Nie vir kinders nie | Young Adult Fiction

Francois Bloemhof

Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature (2005)

Tim Marais comes from a good background and is one of the top students in his school. To the casual observer it may seem that he has everything any kid could desire – he’s attractive, popular and academically successful. But actually, without being able to explain why, he feels a deep dissatisfaction with his suburban, bourgeois existence.

Some of the people in his life make him feel even more mixed-up, notably his singing teacher – who also happens to be the mother of his best friend!

The best friend himself, Ruan, also starts to play an increasingly negative role in Tim’s life. No longer the fat clown who makes a joke of everything, Ruan introduces Tim to a way of “coping” with his sense of disillusionment and dissatisfaction.

And so, with a little help from his friends, starts the downward spiral of the erstwhile star pupil Tim Marais . . .