[3] The text follows the wanderings and creative endeavors of Toloki, a self-employed professional mourner, as he traverses an unnamed South African city during the nation's transitional period.

Mda experiments with magical realism,[5][6] using it to highlight the interplay of tragedy and laughter in confronting crisis,[7] and the conflicts between social classes and government authority.

The novel takes place in an unnamed South African city, five years after the first elections to occur after Apartheid.

[8] Grant Farred, writing in Modern Fiction Studies, criticized Mda for his implicit condemnation of the historical, violent tactics used to resist Apartheid.

Alternatively, Rita Barnard praised the book for what she believed to be an "optimistic" tone, stating that it did not "offer a ratification of received codes of conduct".