The Elliott Bay Book Company

Description

This dazzling portrait of Johannesburg is one ofthe most haunting, poetic pieces of reportageabout a metropolis since Suketu Mehta'sMaximum City. Through precisely crafted snapshots, Ivan Vladislavic observes theunpredictable, day-today transformation of hisembattled city: the homeless using manholes ascupboards, a public statue slowly cannibalizedfor scrap. Most poignantly he charts the small, devastating changes along the postapartheidstreets: walls grow higher, neighborhoods aregated off, the keys multiply.Security-insecurity?-is the growth industry.Vladislavic, described as "one of the mostimaginative minds at work in South Africanliterature today" (Andre Brink), delivers "oneof the best things ever written about a great, if schizophrenic, city, and an utterly truepicture of the new South Africa" (ChristopherHope).