Tsotsi by Athol Fugard

I found this on the library bookshelf and checked it out.  I'd never read anything by Fugard... for some reason (him being a playwright, and I not particularly enjoying the conventions of theater) I'd always thought of him as intimidating.  But the movie version I had seen, at FESPACO in Burkina actually, and it was a fantastic movie most of the way through, and so when I saw that Fugard was the author of the book I said to myself, "This has got to be even better than the movie."  And sure enough, much better.  A hard challenge for a writer: take a young man grown up a hardened street thug, put a baby accidentally in his hands one night, and record the "inner life" as it evolves with the facts of living in the world.  But isn't this the challenge that writers should be taking?  (Compare, e.g., with the challenges Tom Wolfe sets for himself...)  It is seriously depressing, but invigorating because of the sharp insight and the excellent writing.  The ending is completely different from the movie, and far better.