FollowCall it a difficult night is a story about madness. Using anecdotes, poems, dialogue, and fragments of historical research, it follows a nonlinear path in tracing the life of its young narrator/protagonist.
Institutionalised after a ‘final break’, a young woman remembers in sharp detail her disturbing childhood visions, which have become overwhelming by the time she is at high school and university. When she finally gets a diagnosis a doctor explains that she is likely to be either demented or brain dead by the time she’s 30.
Call it a difficult night is a work of empathy, observation and lyricism, by an author who has the capacity to describe great joy and great suffering.
Mishka Hoosen was born in Johannesburg. She completed high school at Interlochen Arts Academy in the USA, and has an MA in Creative Writing from Rhodes University. She is currently studying anthropology, with special interests in
gender, violence, trauma, and folklore. Call it a difficult night is her first book.