DIKELEDI

Booker Shortlister's fierce and tender new novel, tracing four generations of a family living through apartheid

‘Dangor writes lyrical, often beautiful prose that switches suddenly into blazing anger. He shows brilliantly the violent mixture of race, rage and gunfire that gives South Africa its crazy speed.' — Christopher Hope, New York Times Book Review

‘A complex family tale told with beautiful simplicity, searing honesty and unexpected humour. Dangor reveals the vulnerable humanity of people living in inhumane times.' — Mohale Mashigo, author of The Yearning

When a family tragedy drives a wedge between father and son, Patrick Tau turns his back on his rural home, determined to break with his past and never to speak of the secrets he holds. He builds a new life with his wife and children in Johannesburg's Newclare township. As apartheid's cruel laws bite and the threat of forced
removals becomes a reality, Patrick makes a decision that will change the course of their lives and impact each member in wholly unanticipated ways.

In attempting to understand the complex history of her famous father's family and country, Patrick's granddaughter, Dikeledi, an investigative journalist, reconstructs four generations of the Tau family. As she unpicks the tangled threads of individual stories, she uncovers a crime syndicate of apartheid-era figures and
disillusioned liberation fighters, realising that things are not always as they seem and that the past has a way of leaking irretrievably into the present. And on the way she faces challenging questions about her own life, and about identity, belonging, sacrifice and compromise.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Award-winning novelist, banned in apartheid South Africa, who taught literature and writing at the City University of New York. Achmat now lives and works in Johannesburg, most recently occupying the position of CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. BITTER FRUIT was shortlisted for the Booker and the IMPAC Prizes.