Free Book Friday: An Imperfect Blessing

Nadia Davids has made a name for herself as a playwright (At Her Feet, Cissie) of great intelligence and sensitivity, with a real understanding and affection for South Africa and its people. It is these qualities, and a deftness of characterisation, that she brings to her debut novel, An Imperfect Blessing. Against a setting of the turbulent late 80s and early 90s era as apartheid thrashed in its death throes, Davids chooses to focus her story on a young teenager, Alia Dawood, who is torn between the ordinary concerns about outfits and boys on one hand – and on the other the strong imperative to care about social issues and take a political stand.