{"product_id":"ways-of-dying-9780312420918","title":"Ways of Dying","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the M-Net Book Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eShortlisted for the CNA and Noma Awards \u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eWays of Dying\u003c\/i\u003e, Zakes Mda's acclaimed first novel, Toloki is a \"professional mourner\" in a vast and violent city of the new South Africa. Day after day he attends funerals in the townships, dressed with dignity in a threadbare suit, cape, and battered top hat, to comfort the grieving families of the victims of the city's crime, racial hatred, and crippling poverty. At a Christmas day funeral for a young boy Toloki is reunited with Noria, a woman from his village. Together they help each other to heal the past, and as their story interweaves with those of their acquaintances this elegant short novel provides a magical and painful picture of South Africa today. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eWays of Dying \u003c\/i\u003ewas awarded South Africa's prestigious M-Net Book Prize, awarded by the TV channel M-Net to books written in one of South Africa's official languages, and was shortlisted for the Central News Agency (CNA) Award and the Noma Award, an Africa-wide prize founded by Shoichi Noma, onetime president of Kodansha International.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eZakes Mda\u003c\/b\u003e, novelist and playwright, has received every major South African prize for his work. Born in 1948, he has been a visiting professor at Yale and the University of Vermont. He is writer-in-residence at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg. His most recent novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Heart of Redness, \u003c\/i\u003e was nominated for the Commonwealth Prize.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"St. Martins Press-3PL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50649782550802,"sku":"9780312420918","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_6a063750-31be-49f7-bd18-3995a64234bd.jpg?v=1733273550","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/ways-of-dying-9780312420918","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}