An Imperfect Blessing by Nadia Davids

It is 1993. South Africa is on the brink of total transformation and in Walmer Estate, a busy suburb on the slopes of Devil’s Peak, fourteen-year-old Alia Dawood is about to undergo a transformation of her own. She watches with fascination and fear as the national drama unfolds, longing to be a part of what she knows to be history in the making. As her revolutionary aspirations strengthen in the months before the elections, her intense, radical Uncle Waleed reappears, forcing her parents and sister Nasreen to confront his subversive and dangerous past.

Nadia David’s first novel moves across generations and communities, through the suburbs to the city centre, from the lush gardens of private schools to the dingy bars of Observatory, from landmark mosques and churches to the manic procession of the Cape Carnival, through evictions, rebellions, political assassinations and first loves. The book places one family’s story at the heart of a country’s rebirth and interrogates issues of faith, race, belonging and freedom.

An Imperfect Blessing is a vibrant, funny and moving debut

Date of Publication: April 2014
ISBN: 9781415207154
Website: nadiadavids.com
Publisher: Umuzi Random House
Reviews:

Early praise for An Imperfect Blessing by Nadia Davids:

“One of the things the novel does best is to trace the impact of historical events on the lives of ordinary people. In An Imperfect Blessing, a novel that is sharp in its insights yet warm in feeling, Nadia Davids gives us the tumultuous years between the end of white rule in South Africa and the Mandela presidency as seen through the eyes of a family from a Muslim community that is itself coming under pressure to adapt and evolve.” – JM Coetzee

“Wry, moving, and rich in historical detail, An Imperfect Blessing is a bright, prismatic portrait of a community in transition and a whole country, hungry for change, recasting itself.” – Patrick Flanery

“A poignant evocation of Cape Town in the last of the apartheid years. With subtlety, compassion, and a brilliant blending of the personal and political, Davids’s debut novel traces the lives of a family shaken by the complexities of the struggle.” – Zoë Wicomb

“This is an exquisite novel. Nadia Davids brilliantly explores the subtleties of coming to consciousness in the days of change and loss in two in-between periods in South African history … Crafted in luminous writing, her characters navigate intricate local codes of race, friendship, and politics amid the vertiginous days of South Africa’s transformation.” – Gabeba Baderoon

“Had a great interview with Nadia Davids. In love with her book. Original, funny, brilliantly evoked & with lots to say. Grab it!” – Jenny Chrys Williams [South African radio DJ, on Twitter]

“I was struck … by how the writer carefully captures in-between spaces in South Africa, in terms of geography, history, identifications and relationships. An Imperfect Blessing is a beautiful novel, which has been praised from various corners for its sharp insights, subtlety, humour and compassion. Even after putting it down, I found myself returning to great, incisory lines like: ‘Pushing boundaries. That’s the only way to change things. You ask for more than they’ll give, but as much as you deserve. Have you learned nothing from this country?’” Cape Times

“Davids’s portrait of this corner of Cape Town’s hugely diverse society is rich and full of nostalgia; it is also complex and rigorous. She asserts the African identity of this centuries-old community, the principled take of many of their leaders on political issues, their contribution to the struggle, and their survival in what is the still-imperfect blessing of liberation from gross apartheid. … Davids has already made her mark with two plays, At Her Feet and Cissie, and other writings. An Imperfect Blessing will, one hopes, reach an even wider audience than her plays have done. It’s a novel that should be both respected and cherished.” Mail and Guardian

“Homesick South Africans living abroad need a cautionary warning before reading award-winning playwright Nadia Davids’ first novel. It is so infused with the history of our transition, with longing for our land, and love of family, you might crumble — or catch the next flight home. … I see this captivating, exquisitely crafted book with awards stamped all over it.” Business Day

“Nadia Davids has made a name for herself as a playwright (At Her Feet, Cissie) of great intelligence and sensitivity, with a real understanding and affection for South Africa and its people… This is a memorable debut from a literary but still warm and accessible writer, whose words gleam with meticulous craft and polishing.” Women 24

Nadia Davids’ first venture as a novelist is the lucid and insightful An Imperfect Blessing, which explores the complex and often painful worlds of a Cape Town in transition. … An engaging and enjoyable read, the complexity and thoroughness ofAn Imperfect Blessing bodes well for the future of writing in and of South Africa, and for Davids too. It’s safe to say that it is a definitive success, a story we can, and should, all read and relate to.” Aerodrome

“Show, don’t tell, is the usual advice to writers, and what Nadia Davids does better in her debut novel than many other authors. Her success is largely because she has an exceptional talent to deliver flexible, confident dialogue, as her prize-winning plays have already proved. Davids also grew up in Cape Town, and an outsider would or could not portray the novel’s community with the same vibrancy and flavour. … It’s a book to recommend to anyone, whether familiar with the history here or not.” Rapport Weekliks [Afrikaans]

“After about fifty pages of Nadia Davids’s An Imperfect Blessing, I quit taking notes. I just wanted to read the story. … Davids, currently a drama lecturer at Queen Mary ‘s University of London, is an award-winning playwright, famous for plays like At Her Feet and Cissie. This is evident in her gift for note-perfect dialogue, Cape accents reproduced without condescension, as well as the effortless way she conveys atmosphere and place. Her characters are compelling and the reader can easily sympathize with them, despite their flaws. … An Imperfect Blessing is a lovely story full of humour and humanity.” Beeld [Afrikaans]