You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town is a book of short stories written by South African author Zoë Wicomb. The stories are partially autobiographical and interrelated. The book was published in 1987, during a period in South Africa when the anti-apartheid movement became more militant.

The stories have a common theme: the experiences of a "colored" woman in South Africa during the apartheid era. Before You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town was published, there were very few literary works that articulated the experiences and perspectives of a woman of color in the country.

While the book wasn't intended to be radical, the publication of the book set the precedent for future feminist literature in South Africa. It was also one of the earliest works of fiction to provide commentary on the political climate at the time, particularly, from the point of view of a woman of color.

The stories as a whole can be considered post-colonial literature, even though apartheid did not officially end until a few years after the book was published. The stories feature recurring themes of oppression, identity politics (both as a woman and as a black South African), critiques on colonialism, and cultural differences between the majority black South Africans and the minority whites in power.

You Can't Get Lost in Cape Town can be read as a journalistic piece of literature because it documented the culture, socioeconomics, and politics of the time in Cape Town, in particular, and South Africa as a whole.

The character in the book is a university educated, English-speaking woman of color, which made her an outsider to both white and black South Africans. However, this outsider point of view allowed her to gain perspectives that were outside the scope of either group.