ABOUT
THE BOOK

Set in Hillbrow during the tumultuous years of apartheid’s demise, the rapid changes taking place both in the neighbourhood and in the country are charted by staid, conservative Aubrey Tearle, a retired proof-reader whose life has been devoted to reading telephone directories. Obsessed with what he terms ‘corrigenda’ – mistakes that crop up with increasing frequency as ‘standards decline’ – he embarks on a grandiose plan to enlighten his fellow-citizens, with disastrous, hilarious and poignant results.