WAN Paperback – Import, 1 May 2022

An absolutely brilliant, mesmerizing book - about life in Africa as a white person, as an artist, as an activist, as a dreamer, as a striver, as an employer, as a worker, as a family - just so many facets, so many challenges, so much food for thought. A must-read book and a wonderful way to learn about a specific aspect of history.Thank you, Dawn Promislow - I am very grateful to you.

You do not have to have grown up in South Africa to be immediately entranced with the story of a white, liberal woman dealing with a political fugitive who is staying in a stone room at the bottom of her lush, leafy Johannesburg garden. Jacqueline tells her tale to an unnamed listener, moving seamlessly between memories of Apartheid South Africa in 1972 and her current, aging self in New York City. Jaqueline’s point of view gives a unique perspective of a much-covered era. She is an artist: a vague, anti-social wife and mother who has breakfast served on the patio by her maid Emily and retires to her white bedroom each afternoon. Her interdependence with Emily is achingly typical of the times. There is also Josias, whose English is minimal, who tends the garden and pool and shares chlorine deliberations with Howard, Jacqueline’s husband.Howard, a lawyer, agrees to harbour ANC activist Joseph Weiss for a few weeks in the room next to Jaqueline’s studio, where she has been working on an abstract canvas in hues of white. Joseph’s presence unsettles her, her work is interrupted, in “stasis”. The weeks stretch into a year, with a visit from Jacqueline’s parents causing added anxiety. Jaqueline visits Joseph sporadically, she is consumed by guilt and fear and her own emerging feelings.Art, abstracts, betrayal, secrets, a country in distress - with a backdrop of heartbreaking beauty - are gathered together in the author’s gentle, lilting words to create an exceptional novel that is hard to put down. At the core is Jaqueline’s unassuming voice and quiet panic - a seemingly ordinary, reticent housewife and artist, trapped in her privileged life. There are illuminating glimpses of her childhood in rural Orange Free State. She gives Joseph her painting of the Vaal River. “Nobody knows it’s the Vaal River, because it’s an abstract. But I know…”The secondary characters - Jaqueline’s parents, the children, her friend and art supplier Eric – even Howard’s secretary, Candace, are equally well drawn. And there is Tiny, the new maid, whose unfinished story represents so many.You do not have to have grown up in South Africa to devour the lyrical prose, to imagine the rolling green garden, to become immersed in the complex relationships between Jaqueline and her husband, her mother, Emily and particularly Joseph. But if, like me, you know this land, if its rhythm echoes in your bones, then you will smell the dry “dun” veld of the Free State, you will hear the dogs bark in the backyard, you will remember your own Emily and Josias, you will taste the sweet, juicy, yellow Cling peaches.(Gaby Glass Aizenman, author of Mothers’ Day – stories of mothers and others).

I loved the going back and forth in time to tell this amazing story of a family during a critical time in South afrAfrica.

Couldn't put it down! I was mesmerized by protagonist Jacqueline's voice, vague and haunting with rhythmic repetition. A poignant glimpse into a particular place and time, underscoring universal themes of guilt and privilege and the complexity of human relations.

Excellent book.