Irma will be talking about her new book 'Shift'
In the year of the 70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter – which outlined the principles of democracy and freedom in South Africa – comes a novel set in the township where it was signed. Shift asks us to examine both the world around us…and ourselves.
Arlie is a moderately successful thirty-something photographer who can’t seem to get his shit together. He can’t hold onto a girlfriend, or much else, and his relationship with his parents is complicated. His agoraphobic mother, Dellie, has long drawn silence over her South African upbringing. The more she refuses to illuminate, the more Arlie wants to know.
After another break-up, Arlie needs to get away, and there’s only one place he’s drawn to. In Kliptown, he meets choirmaster Rufaro, singer Glory and her younger brother Samson. Amidst the poverty, violence and beauty of this neglected South African township, Arlie begins exploring ideas for an exhibition, and courting the possibility of happiness. But then his father unexpectedly turns up, and a catastrophic event changes everything.
Gusty and gripping, tender and deeply compassionate, Shift is a compulsively readable story about the messy process of art-making, and the mess of love and family. It is an unflinching, insightful and immersive novel that takes the reader inside the inner life of one township, beyond the hyperbole of newspaper headlines, to offer bold, big-hearted hope.
Find out more:
https://ballaratmi.org.au/talks/
You may also like the following events from Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute:
- This Saturday, 21st June, 04:00 am, Ballarat National Theatre, Season 2, 'Next Fall' in Ballarat
- Next Wednesday, 25th June, 08:00 am, In conversation with Kylie Ladd in Ballarat
- Next month, 8th July, 03:00 pm, Author Talk | J.S. Davidson/Ella Stone - Ballarat Winter Festival in Ballarat
Also check out other
Music events in Ballarat,
Exhibitions in Ballarat,
Arts events in Ballarat.
