Sara Highbury, forty-eight years old, is the manageress of a boarding house in early 1900s South Africa. She lives her life in the past, haunted by a love affair with a diamond digger called Herbert.
One day a young child arrives at Sara's door. Apparently the girl is Herbert's illegitimate daughter and it seems there is no one else to look after her. Having a child to care for disrupts Sara's quiet routine. Troubled by the mystery surrounding the girl's arrival, Sara begins to excavate the past. As the truth unfolds, Sarah must re-evaluate what she holds dear and engage once more with the world around her.
With the backdrop of a rural landscape and characters that are as memorable as they are unexpected, The Shape of Him introduces a writer whose spare, exquisitely crafted prose places her deservedly in the tradition of the best of South African literary fiction.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
Schierhout imposes an austere intelligence and sense of regret on this remarkable narrative. If any novel published this year deserves a truckload of honours, it is this one. No reader could be prepared for the complex tale that unfolds. It is a beautiful book, as bleak as love and as heartbreaking -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times * Written with an elliptical elegance reminiscent of Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient this is a strong debut about the grip of memory and the power of one life to impose itself upon another * Financial Times * Her novel is not unlike the diamonds of which she writes: hard, glinting and multifaceted, suggestive of intense compression and unfathomable depths * Sydney Morning Herald *
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ISBN-13
978-1-4090-7748-0 (9781409077480)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Gill Schierhout was born in Zimbabwe in 1967. She holds a Doctorate in Public Health and has worked as an academic and consultant in London and Southern Africa. She has twice been a finalist in the HSBC/SA Pen literary award and was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African writing in 2008. She now lives in Sydney, Australia.
