Description
The Exploded View is a South African literary fiction by Ivan Vladislavić, set in the shifting edges of Johannesburg where new developments, townships, shanties and unfinished spaces collide. The novel unfolds through four interlinked stories, each following a different man trying to understand a city and society undergoing profound change.
The four protagonists include a statistician working on the national census, an engineer navigating his social and professional connections, an artist fascinated by genocide and curios, and a contractor who erects billboards on building sites. Moving across different places, perspectives and periods of time, Vladislavić examines the uneasy relationship between the city’s seductive new surfaces and the realities beneath them.
A good choice for readers interested in South African literature, contemporary Johannesburg, urban change and literary fiction that explores society through interconnected stories.
