THIS MASQUERADE

● THIS MASQUERADE by FAROUK ASVAT

contents:

The Barrier
Forgiveness
Piet

Bahia
Kaaperi
This Masquerade

Sunday Morning Haircut
From A Corner
A Life Come True

Set in Johannesburg and Cape Town in the heydays of #apartheid,
these stories act as a compendium to Farouk Asvat's novels and poems.

These short stories are in addition to the stories in:
● The Gathering Of The Storm &
● The Paanies Are Coming

● A CELEBRATION OF FLAMES by FAROUK ASVAT
♦ WINNER OF THE VITA AWARD

" ''A Celebration Of Flames'' is a powerful, impassioned call. The sanity and courage of this collection arises from the poet's unique experiential perceptions of his milieu, making him one of the few who can write about these traumatic times with such lucidity and lyricism. The strength of Farouk Asvat's poetry lies in the way he intertwines the complex elements of social and political conflicts with intense personal relationships. The wide tonal range extends from sensual and delicate insights into the nature of passion to the satiric and humorous use of slang."
● VITA AWARD citation by ● Lionel Abrahams, editor, Purple Renoster & Sesame

"Like hesitating snowflakes his words are fascinating in their capricious wilfulness
- like unexpected strokes of a whip."
● Susanne Baackmann, University Of Albuquerque, USA

"The legend of poet extraordinaire Farouk Asvat: - like vintage wine, proper poetry matures with time, and like vintage art the voice and wisdom of a poet worth the name is timeless."
● Mphutlane wa Bofelo, kagablog

"His love poetry soars with an intense sensitivity, it celebrates lyrically the joys of a most exquisite sensuousness."
● Marcia Leveson, University of the Witwatersrand, The Indicator

"Farouk Asvat writes about love and suffering, about individualism, snobbishness, pretence and pride, about human and environmental beauty and about opposing oppression, and who deploys metaphysical, lyrical and colloquial language, slang and standard diction, all with equal strength and ease."
● Cosmo Pieterse, Culture In Another South Africa

"you almost catch your breath at some of the stanzas - you can re-read it several times and be struck by new ideas, metaphors, elegiac surprises, and the heartfelt poignancy"
● Aggrey Klaaste, editor Sowetan

"Farouk Asvat's award-winning collection of poems crackles with a passionate consuming pace"
● Z B Molefe, arts editor City Press

"Out of an angry silence, a polished poet is born."
● Anton Harber, editor Weekly Mail

● Farouk Asvat is a novelist, poet, translator & medical doctor, banned by the South African #apartheid regime.

§ Farouk Asvat was
● nominated an Amnesty International "Prisoner of Conscience";
● awarded the Fulbright Scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley;
● the EOC Scholarship to the Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands;
● the University of Cape Town Health Care Trust Scholarship;
● and the Kwanzaa Honors Certificate by the Africa Network.

● He qualified as a medical doctor at the University of the Witwatersrand, and worked at various community clinics and hospitals.
● His poems, short stories and essays have been published in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Turkeye, Switzerland, Netherlands, France, Germany, England, Korea and South Africa.
● His poems have been translated into French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Turkish and Greek.