The narrative follows the Swart family, white farmers living near Pretoria, across four funerals spanning four decades of South African history. When the matriarch Rachel dies, she requests that the family deed a small cottage to Salome, their Black domestic servant. The father, Manie, refuses to honor this deathbed wish, igniting a moral conflict that haunts his children, Anton, Astrid, and Amor. As the country shifts from Apartheid to the presidency of Jacob Zuma, the family members meet their ends in various ways, yet the legal ownership of the property remains unresolved.
Readers interested in the intersection of private morality and national politics will find a technical experiment in shifting perspectives. The prose moves fluidly between the internal thoughts of different characters, including those about to die. It appeals to those who study the failure of white South Africans to settle historical debts. A reader finishes the book with a clear view of how systemic injustice persists through individual apathy and the physical decay of the landed elite.
Deep, inward-looking, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2021
- Language
- EN
