A DRY WHITE SEASON by Andre Brink (hier online bestellen)
The story:
Taking place during the 1976 Soweto uprising, the story follows the white school teacher Ben Du Toit whose life and values
are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Gordon Ngubene, the black janitor at the school, seeks Ben's help in his search for his son Jonathan, last
seen during a demonstration during which many blacks were killed or taken away by police. Ben does what he
can but feels confident that the whole matter is just some kind of mix up and that soon father and son will
be reunited.
Ben's confidence is shaken, however, when Gordon himself is taken away by the Special Branch, South Africa's
secret police. Gordon is soon found dead in his cell of an apparent suicide. Ben can now no longer deny what
is happening, that the Special Branch is torturing and killing prisoners, and gathers enough evidence to bring
the case of Gordon's death to trial.
The final awakening for Ben comes when the Judge rules for the Special Branch and his last shred of belief in
the system is destroyed. From this point on he vows to help those blacks being persecuted by the system and is
himself eventually persecuted and murdered.
A Dry White Season is set in the 1970s, at the time when the schoolchildren of Soweto, an African township
outside Johannesburg, held a series of protests. They wanted to be educated in English, not Afrikaans
(a language spoken only in South Africa and mostly by whites). The protests resulted in the deaths of
many marchers, but the government weathered the storm and clapped a lid on the possibility of a civil
uprising, as it always has.
Extract from book:
About the author:
André Brink is one of the world's most prominent novelists. He has won South Africa's important literary
prize, the CNA, three times, and has twice been short-listed for the Booker Prize. He lives in Cape Town,
South Africa.
Buchdaten:
A DRY WHITE SEASON by Andre Brink
Sprache: Englisch
Broschiert - 315 Seiten - Vintage
Erscheinungsdatum: 3. Dezember 1992
ISBN: 0749399899
Preis: € 11,95
More works from the same author:
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