This audio book consists of a double bill of short fiction – "Shelter" and "A Small Life" – written by award-winning poet and playwright Kobus Moolman.
"Shelter" is an account of a young boy growing up in a working class area in Pietermaritzburg in the late 1960s. The story is rich with evocative memories of people, places and quirky events. At times funny, at other times poignant, the story has the detailed texture of a memory: full of the smells and the sounds of the past.
"A Small Life", by contrast is the starkly written tale of a young girl living in a small isolated community somewhere in the Karoo. Her father is a labourer on a sheep farm, and she and her three sisters work from dawn to dusk – either on the farm or at home – to stay alive. But where is their mother? And what are all those secrets that their father keeps under lock and key in his bedroom? The story is arid and stark as the Karoo. And just as remorseless in its exacting of vengeance.
