Agency: A Memoir of Remarkable Things follows Ashley Brownlee from his adoption at birth and childhood in 1970s Claremont to his later life in the Klein Karoo. The book is described as a candid mix of difficult memories, humour and self-discovery.
Author Sally Andrew, best known for Recipes for Love and Murder, describes Agency as:
“Funny. Moving. Gripping. Testimony to the healing powers of the Klein Karoo.”
Herman Lategan, author of Son of a Whore, calls it “a queer South African classic in the making” and describes it as an account of what it meant to be queer, adopted and living through some of South Africa’s most turbulent decades.
Brownlee’s story moves through apartheid-era Cape Town, his experience of growing up gay in the 1980s, the loss of friends during the HIV/Aids epidemic and his own diagnosis with HIV in 1993.
It also recounts childhood experiences including a helicopter crash and the murder of his second godfather, events that shaped his understanding of mortality and safety.
But Agency is not simply a book about trauma.
Brownlee uses humour throughout the memoir, something he says became a way of balancing the darkness of childhood trauma, illness and loss.
His journey eventually leads to the Klein Karoo, where he began rebuilding his life. Brownlee has described the region as a place where there was “nowhere to go but in” – an environment that gave him the space to confront his past.
Other readers and writers have also praised the book.
Pierre de Vos describes Agency as a moving and hilarious story of love and survival, while James Whyle says the memoir shows how someone can live through adoption, HIV/Aids and cancer while retaining a sense of humour and wonder.
Photographer and author Lien Botha highlights the role of the Karoo landscape in the story, describing it as a place where memory, identity and belonging intersect.
Nicola Hanekom, winner of the Hertzog Prize for drama, describes the memoir as a vivid journey of becoming, while Peter-Adrian Altini calls Brownlee’s prose “laugh-out-loud funny”.
Brownlee, who lives in the Klein Karoo, says the memoir grew out of a period of serious illness and reflection. The book will be available in South Africa from the end of September.
At its heart, Agency is a story about a man trying to understand where he came from, what shaped him and where he belongs – with the Klein Karoo ultimately becoming an important part of that answer.
