Book description
'My name is Lily Daniels and I live in The Valley, in an old house
at the top of a hill with a loquat tree in the garden. We are all
women in our house. My grandmother, my Aunt Stella with her hopalong
leg, and me. The men in our family are not worth much. They are the
cross we have to bear. Some of us, like my mother, don't live here
any more. People say she went on the Kimberley train to try for
white and I mustn't blame her because she could get away with it
even if we didn't believe she would.'
Through the sharp yet loving eyes of eleven-year-old Lily we
see the whole exotic, vivid, vigorous culture of the Cape Coloured
community at the time when apartheid threatened its destruction. As
Lily's beautiful but angry mother returns to Cape Town, determined to
fight for justice for her family, so the story of Lily's past - and
future - erupts. Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter is a powerful
and moving tribute to a richly individual people.
Pamela Jooste was born in Cape Town, where she still lives. She is
the author of four critically acclaimed novels: Frieda and Min, Like
Water in Wild Places, People Like Ourselves and Dance with a Poor Man's
Daughter, her first novel, which won the Commonwealth Best First Book
Award for the African Region; the Samlam Literary Award, and the Book
Data South African Booksellers' Choice Award.
