Quote by K. Sello Duiker: “The city was a beast, always hungry.”

This vivid metaphor portrays the urban environment as a predatory entity constantly consuming its inhabitants and their dreams. It captures the relentless, demanding nature of city life, especially for those marginalized, suggesting it extracts more than it gives.

Post-apartheid South Africa in the early 2000s was a period of intense social and economic transformation, with cities like Johannesburg becoming sites of both opportunity and immense struggle, particularly for young black individuals navigating new freedoms and persistent inequalities.

South African novelist whose debut Thirteen Cents depicted the brutal street life of Cape Town's homeless youth and won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book in 2001. His work was a landmark of post-apartheid South African fiction.