This novel symbolises a powerful moment in black South African queer people's engagement with pop culture. Its themes are bold and relevant โ yet they have rarely been explored in literature to the extent and in the combination that they have been explored in this book.
- Siya Khumalo, You Have To Be Gay To Know God
When Peace reluctantly agrees to inherit his late brother's widow Mma Mogale, his relationship with long-time boyfriend Thomas is headed for a collision course. There were already vultures poised for an opportunity to destroy their love nest and seemingly idyllic lifestyle and now may be their chance.
Yet, Peace is torn between the modern corporate life he and Thomas are living in Tshwane and his destiny as the village chief with his roots in a conservative family where heterosexuality is a given and homosexuality condemned as un-African.
This fuels the tensions between him and Thomas, the man he recognises as his true love, as Thomas battles with the instruction for Peace to inherit a bride. Is a custom he cannot understand the final straw for their relationship or will Peace's son Lethabo work his magic to find a solution? Can their exclusive relationship survive the major blows of cheating and retaliation?
Peace is trapped between appeasing his family's wishes and following his heart, but when tragedy strikes, Peace must find ways to embrace his destiny that the family and village may not recognise as traditional.
Here Comes the Gay King explores the labyrinth of gay life with its beauty and complexities in a post-apartheid South Africa, while taking readers on a journey across the breath-taking landscape that constitutes this country.