THIS THING CALLED THE FUTURE, a novel

213pp., paperback, Pleasanton, 2019

A young adult novel set in Imbali township outside Pietermaritzburg, about a teenager who is confused about whether witchcraft or AIDS are the cause of her mother's illness.

Winner of the Texas Institute of Letters Best Young Adult Award and the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People.

"Basing her story on detailed research, Powers gets into the shoes of her imagined protagonist and sensitively explores her perceptions. This is a wonderful book with which to think about contemporary South Africa - about the trials of everyday life, about dreams, witchcraft, physical danger, adolescent love, and not least about ambition." William Beinart, author of Twentieth Century South Africa

American writer J. L. Powers lives in California.