alexlaurelhoffman 's review for:

Thirteen Cents by K. Sello Duiker

4.0

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This book was written in a way that made it very easy to read, despite it's content being so disturbing and depressing that you'd think it should be difficult to read. This is the story of a 12-year-old street child in Cape Town who survives by prostituting himself. It is a devastating an poignant tale about the corruption and manipulative practices of the adult world set in a place that I actually know very well. Perhaps because I know Cape Town and, in particular Sea Point (where most of the novel is set), this story is especially striking to me. When we think of Cape Town, we normally think of beautiful beaches and mountains, but Duiker introduces us to the heartbreaking underworld of Cape Town - in which a young boy must sell his body in order to survive and gets addicted to drugs sold to him by a prostitute living under a bridge. This is a horrible reality that no one wants to think about - a story that often cannot be told by those who actually live it. The ending is rather confusing, but, overall, I thought this was a very good book.