This is a powerful story, simply told. In post-apartheid South Africa, the Truth Commission comes to the small town of Smitsrivier. An elderly couple's determination to find the body of their murdered son, sets in motion a sequence of painful events, digging up the past for all those involved. An ex-policemen applies for amnesty and a tortured ANC member is put in the position of having to face his torturer once again. A white South African lawyer, now a resident of New York, is summoned back to her home-town by her elderly radical mentor to take charge of proceedings and help the elderly couple uncover the whereabouts of their son's body.
The novel raises the complex question of how a country with a history like South Africa, and the individuals within it, deal with the issues of guilt, retribution and victimhood.
The subject brings to mind the excellent Ariel Dorfman play, Death and the Maiden, which looks at a woman confronting her torturer in the context of Chile after the dictatorship. In this, a similar commission has been set up to investigate deaths caused by torture. Gillian Slovo's approach is very different. The novel has elements of thriller/crime fiction, which draw the reader in. The issues are not, however treated in a cliché or tacky manner. The story is made compelling by the revealing of the intimate relationship between torturer and tortured. But Slovo does not indulge in gory details and voyeurism. The style is minimalist and the understating of the violence all the more effective. The chapters are short and events are somewhat underplayed. As with the Dorfman play there is no great cathartic ending; the issues are unresolved.
The ANC member who faces his torturer, finds himself having to confront his own guilt and fear that he has betrayed his friend and comrade who was murdered. He is by far the most interesting and engaging character in the book. This was perhaps intentional, but it is also interesting, given that Gillian Slovo is a white woman. In contrast, the white female protagonist is the least engaging character, and even two-dimensional. The writing at times lacks depth (which surprised me having read Slovo's autobiography, Every Secret Thing) but there is also strength in the simplicity of the style, which allows the story to speak for itself.
This is an important book, well worth reading. The characters, the images and the issues stay with you.
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