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The 2007 Award

 

 

 

Gem Squash Tokoloshe by Rachel Zadok

 

 

Nominated by:

  • Tshwane Library & Information Service, Pretoria, South Africa
  • City of Johannesburg Library & Information Services,
    Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Cape Town Central Library, Cape Town, South Africa

 

Publisher of Nominated Edition
Pan MacMillan ISBN 0330441191
Picador Africa ISBN 1770100237

 

the complete A-Z listing of nominated authors
ABOUT THE BOOK
A poignant and heart-wrenching story of the dissolution of a marriage seen through the eyes of an innocent child
She just sat there hardly moving, staring at the drive. Black marks formed under her eyes where her lashes bled their waxy coating onto her skin. Her rouged cheeks were smudged. Mother looked like she was melting in the heat.
Faith leads an isolated existence on her family's drought stricken farm in the Northern Transvaal of South Africa. When the rain stopped, her father took to the road as a travelling salesman, returning only at weekends. Now Faith lives with her mother Bella and dog Boesman anticipating his visits - until one day he stops coming and Bella's health begins to go into rapid decline.
Fifteen years later Bella has died incarcerated in the Sterkfontein asylum for the criminally insane. Faith has not spoken to her mother for ten years and is on the brink of a breakdown of her own. Now, with her mother's death, she inherits the farm and must return to confront the dark mysteries of the past . . .
In prose as lithe and imaginative as that of Alexandra Fuller, Rachel Zadok te Riele recreates the voice of a young girl growing up during the height of apartheid unrest in South Africa. As Faith struggles to make sense of the complex world in which she lives and come to terms with the beliefs her society and upbringing have inculcated in her, what emerges is a richly compelling, emotionally resonant tale of courage set against the backdrop of a chaotically divided and deeply beautiful country.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Rachel Zadok grew up in Johannesburg. She studied Fine Art and worked as a freelance graphic designer and then a waitress while pursuing a career as a writer. In 2005 Rachel was selected from 46,000 hopefuls and a long list of 26, to become a winner of the Richard & Judy/ 'How to Get Published' competition. Her debut is Gem Squash Tokoloshe. She lives in South London.


 

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