Beautifully paced, moving, and emotionally intense.
Feature image credit: NewSouth Books
The seemingly simple English word ‘shift’ has myriad definitions: to move house; to change your position or direction; to change your opinion; to get rid of something unwanted; and several more. It is a suitably shape-shifting yet evocative title for Irma Gold’s magnificent new novel.
Shift tells the story of Arlie, a 30-something, reasonably successful (but basically broke) photographic artist. Although he is Australian born and raised, his mother immigrated from South Africa, and Arlie has never found out the reason, nor why she has developed depressive agoraphobia. He loves his brother Griff, despite the fact that he is successful, wealthy, happily married, and not the disappointment to his parents, particularly his father, that he believes himself to be.
Searching for material for a new exhibition, Arlie decides to travel to his mother’s home country, and specifically to Kliptown, in Johannesburg. In this still racially ghettoized, poverty-stricken area, he finds companionship in the form of Rufaro, a political activist and leader of the choir. He also finds love with Glory, who sings in the choir, and her younger brother Samson who skips school and dreams of becoming a professional soccer player.
Gold writes a gripping and moving story, within which she interrogates colonialism, systemic racism, family ties, the nature of love, and the nature of success. But being the skilled writer she is, the narrative drives everything. She never allows themes to take over from character. The work is about people, not ideas. Her characters are beautifully rounded, real, vulnerable, and ultimately sympathetic. In particular, she gets under the skin of the delicate relationship between Arlie and his father Harris, when the latter makes an unexpected appearance to visit him in South Africa. This visit also allows Gold to take her characters away from Kliptown for a while, and into the wilds of Kruger National Park. It is here where Gold’s subtlety as a writer shines brightest, in her portrait of this breathtaking landscape, full of astonishing animals, which still throws up issues of racial tensions, and white privilege.
Through it all, we see things through Arlie’s eyes, but also through his camera: photography as a way of capturing not just what is, but what has just been, or what is just about to be. As the story drives on to its ultimate, tragic, climax, so too does Arlie’s exhibition drive on to its opening night back in Melbourne.
Shift is perfectly measured, and Gold’s writing is crisp and uncompromising, yet gently melodious. Other than a few hackneyed expressions that could have been edited out, this is a perfect novel.
Reviewed by Tracey Korsten
The views expressed in this review belong to the author and not Glam Adelaide, its affiliates, or employees.
Distributed by: NewSouth Books
Released: March 2025
RRP: $34.99
More News
