Izimpindiselo Zokwagqitshwa

This riveting, multiple-narrated episodic novel centers on Professor Simiso, ‘Mr. Situation’,
Grootboom, a University of the Witwatersrand academic and scholar. Now, as a middle-aged
internationally renowned intellectual in Psychology and the Social Sciences, Simiso, attempts
reconnecting with his life-scorned, embattled wife whom he divorced years ago and abandoned
with three daughters when they were just toddlers. However, he harbors a dark past: hedonism,
(wo)man objectification, and sexual exploitation of youngsters of both genders at the time when
his scholarly career was taking off. This life - fuelled by postmodernist, liberal views espoused
libertarian values which disregarded African traditions and mores - becomes an albatross around
his neck, now as a wiser middle-aged man realizes its baselessness. It haunts him as it returns as
repressed dreams which torment him and force him to face his past. Having turned a new chapter
in his life, he realises that in attempts to move on, he has to learn self-forgiveness in order to
rehabilitate his estranged wife, abused and exploited middle and youngest daughters, as well as
connect with a vengeful and an unforgiving eldest one, who knows him not as a father and an
intellectual, but as a one-night stand parsimonious homo/bi/heterosexual ‘blesser’ who
frequented an upmarket infamous club, The Tsar, in Sandton. As skeletons tumble out of the
closet, in the overhang, Simiso also deals with academic findings which challenge his earlier life
convictions, insidious manipulation of invisible hands, mistrust, deception on his part, as well as
an ambivalent relationship with a duplicitous, demanding feminist colleague. Such challenges
prove extremely overwhelming for Simiso as he loses his hard-earned integrity, family, social
and intellectual standing in society and in the academic community.