DESOLATE

Witblitssonderwater is a small fictitious town in the middle of the Karoo, South Africa, through which the main road from Johannesburg to Cape Town runs and if you blink, you miss it.

The story revolves around the White Afrikaans-speaking community together with the colourful Black and Coloured Township on the town's outskirts.

Just like many small towns in the lonely and desolate Karoo, people tend to gossip and this impacts on numerous people's lives.

The character who acts as the link between all the others is the newly arrived White English speaking Michael la Blanc, who happens to be a hairdresser, and who opens up a UNISEX salon, much to the locals' consternation, not understanding how the SEX fits in. However, it is usually under the hairdryers that the gossip thrives. The Catholics go to church for confession, but non-Catholics go to the hairdressers for confession!

Among the characters is Paps Poggenpoel who runs a butchery along with his Coloured helper Klassie Konfyt. Paps and his wife, Bella, have a seventeen-year-old daughter, whose education is founded on home life, having never been to school. However, of all the characters in the book, Sanet tends to be the most open-minded.

Oom Piet and Tannie Hester van der Merwe and their Black assistant, Thandi Dlamini, who has a six-year-old daughter by the name of Khanyisa, run the local cafe/general dealers store.

The mystery woman of the town is Tannie Tilly Naude, who runs the post office and telephone switchboard and is addressed as 'Miss' but we later find out that she has had a child. This is now a scandal.

Frans, Frikkie and Frieda Myburgh run a garage in the town along with slightly deaf Oupa van der Linde. Part of the story revolves around well-meaning Frikkie's romance with Sanet and their eventual wedding, which surprises the whole town with its integrated approach - a Coloured drag queen as the bridesmaid, a Black six-year-old as the flower girl and two walking sunflowers at the marriage of two White Afrikaners.

One can see how the White community's interaction differs from that of the Black and Coloured community, who tend to be more open and non-critical of others. Desolate is a story of gossip, romance, laughter, empathy and finally the bringing together of the whole community.

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