THE SCHOOL GATES

315pp., paperback, Cape Town, 2021

Burnt-out professional dancer, Ella Burchell, moves to a small town on the KwaZulu-Natal coast, where she gets a job teaching dance to children at a for-profit private school.

“Fiona Snyckers is one of the most talented writers South Africa has. I gobbled up The School Gates in a day because I couldn’t put it down. If you’re looking for your next book club read – you just found it.” Gail Schimmel, author of Never Tell a Lie, a novel

“Snyckers has written another page-turning novel which has depth of subject matter and accuracy of its portrayal of the fierce battles for position on the part of the mothers (and fathers) of pupils at private schools.” Janet van Eeden, Litnet

Fiona Snyckers in the author of the novel, Lacuna, winner of the 2020 South African Literary Award for best novel and the NHSS Award for best fiction by a single author. The School Gates is the third in a loose trilogy of novels that includes Now Following and SPIRE. She lives in Johannesburg.