Living with risk is now part of everyday South African life. Violent crime and AIDS pose threats in huge numbers. Shifts in race and class jolt one's sense of identity. Ethically, we are challenged daily by ram-pant need in the face of plenty. In fact, our society as a whole feels as if it is a giant experiment that could very well go wrong. But it could also succeed. In each of these twelve narratives, some-thing, or someone, is at risk. Written in registers of the unexpected -- surprise, shock, bewilderment, as well as uncertainty, scepticism and doubt -- the pieces form a second wave of South African non-fiction writing. They cut loose from the grand accounts of apartheid and the themes of confession and redemption born out of our fledgling democracy. These personal, intimate accounts blow the lid off South African society as we know it.