A second novel by the fast rising South African author (pronounced Beukes like mucus, she tells us...), recently shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. A frantic urban fantasy in which ex-drug addict Zinzi December, whose job is to find people, is tasked to retrieve missing pop starlet Songweza. But, in a broken city peopled by crime lords, magicians, beast masters and symbiotic animals, nothing is ever straightforward, nothing is as easy as it appears. Cue a sassy and cynical heroine with a gleeful touch of mischief, twists and turns on every corner. A page turner and a pleaser.
In November 2011 South African film producer Helena Spring won film rights to Zoo City.
Lauren Beukes said: "Every novelist dreams of a movie deal—but you actually want more than that. You want to find a producer of great vision and integrity and experience who fundamentally gets the book . . . I'm thrilled that it's being produced in South Africa—for an international audience."
FROM THE AUTHOR BEHIND BRAND NEW APPLE TV HIT SHINING GIRLS
WINNER OF THE 2011 ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD
'A major, major talent' GEORGE R.R. MARTIN _______
Zinzi has a Sloth on her back, a dirty 419 scam habit and a talent for finding lost things. But when a little old lady turns up dead and the cops confiscate her last paycheque, she's forced to take on her least favourite kind of job - missing persons.
Being hired by reclusive music producer Odi Huron to find a pop star should be her ticket out of Zoo City, the festering slum where the criminal underclass and their animal companions reside.
Instead it catapults Zinzi deeper into the maw of a city twisted by crime and magic, where she'll be forced to confront the dark secrets of former lives - including her own. _______
'Beukes is very *very* good. It feels effortless, utterly accomplished' William Gibson
'Beukes brings a secret tenderness and humanity to her off-kilter portrait of the here and now'Guardian
'Exquisitely paced and impeccably controlled. An enormously satisfying novel' New York Times Book Review
