Zoo City – Lauren Beukes (Jacana, 2011)

Zoo City – Lauren Beukes (Jacana, 2011)
Zoo City – Lauren Beukes (Jacana, 2011) Lauren Beukes' second novel, Zoo City, is a journey through an alternate Johannesburg, where those who have committed crimes are "animalled" - joined to an animal companion whose life becomes entwined with theirs. Protagonist Zinzi December, animalled to a sloth after killing her brother years earlier, finds lost items and writes 419 scams to pay off her nefarious debts but must now attempt to find redemption by trawling the fetid alleyways of her city in search of a missing teenage pop star. Beukes' world-building is expansive and detailed, and Joburg readers will particularly be drawn to her descriptions of their own city, twisted as though seen through a cracked mirror. She won the Arthur C Clarke 2011 award for the book.

Zoo City – Lauren Beukes (Jacana, 2011)

Lauren Beukes' second novel, Zoo City, is a journey through an alternate Johannesburg, where those who have committed crimes are "animalled" - joined to an animal companion whose life becomes entwined with theirs. Protagonist Zinzi December, animalled to a sloth after killing her brother years earlier, finds lost items and writes 419 scams to pay off her nefarious debts but must now attempt to find redemption by trawling the fetid alleyways of her city in search of a missing teenage pop star. Beukes' world-building is expansive and detailed, and Joburg readers will particularly be drawn to her descriptions of their own city, twisted as though seen through a cracked mirror. She won the Arthur C Clarke 2011 award for the book.