Book Review – “If an Asteroid Falls on Cape Town, South Africa” by Rowena Claudia Fortuin

Hey, hope you are safe and sound from Covid and everything! Wherever you are stay safe and keep in touch with us! Here is the fourth book review released in line with the World Asteroid Day Writing Project hosted by Sweek.com during June 2020.

The writing project was the 6^th of its kind and was coordinated by Chinthaka Nanayakkara who was a former brand ambassador of Sweek. com. His writing projects are called WRIPES (WRI extracted from the word ‘writing’ and P, E and S extracted from the ‘project)

The 6^th writing project is known as WRIPE-6. Writers from all around the world were given a writing prompt to describe the cities they live in and finish the story by giving an alarm to the entire world that their city is going to be destroyed by an asteroid heading towards earth.

So far ‘Our Universe For Kids’ have released book reviews on top three books showcased in WRIPE-6. They were ‘If an Asteroid Falls on Kolkata, India’ by Tanushree Chowdhury, ‘If an Asteroid Falls on Valencia’ by Kathy Baker and ‘If an Asteroid Falls on Rio de Janeiro’ by Samantha F Carneiro.

Tanushree was from India, Kathy was from Spain and Sam was from Brazil. The fourth author we are bringing forward today is Rowena Claudia Fortuin from South Africa who authored ‘If an Asteroid Falls on Cape Town, South Africa’. She is also the Afrikaans coordinator of WRIPE-6.

Rowena maintains one of the best blogs of WRIPES in Afrikaans language. Also she has recently published short story in Afrikaans called ‘Die Gelukkigste Mense in die Wêreld’ which means the ‘The Luckiest People in the World’ in English. ‘Die Gelukkigste Mense in die Wêreld’ was released on June 5 and is now available at selected online retailers.   

‘If an Asteroid Falls on Cape Town, South Africa’ begins with a short description of the picturesque country with a brief summary of the prevailing covid situation. Then immediately what follows is the unleashing of the wrath of the asteroid at the utopian state; “It has hit South Africa. Unexpectedly. Out of nowhere. Out of thin air… there is no time to prepare. This is no utopia. It’s a paradise of a disaster …”

As the tragedy unfolds, Rowena also creatively points out the worthless existence of all politicians stating, ‘with their empty promises of a better tomorrow … [they] did not foresee that there would be no tomorrow”

At this point she plays a little trick on the reader saying that ‘none of these have happened’ and conjures an image of happy life of the utopian state she dreams about; “families are laughing. The warning must be a mistake. The 30^th June will be just another day”   

Placing the reader at a dilemma, she asks the million dollar question: “If an asteroid falls, will [the world] will be prepared for it?”

‘If an Asteroid Falls on Cape Town, South Africa’ is an interesting an engaging read which you can enjoy for free. Let us hear what you think, my space lovers!

You can contact Rowena via email ([email protected]), Instagram (rowenaclaudia) and Facebook (Rowena Claudia Fortuin). Also you can visit her blog, rowenafortuin.blogspot.com in which she shares her thoughts, book reviews, film reviews etc.

Chinthaka Nanayakkara

Chinthaka Nanayakkara is an e-book author, a paperback author, editor, book cover designer, video maker, Youtuber, mentor, guest blogger and an organizer and coordinator of a unique type of WRIting ProjEctS called WRIPES. He was a former Brand Ambassador of Sweek.com – a mobile writing platform based in Netherlands that enables anyone in the world to read, write and share their stories at no cost.