So you’re tanned, you’ve toured – in fact, all the items in your guidebook have been checked off, one by one. So what better way to refresh yourself than by seeing Cape Town through the eyes of a fellow traveller? Discovering the quirks of a holiday destination through stories and novels has been a time-honoured tradition for generations of travellers, and Cape Town provides a superb canvas when it comes to stories. In fact, whatever your tastes, there’s something that might just give you a new way of looking at the city.

Travel and Teaching

Some novels are packed with cultural insights, such as Zoe Wicomb’s collection of stories titled ‘You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town’, which (instead of the travelogue you might expect!) features different vignettes of a young woman returning to South Africa in order to confront the culture that shaped her as a child. Another critically-praised read is Finuala Dowling’s ‘Flyleaf’, a novel depicting the life of a teacher with some very unorthodox teaching methods, and the challenges she faces in moving from the country to build a life in Cape Town.

Action and Adventure

For the more adventurous, there isn’t a better setting for a thriller than the vibrant, bustling city of Cape Town. ‘Thirteen Hours’ by Deon Meyer, South Africa’s bestselling crime fiction author, is a detective tale of a missing backpacker and a conspiracy that threatens the country. Or there’s Lauren Beukes’ ‘Moxyland’, a debut science fiction novel looking to Cape Town’s future, displaying the blend of cultures in the city along with a vision of where technology might take them. You’ll never look at your phone the same way again, wherever you are.

Choices and Cooking

Or if you prefer a lighter touch, Patricia Schonstein’s ‘A Time of Angels’ is a light-hearted comedy, focusing on the colourful characters inhabiting an expatriate neighbourhood in Cape Town. It is a wonderful fable about good, evil, and most importantly – the love of food! If you’re venturing on holiday with family members, there’s no better way to get the teenagers excited about being in Cape Town than by giving them Sally Partridge’s ‘Fuse’, with its story of teenage friendship put under pressure by bullying, and a plan to fight back that transforms the novel into a gripping tale of adventure.

Off the Page

Not only can you find a new way of looking at Cape Town in novels as well as the guidebook, but the city is proud of its literary culture. Cape Town’s book fair gives around 18,000 literature lovers a new way of enjoying South Africa, after the wines have been drunk, the food enjoyed, and the music danced to. Notables such as Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, and novelists Jodi Picoult and Wole Soyinka visited 2010’s fair, marking it as the place to be seen for authors from around the world.

With pages and pages written about Cape Town outside of the guidebook, there’s a story for everyone – and reading a few others can help you decide how you’re going to live your own. Whether you’re there already, or just planning a visit, picking up a novel or two just might give you a few new ideas about Cape Town.

Author Bio: Rachel Hill is a Southern Africa Travel specialist, a company specialising in luxury, tailor-made Cape Town holidays, as well as holidays to other destinations in Southern Africa. Our experienced consultants will help you design your very own luxury South Africa holiday, and will be happy to provide you with a free quote.

Category: Travel
Keywords: Cape Town