Last Saturday evening saw the Cape Town launch of CA Davids’ debut novel, The Blacks of Cape Town at the District Six Homecoming Centre hosted by The Book Lounge. Mervyn Sloman opened the evening and welcomed the guests. I was delighted to learn that he loves The Blacks of Cape Town and has been hand-selling it. Henrietta Rose-Innes engaged with Carol-Ann in a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion about her novel. It was a wonderful treat to have Henrietta do the honours. Having the launch at the Homecoming Centre was particularly apt for both the author who is from Cape Town, but doesn’t live here at present, and also for the book which is about a Cape Town family affected by the past, by apartheid and the choices made by members of the family.
A visiting Canadian who came to the launch at Mervyn’s invitation from the store, praised the novel, in Q and A time, saying it spoke to him as a Canadian and a North American, that many of the issues raised and the way the novel is written were important to him, especially given the way the First Peoples of Canada have been treated. He described the novel as having “a deep and sensual melancholy” and he was interested in the way the novel immediately makes our institutionalised obsession with race apparent.
Attending the launch made me want to re-read the novel, which I did. This is a novel that unravels its secrets slowly and surely, it is about diamonds, greed, betrayal, sex, loss, grief, family, as well as the anguish of exile, about the pressures of apartheid and how these pressures are still alive and how they make themselves known now, in 2013. The book weaves the story of the past and the present together and for those of who live in and love or hate Cape Town, it is an important book, because it gives us a new look into this city from a new perspective. I’m proud to have published this book.
Book details
- The Blacks of Cape Town by CA Davids
EAN: 9781920590383
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