This novel opens the door to the lives of five Coloured women facing life-changing challenges while trying to do the most important thing - survive another day in Eldorado Park in the south of Johannesburg. Kaylynn, Bertha, Janice, Laverne and Raquel try to navigate their way through domestic violence, migration, coming of age and the ever-cloying patriarchy that permeate every part of living in Eldorado Park, affectionately known as Eldos by its people. These women are at different ages and stages of their lives yet connected by this one place and a community that has shaped their worldview. Through phone calls, diary entries, poems and other forms of reported speech, each woman's struggles are told with honesty. Written, in part, from the perspective of Eldos, this predominantly Coloured township comes alive as the reader gets a look into the heart of a community that has been branded with the image of addiction and violence. The author's hope is to take the reader on a sensory experience that lays bare the sights, smells and soul of Eldos through the eyes of its residents and specifically these women characters. At its core, Those Who Live In Cages is a story about Coloured women, family, friendship, identity, and the many ways one can play the hand that life deals you.

The structure of the book offers the reader short entries of poetry, essays and dialogue that mirrors diary entries; Written only from various women characters' perspectives centres the voice of the gender - a deliberate decision by the author to advance agency among Coloured women; The author's own struggle with agency and acceptance amongst her own marginalised community is a catalyst for incisive storytelling; A valued contribution to the ever-growing pool of young Coloured woman authors in South Africa.

About the Author
Terry-Ann Adams hails from Eldorado Park. The 20-something writer spent her childhood playing with imaginary friends and writing poems, and started her writer's journey at the tender age of 12 when she wrote a mini memoir detailing her struggle to be accepted into mainstream schooling as a person with albinism. A cultural commentator, she hasn't stopped writing since then. Terry-Ann's work, written in English and Afrikaans, is inspired by and predominantly features Coloured people of South Africa. Those Who Live In Cages was inspired by her grandmother Frances 'Poppie' Adams. "My grandmother always wanted me to tell her story, the stories of Coloured women stuck in the townships of Johannesburg, who are often forgotten by society." This is Terry-Ann's first novel.


Book Information
ISBN 9781431430147
Author Terry-Ann Adams
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Jacana Media
Publisher Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd
Weight(grams) 500g
Dimensions(mm) 212mm * 136mm * 15mm