Barren Cape by Michelle Prak is a thriller centred on two young people who are desperate to find suitable accommodation. They are Erika and Mac who, like many of today’s young women, are left with little choice but to test the goodwill of more fortunate friends for a temporary bed while flat hunting. Some have the option of returning to the parental home, an option available to Erika but not to Mac, whose father lives in Bali where he runs a dog shelter. Mac muses, “The irony wasn’t lost on me: my father sheltered dogs, while his youngest daughter didn’t have her own fixed address.”
When Mac finds a mothballed building at remote Barren Cape, she makes one of its rooms her temporary home and is joined by Erika. What happens next makes for exciting reading as the two young women take turns in telling their story. Once begun, it is hard to put the book down as your concern for Mac and Erika grows exponentially.
Thus does Prak takes you on a house-hunting journey that morphs into something featuring unpredictable shocking turns and twists; they are unexpected but remain plausible. Prak is a superb storyteller, who uses simple uncluttered language devoid of unnecessary descriptions. The book is all the more powerful for that. Thankfully she does not use frequent flashbacks, a practice too many writers can’t seem to resist.
Letting Mac and Erika, and also Brex, a teenager, be responsible for some of the problems the young women encounter makes it easy to identify with them, or at the very least be sympathetic to their point of view. Even if you think what they are doing is foolish, dangerous or illegal, or all of the above, you can understand what drives them.Â
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Good writing is much more than getting the basics right, though. It includes – but is by no means limited to – grabbing and holding the reader’s attention with a good plot, strong characterisation and a touch of original genius. In this novel, Prak hits all the right buttons. This story will keep you enthralled from the first word to the last.
Barren Cape, Michelle Prak
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 9781761428432
Format: Paperback
Pages: 346 pp
Publication date: 2 April 2025
RRP: $34.99
