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, family-trauma, personal-vs-political
Setting: South Africa
Period: 20th-century, post-apartheid
256 pages · Paperback · ATLANTIC BOOKS *
Content warnings: abuse, violence