Haunting memoir of the father of a drug addict

BEAUTIFUL BOY

David Sheff

WHAT had happened to my beautiful boy? To our family? What did I do wrong? Those are the wrenching questions that haunted every moment of David Sheff’s journey through his son Nic’s addiction to drugs, and tentative steps towards recovery.

Before Nic Sheff became addicted to amphetamine, he was a charming boy, joyous and funny, a varsity athlete and honour’s student adored by his two younger siblings. After the drug, he was a trembling wraith who lied, stole, and lived on the streets. David Sheff traces the first subtle warning signs: the denial, the 3am phone calls, the rehabs.

His preoccupation with Nic was an addiction in itself; the obsessive worry and stress took a toll in this emotional roller-coaster of loving a child seemingly beyond help. (R232)

THIS MOURNABLE BODY

Tsitsi Dangarembga

In This Mournable Body, Tsitsi Dangarembga returns to the protagonist of her acclaimed first novel, Nervous Conditions, to examine how the hope and potential of a girl and a fledgling nation can sour and become a bitter struggle for survival.

As a last resort, Tambudzai takes an ecotourism job that forces her to return to her parents’ homestead.

The homecoming, in Dangarembga’s tense and psychologically charged novel, culminates in an act of betrayal, revealing how toxic the combination of colonialism and capitalism can be. (R399)