''Who picked up whom? Is the pickup the illegal immigrant desperate to evade deportation to his impoverished desert country? Or is the pickup the powerful businessman's daughter trying to escape a privileged background she despises? When Julie Summers' car breaks down in a sleazy street, at a garage a young Arab emerges from beneath the chassis of a vehicle to aid her. The consequences develop unpredictable, relentless emotions that overturn each one's notions of the other. What are the solutions life demands for extraordinary circumstances? A novel of swift power and concision, The Pickup is set in the social mix of the new South Africa and Arab village in the desert. It is the story of the rites of passage that are emigration/immigration, anywhere in the world, where love can survive only if stripped of all certainties outside itself.'' (Book Sleeve)