BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW: Secrets from past have ways of coming to the surface
This beautifully written novel is about love, happiness, starting from scratch and creating your own universe out of nothing
Grace Barbara Boswell Modjaji Books It is often difficult to escape one’s past, it is said. You will never really know where you are going if you don’t acknowledge where you come from. In her first work of fiction, gender activist and academic Barbara Boswell shows how, after living a life built on lies and secrets, a woman is faced with tough decisions when a person from her childhood walks back into her life. We are first introduced to Grace as a young girl trying to make sense of the world. A war is playing out, both inside her home and outside. In the 1980s, when political tensions in SA are high, Grace, the quiet daughter growing up on the Cape flats, has a life that is unpleasant. Her father, Patrick, is an alcoholic who is often unemployed, leaving the burden of caring for the family to her mother, Mary. From the outside, the De Leeuw household looks like any other township household, but inside a deep fear rages. Coffee-stained curtains, punched doors and Mary’s bruises conc...
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