Book description
'I knew then that there were some things not even Ruby could keep
from me for ever and this was one of them. We were coloured girls in
a white world that didn't want us.'
Born on the wrong side of a racial divide in apartheid-torn Cape
Town, young sisters Ruby and Rose exist in a world where they are not
welcome. As part of the Cape Coloured community they are considered
socially inferior, yet even within their own social group the sisters
live down the poor end of town. Their father was killed when they were
very small, so when their mother dies after a protracted illness Ruby
and Rose's fate falls into the hands of Aunt Olive. Ruby knows without
being told that their aunt's home will not be opened up to them -
charity does not extend to the poor relations who would cast a smudge
on such a respectable house. Aunt Olive condemns her nieces to the
local orphanage, relieving her conscience with monthly invitations to
Sunday lunch.
In the orphanage the girls grow up sheltered from a divided world
that they do not yet fully understand, but the day approaches when
Ruby and Rose must forge their own paths in life and confront the
lessons that apartheid enforces.
Like the award-winning Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter, this
beautifully observed novel of sisterly love once again displays Pamela
Jooste's poignant understanding of human nature.
Pamela Jooste was born in Cape Town, where she still lives. Her first
novel,
Dance with a
Poor Man's Daughter
, won the Commonwealth Best First Book Award for the African Region; the
Samlam Literary Award and the Book Data South African Booksellers'
Choice Award. Her other novels,
Frieda and Min, Like Water in Wild Places
and
People Like Ourselves
, were equally well received and are all published by Black Swan.
