Shark's Egg
First published 2000, Kwela Books
'Henrietta Rose-Innes writes an admirably taut, clean prose. Shark’s Egg is a welcome addition to the new South African literature.'
– J.M. Coetzee
'This book marks a new start for South African fiction in the way that it takes the interior world of the self as its prime focus … We may just have the chance to begin to find out what living in South Africa is like from the inside if we have books of this quality.' – Tony Morphet
Shark’s Egg was shortlisted for the 2001 M-Net Book Prize.
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A dark coming-of-age story set in Cape Town, Shark’s Egg tells the story of Anna’s schoolgirl friendship with the magnetic, destructive Leah, and their ambiguous adult relationship. Alan, Anna’s first lover, becomes the focus of a moral and sexual struggle between them as adults – played out against the menacing backdrop of the sea.
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It is a strange day to come walking by the sea: cold, with grey glints on the waves, and above them a white empty sky. Her mother moves slowly, keeping her face tilted towards the horizon. They are the only people on the beach. Joanna is fearless, tireless; she runs impatiently ahead, splashing in the shallows and talking out loud to the sea. The water is so cold it makes the bones of her feet ache. It whispers of deep-sea things: storms and shipwrecks, monsters, islands.
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