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Vendor
Fritz Agency
Christian Dittus
Original language
English

UNMAKING GRACE

Barbara Boswell

Family secrets run deep for Grace, a young girl growing up in Cape Town during the 1980s. Her family secrets spill over into adulthood, and threaten to ruin the respectable life she has built for herself.

When an old childhood friend emerges after disappearing a decade earlier during a clash with apartheid riot police in the Cape Flats, where South Africa's coloured community makes its home, Grace's memories of her childhood come rushing back, and she is confronted, once again, with the loss that has shaped her. She has to face up to the truth or continue to live a lie—but the choice is not straightforward. Unmaking Grace* is an intimate portrayal of violence, both personal and political, and its legacy on one person's life. It meditates on the long shadow cast by personal trauma, showing the inter-generational imprint of violence and loss on people's lives.

*Published in South Africa under the title Grace.

Barbara Boswell is an educator and literary activist. She is an alumna of the Women's Studies Program at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she lived for several years, and has taught at universities in both the USA and South Africa. Barbara is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Cape Town, where she teaches Black women's diasporic literature, African feminist literary theory, and gender and sexuality.
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Published 2019-12-01 by Catalyst Press

Comments

“A bold rendering of the swathes of emotional terrain that lie between victim and abuser, child and adult, husband and wife, good and bad, past and present – a deeply compelling and important story.” — Yewande Omotoso, author of Bom Boy and The Woman Next Door “Barbara Boswell's Unmaking Grace is a novel of constant questioning. Moving and thought-provoking, the narrative takes the reader on a journey of becoming not only for the country, South Africa, but also for the women who struggle for a sense of themselves.” — Merle Collins, author of Angel and The Ladies Are Upstairs

“The novel creates drama while confronting intersecting systemic oppressions and intergenerational trauma by foregrounding its characters' needs, wants, wounds, and aspirations. The prose is taut with both clarity and complexity. A smart, compassionate portrayal of one woman's quest to end the cycle of violence.”

"The apartheid history of South Africa is one of pain, oppression and violence. Grace's upbringing on the outskirts of Cape Town was the same. Post-apartheid, as an adult, Grace works hard to ensure her own life, and that of her family, is safe and happy. When someone from her childhood makes a shocking return, Grace must face a painful past and make grueling decisions about how to move forward." Read more...

- Winner, 2017 Debut Prize, University of Johannesburg Prizes for South African writing - Long-listed, Sunday Times (South Africa) Literary Award