The noise of unheard voices

Nadia Davids is well known for her plays At Her Feet and Cissie, both of which give energy and authenticity to so-called "coloured" voices - usually used as a foil for humour, otherwise hardly ever heard.

An Imperfect Blessing *****

Nadia Davids (Umuzi, R240)

She carries this off well in An Imperfect Blessing, too. There's nothing inauthentic about her debut novel.

In 1993, Alia Dawood is 14 years old and coming of age politically in Cape Town's Walmer Estate - a mostly Muslim community at the foot of Devil's Peak. She is struggling to understand the momentous events taking place in the country. She feels that she was born in limbo, too late to take part in "the graffiti and the chanting and the defiance ... to know what it felt like to lend flesh to a crowd, to spit at the police, to gather in secret corners at school".

On top of all that, she is going through the usual teen-girl trials of boys and belonging, facing the question of what to wear when going clubbing (does she listen to her older sister Nasreen's surly yet seemingly invaluable advice?) and discovering that her parents, Adam and Zarina, are mere human beings.

The country's political turmoil is reflected in her family, in her relationship with Nick, a Christian boy (ooh, skandaal!) and in her private girls' school which her parents sent her to, to keep her safe.

Though she is the central character and in turn has the self-centeredness that most teens suffer from, it's her uncle Waleed's story that drives the overt politics of the novel. Through him we experience the violence and uncertainty of being a coloured activist in the Western Cape during the 1980s, as well as in the aftermath of Chris Hani's assassination in 1993. Through him we witness the struggle coloured people in the Western Cape had (have?) with identity politics. Through him, we hear why many helped the National Party remain in power in the province in 1994.

The dialogue shines with credibility and reads almost as one of Davids's plays - as do the different scenes, which have the close-up feel of stage sets. You are there in the kitchen with Zarina trying to teach Nasreen how to cook mutton curry; in the streets of Cape Town with Alia, Nasreen and Waleed during a riot after a memorial service for Hani; in a dingy bar in Observatory having a "Heini"; and feeling the pain of a wrecking ball smashing house after house in District Six.

Despite all the political anxiety, An Imperfect Blessing is, as JM Coetzee says in his cover shout, "a novel that is sharp in its insights, yet warm in feeling". It's about family. - Jennifer Platt @Jenniferdplatt