Welcome to our Hillbrow

A courageous and compelling journey through the chaotic and hyper-real world of Hillbrow, South Africa.

Welcome To Our Hillbrow is an exhilarating and disturbing ride through the contradictory, alluring and painful realities of post-apartheid South Africa. Set in the vibrant and chaotic microcosm of Hillbrow, this novel fearlessly confronts the shattered dreams of youth, the unpredictable costs of sexuality, the specter of AIDS, rampant xenophobia, and the omnipresent violence that too often cuts short the promise of young lives.

Infused with the rhythms of the inner city pulsebeat, Phaswane Mpe's honest and expansive vision links Hillbrow, rural Tiragalong and Oxford, spilling out the guts of Hillbrow-living with the same intimate knowledge and energy with which the Drum writers immortalized Sophiatown. Transcending death itself, the novel flows into an ancestral realm, reflecting an Africanist understanding of the life continuum.