A case of commercial suicide? Barbara Adair’s second novel, End, uses the story of the 1942 movie Casablanca, but situates it in the Mozambique and Johannesburg of the late 80s, with odd references to Hector Pieterson, cell phones, Nigerians in Hillbrow and the Rosebank Hotel as a hangout for rightwing extremist where a black pianist plays Nkosi sikelel iAfrika.

“Will it have a wow finish?” asks the front cover. Well, it ends somewhere in Mozambique with Princess Di in a blue Versace dress being shot and killed. (continue reading…)