South Africa's high crime rate inspires novelist

Novelist Angela Makholwa's fascination with South Africa's violent crime has made her one of the country's most popular writers.

Using sharply drawn characters and intriguing plots, Makholwa's fiction helps South Africans to make sense of the country's high crime rate. A mother of two who runs a public relations firm, Makholwa says she is inspired by the discomfort caused by crime.

"It's a permanent fixture of our lives. It's almost part of the fabric of what it is to be a South African," she says. "It's hard for me to write an idealized version of what it's like to live in Johannesburg or South Africa."