Shadow Game

by Michael Power

'A web of laws had been spun to keep us apart'. So writes rising young Ray, public relations man for the Organisation, who is falling in love against all the taboos - with Victor, the country's most popular deejay, on Radio Bantu.

Genres: LGBT, Gay

167 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

A straight-forward, believable and gripping story about the brutal impact of apartheid on human relationships.

[ALEARDO ZANGHELLINI · Rating 5 out of 5]

After a string of middling reads, what a pleasure to land on this. Half its beauty lies in the tremendously effective, clipped writing style — though there are a couple of places where this is overdone and I couldn’t quite make out the meaning or follow the train of thoughts! The treatment of the interracial relationship is honest and unsentimental, and rings very true. There’s no attempt at masking the fact that the mutual attraction of the main characters has to do with (though it’s not reducible to) their respective whiteness and blackness. But it’s all carried off with great intelligence. You might say the book assumes a white audience, but I think it’s more accurate to say that, the narrative voice being that of a white man, the experience it tells may be more relatable if you identify as white. Either way, this is a deeply satisfying read.