Welcome to our Hillbrow of milk and honey and bile...
... all brewing in the depths of our collective consciousness... Got this book from a South African literature list, because I would visit Cape Town (from Brazil) and I wanted a modern, post-apartheid look to the society there. That's what I got from Mpe's book, and so much more. The prose is beautiful, almost poetic in its subtle repetition of themes that begin to sound more and more familiar. The most obvious example is the title theme, "welcome to our" and ranges as far as from rural Tiragalong to Heaven. And apart of those and Johannesburg, Alexandra and Oxford, so many towns could fit, for so many are the destinations of those who leave home for a dream. The narrative also flows effortlessly, sometimes addressed to one or another character, sometimes describing a story inside the story, and with moments of free stream that well illustrate the magnitude of matters discussed and the sheer honesty of its content. The story, on the other hand, is not beautiful, but painfully human. it's about xenophobia and AIDS, rape and suicide, but even more about the most human wishes and choices (and usually mistakes), and about how and why we so often end up rushing our departure from this world. It's also about the sadly interrupted lives of young Africans, who could be anything provided our world had a place for everyone. Provided we could really live the whole world, as sons and daughters of the earth that we actually are. Since that's not the case, this story becomes an unsurprising tragedy, but written with master's pen that made it, for me, a very grateful surprise. Highly recommended for anyone interested in modern literature, touching and beautiful book.