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    Zebra Crossing
    Unavailable
    Zebra Crossing
    Unavailable
    Zebra Crossing
    Ebook196 pages2 hours

    Zebra Crossing

    By Meg Vandermerwe

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Ghost. Ape. Living dead. Young Chipo has been called many names, but to her mother Zimbabwe ’s most loyal Manchester United supporter she had always just been Chipo, meaning 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 albino. Soon Chipo is caught up in a get-rich-quick scheme organized by her brother and the terrifying Dr Ongani. Exploiting gamblers’ superstitions about albinism, they plan to make money and get out before rumors of looming xenophobic attacks become reality. But their scheming has devastating consequences.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOneworld Publications
    Release dateMar 1, 2014
    ISBN9781780744315
    Unavailable
    Zebra Crossing
    Author

    Meg Vandermerwe

    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.

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    Reviews for Zebra Crossing

    3.5/5

    6 ratings1 review

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    • 4/5
      “A border is where you swap home for hope”.Chipo and her brother George , have moved from their home in Zimbabwe to Cape Town, South Africa, dreaming of better job prospects and a better life than in their own country. They now live in a crowded flat with other Zimbabweans, in a building with people from all over their continent. Life is hard for people with only a temporary asylum permit (and hopeless without that bit of paper). George can only find menial work similar to what he had at home, and things aren’t much better for Peter and David whose room they are sharing. It is 2009 though, and the World Cup is coming soon – they will find something, things will get better. Zebra Crossing is a thought-provoking story – Chipo describes her mum, now dead, a lively Manchester United fan. She observes all the people around her, though sometimes there is a gap between her view of people and the reality. There are moments of humour, and moments when the irony is rather too painful to be funny to the reader, as Meg Vandermerwe writes of the inequalities in Cape Town, of the competition between those at the bottom of this society, and as Chipo meets a quack who claims he can cure her albinism, and at the same time schemes with her brother to use her to make money.This was an interesting first novel .