By Leigh Andrews

Erasmus is a wonderful South African writer. Before I knew it, I was deeply immersed in the story, recognising local references but engrossed by the storyline. Protagonist Hannah works in a Cape Town restaurant that she co-owns with her lover, the accomplished chef Daniel Mbu. Her mother, Chloe Cartwright, is a published author who gives lectures in her free time ... but something just isn’t right. When visiting, Hannah finds the house more messy than usual and the normally empty fridge filled with food past its sell-by date. Then Chloe gets lost after dropping a friend off at the airport, which prompts Hannah to make an appointment with their family doctor.

Things go downhill quickly, with Hannah (a part-time shoplifter) focusing more on her mother and less on her own life. This leads to a few disasters when she has to drop everything to calm her mother down after attacking the domestic worker. The stress and disruption leaves Hannah to appear dishevelled when the restaurant is filmed behind-the-scenes and its reputation tarnished when she forgets to note an important booking in the reservation book.

The impact on Hannah’s relationship with Daniel is well written, as is her dilemma over whether to take her mother for a consultation with Dignitas in Switzerland – after all, she has to consider the opinion of her brother Karl who now lives in the US and thus doesn’t see just how bad the situation really is. The present day action is interspersed with Hannah’s memories of her childhood, all of which makes for a most interesting read.

It’s a fascinating look at the changes in a mother-daughter relationship, the possibility of assisted suicide when facing the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s and life in the restaurant industry. Below Luck Level is published by Penguin.