Such a lonely, lovely road : a novel

Summary: South Africa. All his life Kabelo Mosala has been the perfect child to his doting but emotionally absent parents, who show him off every chance they get. Both his parents and his small community look forward to him coming back after medical school and practicing with his father. They also plan to give him the perfect township wedding. But Kabelo's one wish has always been to get as far away from the township as he possibly can and never come back. A few weeks before he leaves for university, however, he forms a close bond with Sediba, one of his childhood friends, confirming his long-standing suspicion that he is gay. When he arrives at the University of Cape Town, Kabelo meets Rodney, a white student who is also gay. Rodney throws parties where Kabelo becomes more and more comfortable with his sexuality. But when things turn chaotic Kabelo flees to Durban, where he buries his nose in books and tries to live more responsibly. A chance encounter with Sediba in Durban sparks a wonderful love affair that brings Kabelo out of many years of loneliness. In Durban they can live as they wish because no one knows them and they have more freedom than they've ever had before. Their relationship is thrown into turmoil by social pressures and conflicting desires, and it starts to look as if they can't be together. When the time comes for Kabelo to return home, Sediba appears to have given up, announcing that he is thinking of marrying a woman and giving up hope of being with the man he loves. But against all odds the two young men make their way back to each other, risking scorn from the community of people who raised them.