Outside the Lines - by Ameera Patel (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>Crime doesn't pay, but neither does honesty in this tragedy traversing Johannesburg's class and ethnic divisions. Lines are blurred and boundaries crossed in this peek behind the facade of the city's middle-class white and Indian suburbia.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><ul> <li>One of 10 Novels You Should Read in June --<i>CrimeReads</i></li> <li> Starred review, <i>Publishers Weekly</i></li> <li>Listed on <i>CrimeReads'</i> The Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2020: Summer Reading Edition</li> <li>Listed in the <i>New York Times</i> Globetrotting 2020 preview </ul> <i>Outside the Lines</i> is a journey through the underbelly of Johannesburg, South Africa and the intimacy of family drama scattered across racial, religious, and class divisions. Drug addict Cathleen is kidnapped and her distracted, middle-class family fails to notice her absence; Zilindile, who services Cathleen's drug habit, and his Muslim Indian girlfriend Farhana, struggle to make sense of their relationship despite their very different backgrounds; and domestic worker Flora and the silent Runyararo, who was painting Cathleen's house until accused by Cathleen's father of stealing, become entangled with romance and criminals, leading to the ultimate tragedy. A taut novel that walks the line between family drama, crime novel, thriller, and black comedy.<p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br><i>Outside the Lines</i> is a sharp novel that critiques how personal excesses damages those who indulge in it. --<i>Foreword Reviews</i><br><br>[T]his dysfunctional family drama has unexpected moments of dark comedy to disrupt the unfolding, inevitable tragedy. While exposing the multilayered inequities of the haves vs. have-nots, Patel slyly ridicules white privilege, religious hypocrisy, clueless parenting, casual racism, ineffective rules and breakable laws. In clipped, often unadorned sentences, Patel skillfully presents a raw narrative of careless disconnections and scathing verity. --<i>Shelf Awareness</i><br><br>In this coke-fueled thrill-ride through the underworld of Joburg, characters face difficult decisions and try to find some humanity, even as the quest for money and the need to meet family expectations tear them apart. South Africa is one of the great hot spots for crime fiction these days, and we can't wait to see more from Ameera Patel. --<em>CrimeReads </em>(The Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2020: Summer Reading Edition)<br><br>Listed in the <i>New York Times</i> Globetrotting preview of books coming out in 2020 from around the world.<br><br>Patel deftly manages her large ensemble cast, whose stories unfold via a rapidly shifting first-person, present-tense narrative. Race, class, religion, and culture factor prominently in both the relationships that bind the characters and the conflicts that tear them apart. -- <em>Mystery Scene</em> Magazine<br><br>Patel displays an exceptional ability to plumb the depths of her characters, each of whose points of view throws light on the realities of the other narrators. Rays of hope and gentle overtures to love lift this vibrant novel. --<i>Publishers Weekly</i>, starred review<br><br>There's been an encouraging increase of diverse voices in South African literature of late, and Ameera Patel's debut contributes to this exciting new movement. In her dramatic, drug-addled thriller, Patel explores criminality, excess, humanity and hope." --<i>Ms. Magazine</i> "[A] raw depiction of the intermeshed nature of political and personal realities and the human connections, dreams, aspirations of choice and self-alienation that exist in their gaps and fissures. The author dexterously manages a seamless storytelling experience despite the ever-shifting narrative voices that flit between the consciousness of five characters from three different races, each having their own religious affiliations and emotional baggages that constitute their psychological interiority." --<i>The Mantle</i> A deftly crafted novel that blends family drama with crime and black comedy, Outside the Lines is a unique and extraordinary novel by an author with an impressive flair for the kind of narrative storytelling that grips the reader's full attention and invests them in the characters and events portrayed. A riveting read from first page to last, Outside the Lines is an extraordinary and recommended addition to community and college/university library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections and personal reading lists."-- <i>Midwest Book Review</i><br><br>"[Patel's] astute eye for society in Gauteng, that ever-shifting mosaic of bizarrely diverse people, enhances this thriller-like novel." -- <i>Mail & Guardian</i> (South Africa)<br>
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