Zoo City by Lauren Beukes, 2010
A South African yarn spun from crime and general seediness. Takes place in some alternate future where criminals are marked by being "animalled", meaning, they give you an animal. I never really figured out who. But the animals also come with some vague magical leanings, and those with them are ostracized and segregated in this sort of ghetto called Zoo City.
A journalist and her sloth are good at finding lost things (that's her whatever the ****), and use this ability to help keep herself afloat amidst great debts and undesirable folks, as well as some nice internet fraud. She gets swept up in the underbelly of this whack society and well it's just no good.
I liked it and would like to read more from the author.
4/5