WIN: New on the bookshelves and it could be yours
Wittily told, This Might Sting a Bit is a laugh-while-you-weep story of survival and family, full of African flavour.
It uses a lighter approach to shine a light into some of society’s darkest corners and tackles a big topic, substance abuse.
The book throws some punches yet embraces the reader as it follows the journeys of broken and vulnerable members of society, and of those who fight to save them.
Above all, it is about being able to laugh at oneself.
This Might Sting a Bit by Claire Adlam is an exquisite new voice in fiction, which is said to be comparable to Marian Keyes and Alexandra Fuller.
About the book
Everyone loves the Hay family. Down-to-earth Zimbabwean farmers. Quirkiest of all, Grandpa is the glue that holds them all together. Teenage Chris, the eldest child, is a classic wild child, while his 16-year-old sister Kat is generally the sensible one.
Kat then takes a blow to the head when, at a braai, she attempts to play rugby while drunk and wearing stilettos, both for the first time.
A few weeks later, she takes another knock to the head, two freak accidents leading to a lifetime of chronic pain.
In her twenties, doctors are still short on answers, and it is easier to just throw prescription painkillers at the problem, setting the scene for Kat’s stormy love affair with pharmaceuticals, a battle she seems unlikely to win.
From the life of the party to self-centred addict, the ground rushes up to meet her. Her mother, Gill, leads the crusade on Kat’s problem but lets a few skeletons out of her own closest. A recovering alcoholic, she’s hardly squeaky clean herself.
Utterly broken by her addiction, Kat finally accepts help and crawls into treatment in South Africa.
It’s a bone-rattling detox and a rough five weeks during which she wears far more mascara on her cheeks than eyes. Her counsellors chip away at her, getting every speck of denial out while her new, eccentric rehab friends teach her how to laugh again.
WIN:
We are giving away three copies of This Might Sting a Bit.
All you have to do is pop us an email with This Might Sting a Bit competition in the subject box, your name, contact numbers and address in the body of your email.
Send your email to cvdwalt@caxton.co.za by no later than 12:00 on November 12.
Winners will be selected through a lucky draw and will be notified via email.
Winners must be able to collect the prize from our offices. Should you not be able to collect your prize from our offices, the prize will automatically go to the next person’s name drawn.
No correspondence will be entered into once winners have been notified.
