New writers are a welcome addition to a reader’s repertoire and when they grab one of the country’s top literary prizes (Sunday Times Fiction prize) for their first novel as Sifiso Mzobe did, you know you’ve hit the jackpot.
Anyone reading Young Blood will understand all the accolades. This young author has tapped into the soul of the country and used his writing to expose and explore phenomena in our society that are understood better by some than others because of apartheid’s legacy and the way we live.
It does have a huge impact to be walked through a young township life and to discover how easily people are led into a life of crime.
Still living in Umlazi, Sifiso knows the characters he wrote about and says he has been approached by the hijacking community who are thrilled they’ve been given a voice. “They want their stories told.”
He shows empathy for people who are not brought into the system, for example during their school years.
“Not everyone’s gifts are displayed in similar fashion,” he says.
Like one of the characters in his book, someone may be better suited to working with mechanical or technical things. This isn’t often encouraged or even admired at school, which leads to some people leaving when they shouldn’t.
Working as a journalist and with his 30th birthday looming, Sifiso knew it was time to write the book. Life takes over and before you know it your dreams are in shards. Once written, to his amazement, a bidding war erupted around the world to publish his book.
Only recently did he stop working at the community paper where he was employed. He was offered a few columns in different publica-tions and with the success of Young Blood it has allowed him to step into a world of creative writing.
One can see by the glimmer of a smile that seems to lurk throughout our chat that he is still at the point where he wants to pinch himself. This is not someone who is going to rest on his laurels.
He realises that we live in a country where people are perplexed about the different lifestyles, with the result that much that happens in this society isn’t understood all round.
It’s obvious where he stands on the issue of crime, but because these are people he has grown up with and understands, he has a very different take from that which have many of his readers will have. It is understanding, and perhaps in some instances empathy, that he hopes to impart.
He is determined to explore all the avenues opening up and to grab all the opportunities. Writing fiction is now his work. - Cape Argus