Child of the River - book review

Irma Joubert writes in her native language, Afrikaans. Luckily, her new book, Child of the River, has been translated into English. This is a great historical novel, which I received free from Booklook Bloggers in exchange for an honest review.

 

This story follows Persomi, the poor white daughter of illiterate sharecroppers, from age 11 through mid-life. Persomi's life is changed when she's given the opportunity to continue school in the village, which she'd never been to before. She learns early in the book that the man she grew up with as a (drunken) father is not her biological father, and it's much later in the book, after a few twists and turns, that she learns which of the rich white men in the village is her father. Along the way we see how her upbringing and her belief that she is not a "real" person influence her decisions and actions.

The many parts of this novel (coming-of-age, romance, history of race relations in South Africa) work together in an easy-to-read page-turner that I thoroughly enjoyed.