How an Idea Turned into a Novel

This is a book about people … people with an identity.

Twelve Shades of Black sees writer Joy Martin attempt to shed light on the daily lives of black people within the racially charged context of South Africa during the apartheid era.

The result is a series of interviews presented as a collection of twelve essays, each focused on the life of an individual person living in the townships outside Johannesburg.

The stories include that of a priest, a “witch doctress” and a poet whose work conveys and carries the weight of the painful experiences of the past.