Cape Town

by Brenda Hammond

A beautifully written novel about a teen from a conservative Afrikaans family in pre-Mandela South Africa.

Renee convinces her parents into letting her leave their isolated rural community in order to study ballet in the big city — Cape Town.

When she arrives as a student at the University of Cape Town, Renee is initially confident in the Afrikaans’ God-given right to govern, and that giving votes to Blacks would be a disaster. Her existence up to this point has been so isolated that she’s never shared an activity with Black or Coloured (ie mixed race) individuals, unless they were servants.

On campus, the first person who befriends her is Dion, a Coloured dancer who is openly gay, and she quickly falls in love with Andy, who is not only English (considered the devil by her Afrikaans father) but is a human rights activist.

Add to the mix Renee’s brother Etienne, who is an undercover agent for the Afrikaans controlled police-state.

Hammond does a great job in showing the incremental change in Renee’s attitude to the people and politics around her, and as Renee changes, the stakes get higher, with riots and violence all around.

In her personal life, she’s playing a double game, keeping her relationship with Andy a secret from her parents and from her guardian aunt.

It all comes to a head in a page turning way.

Brenda Hammond’s writing is visual and sensual, which is oh so appropriate for a novel about ballet and about an exotic locale.

A great read.