Trade Paperback, 224 pages RRP: R130, ISBN 1-4152-0003-3 Publication date: March 2006, Category: Fiction Description if you mess with a woman, you mess with a stone. When Nolitye finds a magical stone on the dusty streets of Phola, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, her granny’s words take on new meaning. Armed with the stone, Nolitye leads her friends, the timid and overweight Bheki and the bespectacled Four Eyes, on a quest in which the threesome stand up for the first time to the Spoilers gang, Nolitye can save the life of Rex, the leader of a pack of talking township mutts and dares to look scary MaMtonga with her living brown-and-green snake necklace in the eye. Moving seamlessly between African folklore and a modern realistic setting, K Sello Duiker combines a naïve sense of humour with deep reflection on the vulnerability of children in a hard world. Where are the children that seem to disappear daily from the township? Did Nolitye’s father really die in a mining accident five years ago? How does an empty bucket fill up with fat cakes? And does Ncitjana – The Evil One – really exist? Searching for the truth leads the children through bizarre experiences, frightening confrontations and to a sense of their own personal convictions in a timeless tale that will appeal to adults and children alike. From The Hidden Star, p.113 “Who’s there?” she demands loudly. No one answers.       She keeps walking, nervously looking behind her. In the shrubs and bushes next to the footpath, she can hear the rustling of leaves. .       “Who’s there?” she asks again. Now she hears footsteps, but whomever they belong to remains in the dense bush. She starts running. Whoever it is also starts running. Nolitye runs even faster. She changes direction and cuts into another part of the forest. Now she can hear something running behind her. It is breathing heavily and from the sound of it’s footsteps it must be big. Nolitye tells herself not to look behind her again for fear of what she might see. The creature gets closer with every step she gives. Then she trips over a rock and falls to the ground. She gets up, dazed, and looks around her. There is nothing. .       “Come out wherever you are!” she shouts bravely, even though she is terrified. No one answers. Not even a rustle comes from the trees and bushes around her. She feels smothered by them and looks up at the distant sky. Leaves start rustling nearby as if something is moving again. Nolitye walks backwards, bewildered. She screams as she topples backwards down a hole that burrows into the bowels of the earth. She tumbles down, down until she lies still. It is dark. She gets up, dusts herself off and spits out the dirt that somehow got inside her mouth. She feels her way in the dark; she seems to be in a tunnel. It stinks like someone has left meat to rot. From the reviews … a magical must-read. — Glamour … an African fable interwoven with a really good yarn. — Diane de Beer, Pretoria News Long after his death we will remember K. Sello Duiker as one of the pioneers of what we lazily refer to as post-apartheid literature. — Fred Khumalo, Sunday Times Duiker creatively recasts and reinterprets African folklore and fables. — Saliem Fakir, Business Day Weekender E-mail us a comment on this book. (Comments may be edited and used on this website.) To buy this book www.exclusivebooks.com www.kalahari.net home   writers   books   contact   buy   rights all content © Umuzi, Random House Struik this website designed and maintained by Guanaco.co.za