Zebra Crossing

February 1, 2014

The plight of immigrants crossing borders on the quest for a better future is starkly rendered in this first novel from Vandermerwe. Orphaned siblings George and Chipo, holding no papers and scant money, risk the journey from Zimbabwe to South Africa, where friends Peter and David will harbor them. But President's Heights, the shabby, ironically named high-rise in Cape Town where the four share one room, proves to be a sinister place, and foreigners without work permits pay dearly for the landlord's silence. Life for Chipo, born with the pale skin and sensitive eyes of an albino, scarcely improves as she cooks and cleans for the three men. The only consolation is time spent with David, whose kindness toward her she misinterprets, with disastrous consequences. George, meanwhile, resents being relegated to menial restaurant work and hatches a money-making scheme that cruelly exploits his sister's condition and the superstitions that surround it. Vandermerwe's concise prose and sensitive portraits illustrate the dangers of an underground economy in a country where xenophobia pits immigrant against immigrant in a desperate bid for survival. VERDICT What at first appears to be a novel of aspiration shockingly devolves as each character submits to his darker nature in an attempt to get what he desires. Another disturbing entry in the burgeoning African diaspora genre.--Sally Bissell, Fort Myers, FL

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2014
Soccer, superstition, and scams all go hand in hand in this inventive novel. The teenage Chipo, an albino with a penchant for finding connections through rhyming words, flees Zimbabwe with her brother to Cape Town, just before the 2010 World Cup. Their countdown to the tournament takes on a menacing tone as they hear foreigners will be kicked out, and it's decided they'll make money as quickly as possible with the help of an unsavory witch doctor. Vandermerwe's tale of the naive and retiring Chipo's unrequited love is complicatedand made more interestingby the context of immigrants seeking a better life amid the dangerous political shoals of Africa. Although the pacing is bumpy and the characters and settings only broadly defined, Chipo's perpetual outsider status, and the way she is viewed with suspicion wherever she goes, makes an effective metaphor for the plight of the unwanted immigrant. The result will definitely stay with the reader; although Chipo herself may not be as magnetic a character as the reader would wish, the circumstances that conspire against her are certainly compelling.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)