Unconfessed [Hardcover]

Yvette Christianse (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Poet Christiansë (Castaway), born in apartheid-era South Africa and now living in New York City, channels the torturous history of South African slavery in her debut novel. Sila van den Kaap, whom Christiansë discovered in an early 19th century document, is a slave serving hard labor at the Robben Island prison colony after murdering her own son, Baro. As Sila breaks and hauls stones, evades the attentions of the prison guards and cares for her small children, she casts her mind back to the daily indignities, fleeting pleasures and larger injustices that have defined her life since, as a young girl, she was brought to South Africa from Mozambique. Addressed primarily to the spirit of her deceased son, Sila's absorbing, lyrical narrative is circular: she alternates between exhausted lament, seething rage and scripture-tinged poetic soliloquy ("their sins are like unto a plague of locusts that eat not fields but bodies and hearts"), and returns repeatedly to the broken promise of her freedom, granted in the will of one of her mistresses, Oumiesies ("old Missus"), and disregarded by Oumiesies's cruel son, Theron. After many passionate digressions, Sila alights, finally, on the death of Baro. In the final pages, she movingly addresses "the daughters and sons of my generations"—those now living with slavery's legacy. (Nov.)
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From Booklist

Little has been written about what it was like to be a slave in South Africa under the early white settlers. This debut novel tells it through the first-person, present-tense narrative of Sila, once a slave, now a prisoner on Robben Island off Cape Town in the 1820s. Speaking in her head to her son, Bora, she remembers her grief for him and for all her slave children torn from her. Her memories are interwoven with her daily life in the penal colony, breaking stones in the quarry, being raped continually, and always losing the beloved children she bears. The dense meditation back and forth is much too repetitive, but the history is authentic, and Sila's brave, desperate voice reveals the vicious brutality as well as surprising discoveries of love and friendship. Readers of Toni Morrison's classic Beloved (1987) will recognize the story of a mother driven to save her children at any cost. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: Other Press (November 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590512405
• ISBN-13: 978-1590512401
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 1.2 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,259,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deliriously beautiful, November 26, 2006

By 

R. Morris - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unconfessed (Hardcover)

I'm probably biased in favor of this book, so don't take my word for it. Take People Magazine's. Caroline Leavitt gave it 4 stars, and described it as a "breathtaking novel," "gorgeous and tragic," and written in "rich, lyrical prose." Kirkus reviews gave it a starred review. And so did the Library Journal. The great South African writer, Antjie Krog, says that Yvette Christiansë invented a new language for the book. But it's accessible, and even compulsive reading.

As for my own estimation, Unconfessed is a deliriously beautiful work, one that manages to make the main character, Sila van den Kaap, at once pitiable and admirable. Abused by history and its mendacious masters, she is fierce but also vulnerable, terrifying in her capacity for rage and surprising in her capacity for love, humor and even laughter. This is great literature, and also a great read.

14 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Freedom At Any Cost, November 8, 2006

By 

Phyllis Rhodes (Orlando, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unconfessed (Hardcover)

"No mother wants to know that her generations are condemned to the life she despises."" - Sila from Unconfessed

Unconfessed is the story of Sila, a slave who is sentenced to fourteen years of hard labor at South Africa's infamous Robben Island for murder of her son, Baro. Sila, captured as a youth from neighboring Mozambique, has borne a life of hardships. Freedom, promised to Sila and her children upon the death of her mistress, is swindled from her by the destruction of the will by the mistress's financially inept son. She and her children are sold back into bondage to settle gambling debts. She lands at the farm of a sadistic cruel master whose fetish is boxing/slapping slaves about the head, so fiercely that Sila becomes deaf in one ear from the beatings. When six-year old Baro embarrasses the master and his wife in front of their future in-laws by innocently implying that the master is his father, he is beaten unmercifully as an adult would be in such a manner that even the guests are appalled at the master's punishment. After the guests leave, more beatings ensue in the following days for Sila and her son. By the fourth day, Sila realizes that Baro, covered in bruises and suffering from broken bones, will never perform well enough or respond quick enough to ever please their owners. Knowing that he will be the constant target of their owner's anger and eventually will be sold away to a life of bondage, she frees her son from his earthly torment by putting a knife to his throat.

The story is told in Sila's voice via alternating memories from her childhood, servitude, trial, and prison experiences. The book's title refers to her never confessing to the crime, but cites one word (heartsore) as the rationale for her actions. Borrowing the theme from Toni Morrison's Beloved, Christianse authors a fictional tale based on proven facts. She created a character that seemed as if she could have actually existed at some point in time. She wrote the story with such convincing ken that Sila's story seems rooted in authenticity - no doubt she worked hard under extreme conditions, was repeatedly raped and sexually abused all her life, and suffered unimaginable mental stress and utmost heartbreak with the death and sale of her children.

On a personal note, I deducted a point for a couple of drawbacks. There seemed to be too many repetitive passages that did nothing to enhance or advance the established plot. Sila's soul is angry and tortured, however her extended inner monologues to express those emotions were quite numerous. The lyrical and somewhat poetic dialogues with her deceased children to calm her spirit and justify her actions were a bit protracted and sometimes read as abstract ramblings. However, I really enjoyed the history lessons contained within the book. The author cleverly folds in the inhumane conditions of Robben Island, the Dutch reaction to British anti-slavery laws, and the resistance of the indigenous Xhosa people against the Dutch. This is a notable read for historical (literary) fiction fans.

Reviewed by Phyllis

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written and thought provoking, April 17, 2008

By 

Marsha Foley (Marietta,Georgia USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unconfessed (Paperback)

This book is for the reader who wants the challange of a book that makes you think and come up with conclusions. It is not a cookie-cutter walk in the park novel, but rather one that makes you ask questions and ponder the story. I made my book-reading friends read this so we could share our opinions which were quite different.
This is an original, carefully researched, true slave narrative and is now among my favorite books. Share it with someone who can appreciate its deepth.