Ways of Dying (Southern African Writing)
by Zakes Mda

Written in the style of "magic realism," this tragic-comic contemporary novel is set against the backdrops of shabby but vibrant city slums and a rural South African community. The story’s hero, Toloki, is an eccentric yet dignified professional mourner whose different worlds are reconciled, amid an atmosphere charged with bizarre realism, when he finds love and makes peace with his past.