INNIE SHADOWS

134pp., paperback, Cape Town, 2019

A novel set on the Cape Flats and written in Kaaps dialect, about a community wrestling with the social problems of drug addiction, domestic violence, poverty and homophobia.

"Innie Shadows se karakters klink soos regte mense van die Kaapse Vlakte en voer hul bestaan in die skadu van herkenbare probleme soos dwelmverslawing, huishoudelike geweld, armoede en seksmisdade. Dit is egter ook 'n verhaal oor nuwe vryhede - sensitief vertel op 'n nuwe manier, in 'n nuwe soort stem." Dr Sonja Loots, lecturer in Afrikaans, University of Cape Town

"Olivia M. Coetzee crafts a new language to bring to life stories of dispossession from those left behind in the transition to democracy. Her prose is taut, unsparing and unsentimental. It wrestles with the demons of one community overcome with the social ills of drugs, bigotry and homophobia, where lives intersect through ruthless brutality. This haunting novel will stay with the reader long after the final page is turned. A pioneering work of fiction in which the dispossessed are finally telling their own stories Dr Barbara Boswell, author of Grace, a novel and Associate Professor, Department of English Literature, University of Cape Town

Olivia M. Coetzee was born in Mariental, Namibia, and grew up in Electric City on the Cape Flats. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town.