David Krut Projects Cape Town (DKCT) would like to invite you to the book launch of The Alibi Club, written by the artist and writer Jacob van Schalkwyk.

25^th Feb | Saturday | 11am

In 1998 a young South African arrives in Brooklyn, New York. He becomes a bartender at The Alibi, a dive full of blue-collar workers, drug dealers, music lovers and Guinness. At The Alibi, locals play pool and watch Jeopardy! As triple-A-listers from Manhattan eye their neighbourhood’s tree-lined avenues and buy up its historical brownstones. Soon soya milk and organic vegetables take up shelf space where cheap cleaning products and anaemic lines used to be. The Alibi is also the place from where its regulars experience the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, which leaves New York dripping with distrust while terror ripens on its sidewalks.  Van Schalkwyk’s poignant debut novel is a unique document about a city, a neighbourhood, and the lives of individuals, all changed irrevocably.

Jaco van Schalkwyk will be reading from and discussing the intricacies of this novel followed by a Question-and-Answer session.

The Alibi Club will be on sale for R200 a copy and the author will be available for signing.

“Rarely does a debut novel drop with such brass, such dexterity, such muscled confidence as this … as astounding debut” – Michele Magwood

“Welcome to the Afrikaans American dream” –Toast Coetzer

About the Author:

Jaco van Schalkwyk was born in 1979 and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, where he was the recipient of the Pratt Circle Award for Academic Achievement in 2003 and editor of The Prattler. He returned to South Africa in 2008. His work is available through David Krut Projects, has been included in private and corporate collections in South Africa, the United States and Europe.