Chatsworth is Pravasan Pillay's debut
short fiction collection and consists of eleven stories set in the sprawling
township of Chatsworth, Durban. The stories are populated mostly by
working-class characters who all, in one way or the other, find themselves on
the margins of their community. There is an elderly mother and her dependent
obese daughter who must fend for themselves; an angst-filled twelve-year-old
girl who secretly chain smokes late at night; a tearful man who is incapable of
passing his driving test; an albino girl who attains a fragile popularity in
high school; a young woman who – against her father's wishes – falls in love
with an immigrant; a seemingly placid pensioner who hides a shockingly violent
side; and a pair of girls who bond over a love letter and hair bleach, among
others.
The
stories present sensitive yet unsentimental portraits of these characters, in
prose that is spare and unadorned. Pillay additionally displays a remarkable
ear for dialogue, and faithfully captures much of the nuance of Durban-Indian
English. Chatsworth is a gentle and moving book about growing up, being
different, but also about failing at adulthood.
140
pages.
ISBN:
978-0-9869982-5-6.
Pravasan
Pillay is a South African writer. He has published two chapbooks of poetry, Glumlazi (2009) and 30 Poems (2015), as well as a collection of co-written comedic
short stories, Shaggy (2013). He is also the editor of the micro-press Tearoom
Books.
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