Shift

In the year of the 70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter – which outlined the principles of democracy and freedom in South Africa – comes a novel set in the township where it was signed. Shift asks us to examine both the world around us…and ourselves.

Arlie is a moderately successful thirty-something photographer who can’t seem to get his shit together. He can’t hold onto a girlfriend, or much else, and his relationship with his parents is complicated. His agoraphobic mother, Dellie, has long drawn silence over her South African upbringing. The more she refuses to illuminate, the more Arlie wants to know.

After another break-up, Arlie needs to get away, and there’s only one place he’s drawn to. In Kliptown, he meets choirmaster Rufaro, singer Glory and her younger brother Samson. Amidst the poverty, violence and beauty of this neglected South African township, Arlie begins exploring ideas for an exhibition, and courting the possibility of happiness. But then his father unexpectedly turns up, and a catastrophic event changes everything.

Gusty and gripping, tender and deeply compassionate, Shift is a compulsively readable story about the messy process of art-making, and the mess of love and family. It is an unflinching, insightful and immersive novel that takes the reader inside the inner life of one township, beyond the hyperbole of newspaper headlines, to offer bold, big-hearted hope.

‘Evocative, propulsive and heartbreaking, Shift is a novel that can change the way you think.’ – Rochelle Siemienowicz, Double Happiness

‘Seductive, superbly atmospheric and beautifully narrated with a painterly, cinemascope feel, Shift will make your heart race.’ – Niq Mhlongo, The City is Mine

‘Shift is a beautifully written and evocative novel that explores how a place, its people and history can profoundly shape and enrich our world view. An insightful and multi-layered story, Shift will stay with you long after you’ve turned its final page.’ – Emily Brewin, Small Blessings