Quiet Violence of dreams, The | General Fiction

K. Sello Duiker

Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English Literature (2002)

The novel is set in Cape Town's cosmopolitan neighbourhoods - Observatory, Mowbray and Sea Point - where subcultures thrive and people with alternative lifestyles are tolerated. The plot revolves around a student at the University of Cape Town named Tsepo. At the beginning of the novel he is an inmate of a mental institution on account of his 'cannabis-induced psychosis'.

He escapes but is returned to the hospital after a relatively uneventful period. He completes his rehabilitation, earns his release and promptly terminates his studies. He works as a waiter and shares an apartment with a newly released prisoner. The relationship with his flatmate deteriorates to the point where Tsepo is physically abused and looses his job at the Waterfront. Under the pseudonym Angelo he finds work at a male massage parlour. The novel explores Tsepo-Angelo's coming to consciousness of his sexuality and sexual orientation.

In a subplot involving Tsepo's student friend Mmabatho a different lifestyle and set of experiences are explored, that of a young black woman who gets involved with a disabled German student who does not want to commit to marriage. Mmabatho ends up expecting his child who, being racially mixed, will not neatly fit into African society.