Thando Mgqolozana brings us a raw, revelatory and heartwarming novel about 18-year-old Lumkileâs journey into manhood, following a spiral of drugs, theft and failing grades.
After Lumkile is arrested for robbery, his estranged mother appears and removes him to the Eastern Cape, where he makes a fresh startâreinventing himself at a new school and falling in love.
When the time comes for Lumkile to enter manhood by undergoing a ritual circumcision, he prepares eagerly for the ceremonies ahead. However, in his makeshift hut on the mountain,
Lumkile realises that something has gone terribly wrong. Having been taught that âwhat happens at the mountain stays at the mountainâ he faces a stark choice: to seek medical help and risk
being forever ostracised and labelled as a âfailed manâ; or to suffer life-changing injuries or even death.
This deftly written novel is one young manâs intimate account of a botched circumcision, and his journey to accept his fate and embrace his future, as he gains a deeper understanding of what it
really means to be a man.