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.
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Book Description
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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. She lives in South London.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Gem Squash Tokoloshe,
By L. Aroni (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Gem Squash Tokoloshe (Paperback)
I chose this book because the title caught my attention (having grown up in South Africa, the title transported me back to childhood days when evidence of the 'Tokolshe' was everywhere!).Unfortunately I felt a little disappointed about half way through the book. It's one of those stories that is littered with stereotypes and even though I found her writing very descriptive and enjoyable I thought the characters were one dimensional. I would have liked a little more insight into each character and felt I was never given the chance to fully understand or feel for any of the characters (even though the potential was there.) It's one of those books where we know the ending before the protagonist - and I found that to be quite frustrating in places primarily because the story moves at quite a slumbered pace. There also seem to be places in the book where the author got a bit 'stuck' (for want of a better word) and wasn't quite sure how to move the story forwards. I did enjoy the book though and I especially enjoyed all the references to places and things in South Africa that reminded me of my childhood. I think it's a fantastic first effort but it's most definitely not in the same league as other more seasoned writers exploring the subject of apartheid and life in SA. I'm not certain whether I would recommend it to a friend.
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