Released last month and set against the backdrop of Kliptown township in South Africa, the novel follows Arlie, a photographer seeking to understand his mother’s secretive South African past while navigating his own artistic and personal struggles.
“My dad is English/French but he was born in Johannesburg the year apartheid began and grew up there,” Irma said. “I was always fascinated by the country, and when I was 14 I read Biko, by journalist Donald Woods, about freedom fighter Steve Biko. I became obsessed with reading about the freedom fighters and was desperate to get to Soweto, but it wasn’t until I was in my 40s that I finally did. Put simply, I fell in love with the place and its people.”
Irma’s connection to South Africa is evident in her vivid portrayal of Shift’s characters: Rufaro the choir director; Mama K, who’s known for her kotas (stuffed South African sandwiches); Glory the singer; and Samson, an aspiring soccer player. “They are not based on any specific individuals but they arose out of the various trips to Soweto and Kliptown. They feel like living, breathing people to me. I miss hanging out with them.”
The novel’s release date is particularly pertinent given that this year is the 70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter. “The Freedom Charter set out the principles for democracy, and many of them are still a long way from being achieved,” Irma said. “Kliptown, the place where it was signed, ironically provides the starkest evidence of that. It has no electricity, no sewerage system and no school. People live in tiny shacks and there is over 70 per cent unemployment.”
Irma’s previous novel, The Breaking, dealt with elephant tourism in Thailand. While the settings and storylines of her novels are considerably different, they do share a singular purpose. “The only connecting theme between them is that they both engender conversations around particular injustices in the world.”
As a novelist, children’s author, editor and podcaster, Irma spends her days immersed in words. “My life is all about words. I’m incredibly fortunate to spend every day doing what I love. My childhood self would be both gobsmacked and jubilant that I get to spend my days reading, editing and writing books.”
Irma hopes readers will be swept up in Arlie’s story and fall in love with the characters who become pivotal in his life. “I know of no other Australian novel set in contemporary Soweto, and so I hope it gives readers an awareness of what life is like there and the challenges its inhabitants face every day.”
After taking readers from the elephant sanctuaries of Thailand to the vibrant townships of South Africa in her first two books, Irma’s literary expeditions are coming full circle as she reveals that in her third she’ll be bringing her storytelling talents home to capture the Mornington Peninsula. For locals, the anticipation of seeing their own landscape rendered with the same evocative, cinematic prose that reviewers praise in Shift is just another reason to discover this rising Australian talent who now calls Frankston home.
