Outside the Lines

by Ameera Patel

Outside the Lines is a journey through the underbelly of Johannesburg, South Africa and the intimacy of family drama scattered across racial, religious, and class divisions. Drug addict Cathleen is kidnapped and her distracted, middle-class family fails to notice her absence; Zilindile, who services Cathleen’s drug habit, and his Muslim Indian girlfriend Farhana, struggle to make sense of their relationship despite their very different backgrounds; and domestic worker Flora and the silent Runyararo, who was painting Cathleen’s house until accused by Cathleen’s father of stealing, become entangled with romance and criminals, leading to the ultimate tragedy. A taut novel that walks the line between family drama, crime novel, thriller, and black comedy.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Mystery, Literary Fiction, Africa, Crime

164 pages, Paperback

First published March 7, 2016

Reviews

[Bontle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outside the Lines is a particularly fresh and contemporary take on Johannesburg. Characters are fully drawn - not caricatures of cliches - but instead that drunk girl at the party, your friend's domestic worker, that Muslim girl in your accounting lecture. They are all familiar and their stories are unsentimental and authentic. This is much-needed new voice in African literature - eloquent, polished, cool but rooted by a post-Rainbow Nation hangover South Africa seems unable to shake. Look out for more from this author.