Contemporary
Downhill Without Brakes explores the impact of dramatic societal change on a group of characters in post-Apartheid South Africa. The story is told through the eyes of a black and a white protagonist as they deal with the outcomes of an ill-fated encounter between them.
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Downhill Without Brakes is set in newly democratic South Africa, as the shine is wearing off Mandela’s ‘rainbow nation’. The country grapples with rampant AIDS, mass unemployment and huge racial inequalities. Social change impact’s the two main characters and their relationships, as each struggles to stay afloat in turbulent times.
Ezekiel Mabuza, popular doorman at Durban City Hall, he has lost one son to AIDS, the other in township violence and his wife to cancer. He firmly believes that he will lose his daughters next.
Ben Gallagher, city museum director, is trying to hold on to a shaky marriage and keep the museum going in straightened circumstances, while training for the Comrades marathon and fending off a municipal workers strike. A visit by wealthy Swedish grant-givers is disrupted by a startling incident between Ezekiel and Ben, with drastic consequences.
Downhill Without Brakes is a poignant novel that traces how one fateful incident changes the lives of both men forever.
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