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BOOK: The Child by Alistair Mackay (Kwela Books)
When I realised The Child was written in the first person, I immediately kept an eye open for the narrator’s name. But, as with Tshidiso Moletsane’s Junx – wait, no, never mind, you’ll have to read the book for that one.
The novel begins with the protagonist packing to move. The logistical details (sliding mattresses down staircases, getting rid of furniture and appliances) make it immediately relatable. He’s a white gay man who, after having a mental breakdown in New York, decides to return to Cape Town with his husband, Adrian. They reunite with domestic worker Sibongile ("Sibs"), who has a daughter named Buhle; they also begin the process of adopting (they plan to name her "Khanyo" if they get a girl). At the end of the book, I see the story wink at something like faith, that psychic glue of imagination and ritual by which the human psyche roots itself in cosmic context and continuity.
