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Thirteen Cents

K. Sello Duiker

2000168 pagesabout 3–4 hours
2000
first published
  • 2013Ohio University Press · 191 pages · ENGISBN 9780821420362
  • 2000David Phillips Publishers · 168 pages · ENGISBN 9780864863577

Every city has an unspoken side. Cape Town, between the picture postcard mountain and sea, has its own shadow: a place of dislocation and uncertainty, dependence and desperation, destruction and survival, gangsters, pimps, pedophiles, hunger, hope, and moments of happiness. Living in this shadow is Azure, a thirteen-year-old who makes his living on the streets, a black teenager sought out by white men, beholden to gang leaders but determined to create some measure of independence in this dangerous world. Thirteen Cents is an extraordinary and unsparing account of a coming of age in Cape Town.

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