Thrilling local fiction debut
Nechama Brodie on her thrilling fiction debut
IT’S a crime thriller – but we can guarantee it’s like nothing you’ve ever read before. Set in Johannesburg, Knucklebone revolves around a routine housebreaking gone wrong but has sangomas, witches, tokoloshes and animal poaching thrown into the mix. And the critics are raving about it.
We quizzed author Nechama Brodie, a veteran journalist and non-fiction author, about the inspiration behind her mesmerising debut novel.
Why the title Knucklebone? The title refers to the bones sometimes used by sangomas for divination (often the knucklebones of sheep), but also to human knucklebones – like on a fist.
I have a second dan (black belt) in karate, and I train on fighting techniques. If you make a fist to punch someone, it’s important you land your punch on the right part of the fist (ideally your first two knucklebones – the larger ones on your index and middle finger).
Why did you choose Johannesburg as the setting? This kind of story that couldn’t happen anywhere else. Joburg is dark and light all at once, and it’s so fast-paced it will take the breath out of your lungs.
How does a reggae track by Max Romeo turn into a thrilling book about witches and sangomas? Chase the Devil is an old dance track I first heard in a club many years ago. The lyrics caught my attention even then.
One day the song came up on my iPod as I was crossing the double-decker concrete highway in Johannesburg that goes between Newtown and Fordsburg and passes Joburg Central Police Station.
That moment coalesced into a coherent story almost on the spot. An urban knight-warrior fighting a latter-day evil. And, if a Joburg warrior is going to fight a supernatural threat from abroad, he needs to find some powerful local allies.
How did you go about researching this novel? I’ve written two non-fiction books about Joburg, and covered it as a journalist for 20 years. So that formed a solid foundation.
But I won’t deny I also had a steady relationship with Google. I did legwork where I needed it: I had several consultations with sangomas and spoke to people with the religious and spiritual belief systems in the book. I trotted around various parts of the city to familiarise myself with the physical geography.
I even joined a gun owner message board to enquire about the weapons I included. That caused a little bit of consternation until I explained what I was doing.
Do you believe the events of this book could take place in reality? Absolutely. In a sense, they already are. Animal poaching doesn’t just happen because of money – it happens because people attribute certain powers to animals, to their parts.
Not everyone who believes in traditional things, whether it’s magic or the ancestors, or even religion, is a bad person or a simpleton.
These things exist on a spectrum. For many people this is their reality. Just because you don’t believe in it doesn’t change it for them.
This is your first novel. Is writing a debut as hard as everyone says it is? Ha ha. Yes. This book took five years to get from a first draft to the stores.
Why did you write the book using the name NR Brodie? Everybody deserves to have an alter ego. Nechama Brodie is the journalist and researcher who writes mostly serious non-fiction.
NR Brodie is Bruce Wayne to my Batman – she gets to have fun and make things up.