Dream Homes. Snapshots and Short Stories from Capetown

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»Cape Town is universally represented by [...] a stylized icon, the familiar kinked profile and flat top, a classical representation of the mountain that freezes our perception of it, of the recommended angle of view and point of observation. It does not allow for change or alternative perspectives,« the author writes.

Yet, in Dream Homes, Henrietta Rose-Innes offers manifold changes of perspective. Her protagonists demonstrate the moment of self-awareness, which is triggered by extraordinary experiences with foreign people and unfamiliar places: Dream Homes are homes that are dreamt, perhaps also the dream home, in which the author, after having discovered the darkest spaces of her city, returns to herself.

Henrietta Rose-Innes, born 1971 in Cape Town/South Africa, Solitude fellow in 2007, teaches creative writing at the University of Cape Town and has published two novels, numerous short stories and essays. In 2007, she was given the South African PEN/HSBC and in 2008 the renowned Caine Prize for African Writing.