The Thin Line

by Arja Salafranca

The stories in The Thin Line hook the reader from the first one, and reel you in on that thin line. You will be haunted by the carefully drawn characters: by Corinna trapped in her huge teenage body, by Cleo in love with a married man after all these years, and poor skinny Mark, as he sees his love teeter away from him. Salafranca is an accomplished, award-winning writer, this long-awaited collection is a box of jewels.

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Kiran Bhat · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Thin Line is a collection of stories by the South African writer Arja Salafranca. The stories are slices of life that explore the deeper sides of sexuality, trauma, and relationships. The settings are often in Southern Africa, and the characters are often well educated or higher class white people from South Africa, who are either bisexual or homosexual or discovering who they are. The story which impacted me most was "Ten Minutes to Hate," which details the aftermath of a violent robbery in an opera house on one particular woman's min. I found the story very realistic in what it means to deal with the everyday life of a country infamous for its crime, and very relatable as well.

[Tiah]

Literary shorts written in a soft voice with sharp edges.