Coconut

3.5 rounded up. You can tell that this is a debut but it's a worthwhile read because of the perspective it provides about growing up in modern South Africa. The characters are relatively young but this didn't read like YA.

Coconut follows two different girls, in basically two seperate stories, whose lives cross in the post apartheid world of South Africa. One a girl who comes from a rich Black family living in white society. She feels comfortable, though she runs into situations where the white kids around her make it clear that she speaks different, looks different. She is slowly losing her culture.
The other story follows another black girl, Fiks, who has become so driven by getting out of the Township and moving into white society that she has become angry and dismissive to the blacks around her.

It is a good book, especially for a first book, about what is like to find yourself in the new south africa. It is a book that attempts to ask many questions. show more What is success? If you find success and move to the suburbs of jo'burg, what is your relationship with the people you left behind? Did it answer them? Some more than others. Good, but not great. show less

Loved this debut novel, I hope she continues to tell stories about growing up here.

Coconut, un titre qui explique tout le livre, le racisme et le besoin d’appartenance, les envies naïves et la dureté du quotidien.

Un journal de deux jeunes sud-africaines à Joburg post-apartheid, l’une plutôt aisée et l’autre issue d’un milieu bien moins favorisé, deux Coconut, noires dehors et blanches dedans…

Un livre un peu plat, lancinant. Mais où est la vie quand s’en va l’espoir, insidieusement