“Coetzee’s tale is anything but formulaic … What sets it apart from most other whodunits is that after introducing us to a corpse and a cop, Coetzee keeps Detective Ley nearly entirely off screen … Instead, she opts to follow a broad cast of characters over nearly a fortnight, letting the solution to the mystery unspool through their day-to-day lives.” — Washington Independent Review of Books
Description
Brittle Paper 100 Notable African Books of 2024
A Literary Review of Canada Best Book Cover of 2024
A taut and unsparing novel about a community plagued by violence, drugs, corruption, and prejudice—but where love and justice prevail.
The unidentifiable remains of a body are discovered in a field in Shadow Heights, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. Ley, the youngest detective at her precinct, is assigned the case and quickly begins her investigation. Soon after, Ley receives a phone call saying that Carl, a friend struggling with a meth addiction, has gone missing after being linked to the Drug King of Shadow Heights. Meanwhile, a local church group believe they are cleansing the area by burning sinners, starting with homosexuals.
The search for Carl and the truth leads the reader through the vibrant lives of the residents of Shadow Heights. Violence, poverty, and shame plague the neighbourhood, but there is also love, acceptance, and hope to be found among friends and family in the shadows of everyday life.
A pioneering work of fiction in which the dispossessed tell their own stories, Innie Shadows is the first novel to be translated from Kaaps, a dialect of Afrikaans that was until recently a spoken language only.
Reviews
“An often painful but nonetheless compelling and eye-opening read. “ — Booklist
“There can be no doubt that Olivia Coetzee’s Innie Shadows is an impressive debut novel.” — The Miramichi Reader
