Other Lives
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
In just one morning, he forgot who he was...
Three provocative and interconnected stories from one of the world's greatest living writers:
A white painter in Africa comes to his studio in the afternoon. On his doorstep, he sees a woman with curly hair and a dark complexion. He has never seen her before, but she embraces him. As he steps past her, two strange children rush to his feet yelling "Daddy!" This family welcomes him home, but he knows none of them.
On the other side of Cape Town, a white man pulls himself out of bed and toward his mirror, where he is confronted by his suddenly black face.
A concert pianist falls passionately in love with the celebrated singer he works beside, but cannot bring himself to touch her, until one night they sit down to eat dinner, and look up to see themselves surrounded by armed men.
In this new novel, Andre Brink is at his best, exploring the fractured yet globalized world where we find ourselves and our lives transformed.
PRAISE FOR ANDRE BRINK
"South African novelist Brink is a master stylist."
Publishers Weekly
"Brink describes calamities and absurdities of the apartheid system with a cold lucidity that in no way interferes with high emotion and daring flights of the imagination."
Mario Vargas Llosa, New York Times Book Review
"One of the most important and prolific voices from South Africa."
Library Journal
"If you want to get the feeling of South Africa, as strongly as Camus gives you the feeling of Algiers, you will turn to André Brink."
Tribune
"Brink writes feelingly of South Africa—the land, the black, the white, the terrible beauty and tragedy that lies therein."
Publishers Weekly
"Brink is a hard-eyed storyteller."
Philadelphia Inquirer
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Brink's latest novel essentially a collection of three novellas is a vividly imagined if claustrophobic chronicle of the lives of three subtly connected men living in contemporary South Africa. The first story is the dreamlike tale of a white painter named David le Roux who one day returns to his studio and finds a black woman named Sarah and her two children waiting for him. He quickly surmises that the woman believes he is her husband and the father of the children, but he has never seen any of them before. The second story revolves around a white architect (and acquaintance of David) named Steve, who looks into the mirror one day and discovers he is black. The third story is that of Derek Hugo, a celebrated pianist infatuated with singer Nina Rousseau. Despite years of womanizing (including an affair with Steve's wife), Derek cannot bring himself to touch Nina, and the night he finally makes his move, their date is violently interrupted. An enervating awkwardness suffuses the pieces, though the conceit is a little too thin to carry a whole book.
