A love letter to Durban and all its flaws

Prolific author, Elana Bregin, is launching a new novel, Station Life Repair, which focuses on the intersection of lives and events, choices and circumstances of a series of characters living and working in Durban.

Bregin will be in conversation with Lliane Loots, lecturer, commentator, academic and director of Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience and Flatfoot Dance Company, at Ike’s Books in Greyville on July 29 at 6pm.

One seldom reads a book, deeply rooted in a contemporary Durban which is cognisant of this city’s multi-layered complexities. Station Life Repair is a love letter to all that is joyful about the city, while not hiding the darkness in the shadows. The story has an array of well-developed characters covering the spectrum of people you find in Durban – a wise, heroic, engaging black therapist; a white woman trying to craft authentic life choices; passionate African foreign nationals trying to assimilate themselves into inner-city life and contribute meaningfully to their adopted home; an eccentric but empathic Indian vendor at the morning market; a feisty and outspoken older woman living with deep scars and rage; and a grumpy, harassed but bighearted single parent with his own demons to purge.

Bregin, as a writer inspired by the city she lives in, always finds huge empathy and resonance towards all the citizens of her city. Her novels unpack how Durbanites of different backgrounds engage with each other and find commonality and connection in the face of “othering”. She finds interest in setting opposing characters against each other and allowing circumstances to enable them to find a way to meaningfully connect – breaking down stereotypes in the process.

Her writing is infinitely readable, her plots carefully structured, her characters are plausible and real, and there is always a shimmer of hope and optimism as the story unfolds.

Ruby’s life is, outwardly, a fortunate one: she stays in a pleasant suburb, teaches at the inner-city community school, KwaSisonke, and can be counted among the more blessed of Durban’s citizens. But none of it satisfies the void at her centre. "The music has stopped," as Kirshiel, the oddball stranger at the morning market observes. The arrival on her doorstep of a problematic elderly house guest with traumatic history stirs up murky waters in Ruby’s life. She becomes embroiled in the other’s messy family dynamics, forcing her to confront her own undealt-with traumas, both past and present. Like the other characters, and the city itself, Ruby must undertake the difficult journey forward through the heart of the wound, in order to find wholeness.  

Bregin’s body of work reflects a diversity of styles and genres, from children’s and young adult novels to adult fiction, narrative non-fiction and speculative fiction. Born in Johannesburg she has lived most of her life in Durban and holds a BA degree from the University of the Witwatersrand and an MA in English cum laude from the then University of Natal. She lives and works remotely, just outside Durban in 1000 Hills area. 

Bregin first came to attention for her award-winning Young Africa titles such as The Red-haired Khumalo, The Boy From the Other Side and The Kayaboeties, which addressed racial dynamics in a changing society and have retained an enduring popularity with teachers and pupils in South African classrooms.

Her work has sometimes attracted controversy for its tendency to write across rather than within categories and its frank tackling of sensitive issues. The Slayer of Shadows (1996), a fantasy-realist work set in the turbulent days of 1990s internecine violence, won the English Academy Percy Fitzpatrick Prize in 2000. 

“Most of my writing is based on my own experiential knowledge. I’ve hunkered down at the Bushmen fires in the Kalahari Desert (Kalahari RainSong and Ella’s Dunes); seen firsthand the wild beauty of Congo lakes and forests (The Antbear Cabin); tested the waters of online dating sites (Survival Training for Lonely Hearts); and resonated with the peace and wisdoms of Buddhist and Hindu worldviews at the Buddhist Retreat Centre (Shiva’s Dance). Fiction and fictional realism (The Slayer of Shadows) remains my favourite mode of travel,” she says.

• Join Bregin and Loots at Ikes on Tuesday July at 29 at 5.30 for 6pm. RSVP / more info: Cedric: ikesbooks@iafrica.com / 082 873 2702.

• For copies of Station Life Repair, contact elana.bregin@gmail.com / copies can also be ordered from and are on sale at selected bookshops and online stores.