‘Buckingham Palace’, District Six, by Richard Rive (used)

District Six was a notorious slum area at the foot of Table Mountain overlooking Cape Town and inhabited largely by poor, so-called 'Coloured people. In spite of its wretchedness and squalor, the District was a place of great liveliness and effervescence, whose inhabitants developed an exuberance all their own, and a razor-sharp sense of humour.

"Buckingham Palace' is a dingy row of five cottages owned by Katzen, a local Jewish shopkeeper, in the heart of District Six.

In this lively and compassionate novel Richard Rive, one of South Africa's most eminent writers, traces this tiny community through its moments of triumph and despair, its loves, its hatreds - and its bizarre characters. We participate riotously with its people in their beauty competitions, their annual holiday at Kalk Bay, their parties and parish balls. And finally we see these people broken by laws over which they have no control.

In 1966 parts of District Six were declared for white occupation only, in terms of South Africa's notorious Group Areas Act.

The former inhabitants were forced by law to leave for the bleak wastelands of the Cape Flats.

Here is the story of Mary and The Girls, of Zoot, Pretty-Boy and Oubaas, of the Abrahams family who came from Bo-Kaap, of Last-Knight the barber and his prim wife. This novel is written in tribute to the people of District Six so that we do not forget.

...a marvellous story, an absorbing mix of delight and hurt told with gusto and obvious pleasure" - Leadership

"A wonderful read that sets whistles, shouted greetings, snatches of song and laughter echoing again over the barren fields that were once Cape Town's heart." - Fair Lady

Condition: good