A Dry White Season

Another one in my list of South African literature must reads. It's a little project I have to find out more about the country where my parents hailed from.

It is interesting for me to find out so many things and situations, that have of course been fictionalized, that have been completely unknown to me. The history books they tell it, but they tell it rather poorly and rather briefly. It least that is the case in the Netherlands where I think part of the conscience remembers the Dutch that we are in fact the same people - the Afrikaners and the Dutch that is - with a few variations of course.

The book tells the story of a middle-aged down to earth teacher with quite a boring life that helps one of the schools black workers to find out how and why his son died, when he goes missing and is later found dead. The story unravels a structure and security state that reminds one of the dystopias found in Orwell's books.

A good book. Well written and compelling. A story reminding us now how happy we should be that that terrible tyranny has ended.