This significant new work explores life in post-apartheid South Africa, as the shine is wearing off Mandela’s ‘Rainbow Nation’ and the country is grappling with rampant AIDS, huge racial inequalities and mass unemployment.
At its centre, Ezekiel Mabuza and Ben Gallagher struggle to stay afloat in changing times, in their very different Durban communities. The story alternates between their points of view. Ezekiel, a popular doorman at the city hall, has lost one son to AIDS, the other to gang violence and his wife to cancer. He is convinced that he will lose his daughters next unless he takes urgent action.
Ben, director of Durban Museum, is holding together a shaky marriage and keeping the museum going in straightened times while training for the Comrades marathon and trying to fend off a municipal strike. An important visit by wealthy Swedish grant-givers is disrupted by a startling incident between Ezekiel and Ben, with drastic consequences.
Downhill Without Brakes traces how this fateful event unravels the lives of both men and their families. Ezekiel’s feisty sister-in-law, Nomsa Silongo, leads the struggle to rescue him. Only when Ben joins her, does a chance open up to turn the lives of both men around.
The writing journey
Val has had a life-long passion for writing poetry, alongside a career as an NHS clinical psychologist and her responsibilities as a mother. After retiring, she turned to writing more seriously, completing an MA in creative writing at Sheffield Hallam University. For that, she wrote an early version of Downhill Without Brakes. The feedback and encouragement of the Sheffield Broomspring Writers group helped to develop the novel into its published form.
Val says: ‘I think that I wrote the novel to answer a question I kept asking myself. ‘If I had never left South Africa, how would that “other me” be grappling with the challenges facing that country after apartheid had ended.’ This story about Ezekiel Mabuza, Ben Gallagher and their families and friends, helped me to explore that question.’
The opening scenes of the novel were inspired by a South African friend who visited the UK, traumatised by a recent workplace incident. Val found herself creating her own version of the event in a writing class. The story took off from there as she wove in her concerns about the issues facing South Africa.
Downhill Without Brakes is available from: https://troubador.co.uk/bookshop/search
Val’s London Book Launch Event Details
Date: Friday, 22 November 2024
Time: 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
Venue: Functions Room, St George’s Tavern
Address: 14 Belgrave Rd, London SW1V 1QD (behind Victoria Station)
All are welcome. Copies of the novel will be available.
Val will read a few excerpts from the novel and discuss with attendees the themes present in it.
