United States publisher Two Dollar Radio has acquired the rights to publish South African author Masande Ntshanga’s acclaimed literary debut The Reactive in North America.

Ntshanga, who was shortlisted for the 2015 Caine Prize yesterday, is the winner of the 2013 PEN International New Voices Award. He has also received a Fulbright award, a Mellon Mays Foundation fellowship, and a Civitella Ranieri fellowship in Umbria, Italy.

Acquiring editor Eric Obenauf of Two Dollar Radio said of The Reactive: “I loved the energy, the thrust of the prose, the voice, the descriptions, and the emotional gut-punch of the story.”

Two Dollar Radio’s production division has also optioned film rights to the book.

Rendered in lyrical, bright prose and set in a not-so-new South Africa, The Reactive is the story of Lindanathi and his two friends, Ruan and Cecelia, who sell illegal pharmaceuticals while chasing their next high.

Lindanathi, deeply troubled by his hand in his brother’s death, has turned his back on his family, until a message from home reminds him of a promise he made years before.

The novel is a poignant, life-affirming story about secrets, memory, chemical abuse and family, and the redemption that comes from facing what haunts us most.

Contracts were negotiated by Aoife Lennon-Ritchie of the Lennon-Ritchie Agency.
 
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Masande Ntshanga’s Debut Novel The Reactive Launched with Imraan Coovadia at The Book Lounge

Book details

• The Reactive by Masande Ntshanga
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  EAN: 9781415207192
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