The unnamed protagonist of Perfect Hlongwane’s second novel, Sanity Prevail, is admitted to the Psychiatric Ward of a government hospital.

There, he meets an assortment of characters, his fellow patients, and narrates their hilarious, horrific and ultimately tragic stories as relayed to him by themselves. His conflicted feelings about being in the treatment facility, and keen curiosity with regard to the admission stories of his fellow patients, serve as the unfolding plot for his stay in the Psychiatric Ward.

The protagonist agonises about what it means, to be adjudged mentally unwell, by a society whose very foundations seem to him unjust and unhealthy to the point of being bizarre.

A story that seeks to explore what sets individual stories apart, how they converge and collide and ultimately, the dilemma of being alive in the world today, such as it is. A riveting tale about the struggle of a mental patient to wrestle hope from the deepest pit of despair.

This novel collection by first-time author Perfect Hlongwane offers a biting portrait of inner-city Jo’burg, `a place where dreams come to die’. Written as a series of interlinked stories centring around an eclectic ensemble of characters, it conjures for readers a city both familiar and surprising. With its vein of painful self-examination, evocative sense of place and unflinching exploration of the rawer aspects of Jo’burg living, it brings to mind the impact of cult literary figures like Dambudzo Marechera and Phaswane Mpe.