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Cape Town: A Place Between - Paperback(Reprint) | Diverse Reads

Cape Town: A Place Between

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Cape Town is a place between. Between two oceans, between first and third worlds, between east and west. So too the majority of its citizens, a people between black and white, native and settler, African and European. The Cape coloureds. This tween-ness complicates and perplexes. It threatens key conceptions we have about the histories, identities, and cultures of those who live on the continent. It makes us wonder how we can understand a city that is most assuredly in Africa, though not—seemingly—of it?

By exploring these liminal spaces of tween-ness—between the Cape’s breath-taking beauty and its shattering violence, between its creative cosmopolitanism and its crude racial divisions, between its glitzy wealth and its grinding poverty—we can begin to understand the soul of this town. Haunted by its past, unsure of its future. Always emerging, never arriving. A sun-drenched peninsula best viewed through a prism noir.

Compact and concise, this book allows readers to quickly identify the unique pulse of the city, its throbbing historical, social, cultural and political beat that underlies the transactions between all Capetonians. It is not a guidebook, but a perfect companion to one, filling in the intimate details that other books leave out.

Written in accessible, punchy prose, Cape Town: A Place Between offers a portrait rendered with humor, wit and passion, based on the author’s twenty-year relationship with the Cape.

ISBN-13: 9781946395252

Media Type: Paperback(Reprint)

Publisher: Catalyst Press

Publication Date: 01-14-2020

Pages: 140

Product Dimensions: 4.90(w) x 6.80(h) x 0.50(d)

Series: Intimate Geographies

Henry Trotter is the author of Sugar Girls & Seamen: A Journey into the World of Dockside Prostitution in South Africa. Hailing from California, he has lived in Africa for 20 years and written extensively on African history, culture and education. He is based in Cape Town with his wife and daughter.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Cape Town: A Place Between is a captivating portrayal of a complex city, told from the unique perspective of an outsider whose heart and mind found fulfillment in a faraway land. Trotter's humor and affection for the places and people of his adopted home help the reader form a personal connection to Cape Town's history and culture. It's unlike any travel book I've read." - Kimberly Lisagor co-author Disappearing Destinations

Table of Contents

A Place Between 1

Cityscape 17

Between Two Oceans 24

Between First and Third Worlds 42

Between East and West 65

Between Past and Future 92

In/Between Africa 116

Glossary & Acronyms 120

Photograph Descriptions 126

Further Reading & Info 127

Acknowledgements 135