Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

LIGHT ON A DARK SECRET: Inter-racial Love Drama in Apartheid-Era South Africa



Insightful, Revealing and Shocking!

A glimpse of what it was truly like to live and love under the repressive regime of Apartheid.


5 Mar 2013 20:58 Africa/Lagos

New Book by Pulitzer Centre Award-Winning Essayist

LONDON, March 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Abela Publishing has pleasure in announcing the publication of LIGHT ON A DARK SECRET by Glynnis Hayward a Pulitzer Centre award-winning essayist. This is a book about inter-racial relationships and their consequences in apartheid-era South Africa. The Foreword has been written by Ken Andrew, former South African Opposition M.P. and human rights advocate.

WHAT'S BEEN SAID ABOUT THE BOOK

Insightful, revealing, shocking! A glimpse of what it was truly like to live and love under the repressive regime of Apartheid.

Light on a Dark Secret is a vivid reminder of apartheid's injustice and its far-reaching effects.

The title is very appropriate. "Light on a Dark Secret" made me think about my own values.

I really loved this book! It was very well written and kept me engrossed, I didn't want to put it down. I particularly liked how the story was told from the perspective of the different characters. Brought me to tears in a few places.

Read it!

ABOUT THE BOOK

In 1982, Fran Walker was born in California and given up for adoption. Twenty years later, she is on a quest to find her biological parents and solve questions that have plagued her since childhood.

1980 was a difficult time in apartheid-era South Africa for those who opposed government policies; it was extremely dangerous to act outside the law. As a bi-racial couple in a country governed by strict laws of racial segregation, Valerie and Johan's love affair was clandestine. The consequence of their forbidden love, if discovered, would be immediate incarceration. A child from such a union was unthinkable. Discovering she is pregnant, Valerie is faced with imminent exposure. Unable to communicate with Johan, who is being closely monitored by the police, she makes decisions that will have far-reaching consequences. Her actions, as well as those of her mother, Sharon Spencer, and Grace Walker - Fran's adoptive mother, raise the question: More than biology,what does it take to be a mother?

Fran despairs when, amidst prejudice and recrimination, her search discovers a family alienated and broken. But the journey to South Africa is a coming of age for her when she falls in love with a fellow student. She gains insights which help her understand and forgive the circumstances that surrounded her birth.

Four women are the storytellers and each narrates her perspective of events that began in 1980, when two students fell in love in South Africa. In addition to Fran, the women are her birth mother, biological grandmother, and adoptive mother.

TITLE: Light On A Dark Secret
ISBN: 978-1-9009302-10-5
AUTHOR: Glynnis Hayward
PAGES: 346
FORMAT: Paperback & Kindle eBook
PUBLISHED: 2013
WEBSITE: http://www.abelapublishing.com/GlynnisHayward.html

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A South African born novelist and essayist, Glynnis Hayward now calls the San Francisco Bay Area home. However her work shows that Africa still features high in her affections and interest. "Light on a Dark Secret" is her third novel and is available both on Kindle and in paperback.

In addition to her first two novels, she has had many magazine articles published online. In 2008 she won an award from the PULITZER CENTER on Crisis Reporting for her essay that discussed how stigma and discrimination perpetuate the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The award recognized her contribution to help increase awareness of under reported international news.

In 2013, she was invited to become a member of South African PEN, a branch of PEN International. PEN International operates on all six continents and is the representative body for literature at UNESCO and the United Nations.

Glynnis is currently working on her next book, also set in her native South Africa.

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

To contact the publisher, email John Halsted at books@abelapublishing.com Books for the USA, Canada and Mexico are printed on mainland USA. Books for the UK, Ireland and Europe are printed and distributed from the UK. Books for Australia, New Zealand and nations in the South Pacific are printed in Australia. All books are printed using paper which promotes environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world's forests thereby reducing our carbon Footprint. See http://www1.lightningsource.com/chainofcustody/

CONTACT: +44(0)7951952062










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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Peter Carey Says People Are Getting Dumber Every Day


Peter Carey

Australian author Peter Carey who has been tipped to become the first to win the Man Booker Prize three times says only dumb people would put cookery books and Dan Brown novels at the top of the most-read charts.

"We are getting dumber every day. We are really, literally, forgetting how to read. We have yet to grasp the fact that consuming cultural junk is completely destructive of democracy," said the 67 years old author of 11 books who lives in New York during a speech to close the 2010 Sydney Writer’s Festival.

Peter Carey has won the Man Booker Prize twice for Oscar and Lucinda (1988) and True History of the Kelly Gang (2001) .

Only Carey and JM Coetzee of South Africa have won the Booker Prize twice.

Nigerian writer Ben Okri remains the youngest author to win the Booker Prize at 32 for his metaphysical novel The Famished Road in 1991.


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima






Parrot and Olivier in America ~ Peter Carey


Theft ~ Peter Carey


True History of the Kelly Gang: A Novel ~ Peter Carey


His Illegal Self (Vintage International) ~ Peter Carey


My Life as a Fake ~ Peter Carey


Jack Maggs: A Novel ~ Peter Carey


Oscar and Lucinda: movie tie-in edition ~ Ralph Fiennes


Bliss ~ Peter Carey


Illywhacker ~ Peter Carey


Wrong About Japan ~ Peter Carey





Summertime: Fiction ~ J. M. Coetzee


Waiting for the Barbarians: A Novel(Penguin Ink) ~ J. M. Coetzee


Disgrace: A Novel ~ J. M. Coetzee


Boyhood: Scenes From Provincial Life ~ J. M. Coetzee


Life and Times of Michael K: A Novel ~ J. M. Coetzee


Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II ~ J. M. Coetzee


Age of Iron ~ J. M. Coetzee


Diary of a Bad Year ~ J. M. Coetzee


The Famished Road ~ Ben Okri

In Arcadia ~ Ben Okri

Dangerous Love ~ Ben Okri

Stars of the New Curfew ~ Ben Okri

A Way of Being Free ~ Ben Okri

Songs of Enchantment ~ Ben Okri

Infinite Riches (The Famished Road) ~ Ben Okri

Astonishing the Gods ~ Ben Okri

Tales of Freedom ~ Ben Okri

Starbook ~ Ben Okri