Young Blood
By Sifiso Mzobe
Sipho, a seventeen-year-old from Umlazi, a township on the outskirts of Durban, South Africa. He drops out of high school and joins a carjacking syndicate to make a name for himself and escape his family’s low-income life. Along with hijacking partners Musa and Vusi, Sipho learns the tricks of the dangerous trade and pushes deeper into the underbelly of Umlazi under the guidance of gang leader Sibani, while partying heavily and chasing women nightly despite loving his longtime girlfriend Nana.
Candid and unapologetic, Young Blood is the story of the intricate balance of circumstance and choice, swift gain, and incredible loss, as Sipho finds out how far he can push his luck before the damage is irrevocable—and the consequences deadly.
You can read an excerpt from the novel at CrimeReads, and be sure to join Sifiso when he hits the stage as part of Stony Brook University's Writers Speak Wednesday on April 21 at 7:00 PM. VIsit our site for event details.
Reviews
“Young Blood drops the reader straight into the Umlazi Township of Durban, South Africa, where, having quit school and desperate for cash, young Sipho finds himself crossing increasingly harrowing boundaries into drugs, violence, and criminality. Sifiso Mzobe has written a compassionate, unsentimental, and artful portrait of a young man on the threshold of trying to preserve his life and his humanity by the very means that will almost inevitably destroy both.” —Paul Harding, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Tinkers
“With elegance and satisfying language, Mzobe draws the world of a South African Township with difficulty and a simultaneous tenderness and hope. Mzobe is never sentimental, pushing his characters to breaking, towards a head on collision with fate and danger and consequences that seem irrevocable. Yet the drive is a deeply human one, the search for the limits of pain and the ability to resist the pressures of one’s environment to carve a redemption. A strong novel.” —Chris Abani, GraceLand and The Secret History of Las Vegas
Listed as one of “Tsitsi Dangarembga’s 10 Favorite Books” in Vulture
Listed as one of CrimeReads' Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2021
Winner, South African Literary Award
Winner, The Sunday Times Literary Award
Winner, Herman Charles Bosman Prize
Winner, Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa