Bitter FruitWith the publication of Kafka's Curse, Achmat Dangor established himself as an utterly singular voice in South African fiction. His new novel, a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and the IMPAC-Dublin Literary Award, is a clear-eyed, witty, yet deeply serious look at South Africa's political history and its damaging legacy in the lives of those who live there. The last time Silas Ali encountered Lieutenant Du Boise, Silas was locked in the back of a police van and the lieutenant was conducting a vicious assault on Silas's wife, Lydia, in revenge for her husband's participation in Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. When Silas sees Du Boise by chance twenty years later, as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is about to deliver its report, crimes from the past erupt into the present, splintering the Alis' fragile peace. Meanwhile Silas and Lydia's son, Mikey, a thoroughly contemporary young hip-hop lothario, contends in unforeseen ways with his parents' pasts. A harrowing story of a brittle family on the crossroads of history and a fearless skewering of the pieties of revolutionary movements, Bitter Fruit is a cautionary tale of how we do, or do not, address the past's deepest wounds. |
Contents
Section 1 | 26 |
Section 2 | 65 |
Section 3 | 81 |
Section 4 | 110 |
Section 5 | 149 |
Section 6 | 253 |
Section 7 | 267 |
Section 8 | 274 |
Section 9 | 277 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Afrikaans Alec Alec's apartheid asked bastard beauty Berea body Boise Boise's child close cold dancing dark daughter door Dr Johnson drink Du Boise Durban eyes face father feel fuck fucken glass Gracie hand hospital husband imagined Imam Ingwe Janine João Johannesburg Julian Kaaba Kate Kate's kind kissed knew laugh leaned Leonard Cohen listen live looked Louis Botha Lydia looked Mam Agnes Mandela Michael Mikey Mikey's mind Mireille mother Moulana Ismail Muslim Nelson Mandela Newclare night okay Ouma perhaps pulled quiet rape remembered Sadrodien seemed sense Shit Silas and Lydia Silas's silence sipped sits skin sleep smell smile someone Soweto speak staring stopped street talk tariqah taxi tell things thought told township trying turned Vinu voice walked watching wife woman wondered words young