The West Rand Jive Cats Boxing Club

Lauren Liebenberg

Goaded by the pulse of Elvis, Little Richard and the kwela kwela rhythms of the black ghettos, best friends Tommy and Chris, twelve-year-olds growing up on the mines of Johannesburg, look to prove their grit on the slumyard dance floors of the West Rand Cons Mine and in the sweat-soaked ring of the boxing club.

But Tommy has a little sister Cecilia, sweet, whimsical and vulnerable. Unwittingly, she will make the friends face a choice between courage and cowardice, between loyalty and betrayal.