Zebra Crossing

by Meg Vandermerwe

Overview

Ghost. Ape. Living dead. Young and albino, Chipo has been called many things, but to her mother – Zimbabwe’s most loyal Manchester United supporter – she had always been a gift.

On the eve of the World Cup, Chipo and her brother flee to Cape Town, hoping for a better life and to share in the excitement of the greatest sporting event ever to take place in Africa. But the Mother City’s infamous Long Street is a dangerous place for an illegal immigrant and an albino. Soon Chipo is caught up in a get-rich-quick scheme organised by her brother and the terrifying Dr Ongani. Exploiting gamblers’ superstitions about albinism, they plan to make money and get out of the city before rumours of looming xenophobic attacks become a reality. But their scheming has devastating consequences.

Set in the underbelly of a pulsating Cape Town, Meg Vandermerwe’s Zebra Crossing is an arresting debut and a bold, lyrical imagining of what it’s like to live in another person’s skin.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780744315
Publisher:	Oneworld Publications
Publication date:	03/01/2014
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	755,198
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Meg Vandermerwe was born in South Africa in 1978. She read English at Oxford University and holds Masters degrees from the universities of Sussex and East Anglia. She teaches English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of the Western Cape, and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.
Meg Vandermerwe was born in South Africa in 1978. She read English at Oxford University and holds Masters degrees from the universities of Sussex and East Anglia. She teaches English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of the Western Cape, and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

Editorial Reviews

02/01/2014
The plight of immigrants crossing borders on the quest for a better future is starkly rendered in this first novel from Vandermerwe. Orphaned siblings George and Chipo, holding no papers and scant money, risk the journey from Zimbabwe to South Africa, where friends Peter and David will harbor them. But President's Heights, the shabby, ironically named high-rise in Cape Town where the four share one room, proves to be a sinister place, and foreigners without work permits pay dearly for the landlord's silence. Life for Chipo, born with the pale skin and sensitive eyes of an albino, scarcely improves as she cooks and cleans for the three men. The only consolation is time spent with David, whose kindness toward her she misinterprets, with disastrous consequences. George, meanwhile, resents being relegated to menial restaurant work and hatches a money-making scheme that cruelly exploits his sister's condition and the superstitions that surround it. Vandermerwe's concise prose and sensitive portraits illustrate the dangers of an underground economy in a country where xenophobia pits immigrant against immigrant in a desperate bid for survival. VERDICT What at first appears to be a novel of aspiration shockingly devolves as each character submits to his darker nature in an attempt to get what he desires. Another disturbing entry in the burgeoning African diaspora genre.—Sally Bissell, Fort Myers, FL

Library Journal

‘Will linger long in the memory after reading…Vandermerwe's narrative is stark and rapid, skilfully redolent of Africa. She channels the voice of Chipo to strong effect, capturing the very real situation around her while at the same time illustrating her naïve view of events and environment’

Jewish Chronicle

'Zebra Crossing is one of the very best works of socially conscious fiction produced in 2013, one that provides ample evidence of tremendous literary ability and a fine understanding of form.'

Litnet.co.na

'A chilling must-read.'

Sindiwe Magona

"Will linger long in the memory after reading..Vandermerwe's narrative is stark and rapid, skilfully redolent of Africa. She channels the voice of Chipo to strong effect, capturing the very real situation around her while at the same time illustrating her naive view of events and environment." - Jewish Chronicle

"Soccer, superstition and scams all go hand in hand in this inventive novel. Vandermerwe's tale of the naive and retiring Chipo's unrequited love is complicated - and made more interesting - by the context of immigrants seeking a better life amid the dangerous political shoals of Africa. Chipo's perpetual outsider status, and the way she is viewed with suspicion wherever she goes, makes an effective metaphor for the plight of the unwanted immigrant. The result will definitely stay with the reader." - Booklist

"A chilling must-read that works us up from a habit that allows for so many to suffer only because they are different." — Sindiwe Magona

"Zebra Crossing reminds readers that cities often present a very different face when the world is watching. Vandermerwe elegantly conjures the unpleasant underbelly of a familiar moment in recent history, while managing to avoid heavy-handed moralizing. Chipo amounts to more than her chances of redemption, and Zebra Crossing is a story for outsiders anywhere." Emma Page, bookseller at Wellesley Books in Wellesley, Mass, Shelf Awareness

From the Publisher