num_pages: 224
description: In Ways of Dying, 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.
language: English
title: Ways of Dying
titlecomplete: Ways of Dying (Toloki #1)
genres: 20th Century, Historical Fiction, Africa, South Africa, Novels, Literature, Adult, Fiction, African Literature, Magical Realism
ratings_count: 1795
series: Toloki
awards: awardedAt: 852105600000
name: M-Net Literary Award
publisher: Picador