Scatterlings: A Novel by Resoketswe Martha Manenzhe

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Web ID: 15494748

A BEST NEW BOOK from Vanity Fair The New York Times The Washington Post A lyrical, moving novel in the spirit of Transcendent Kingdom and A Burning-and the most awarded debut title in South Africa-that tells the story of a multiracial family when the Immorality Act is passed, revealing the story of one family's scattered souls in the wake of history. In 1927, South Africa passes the Immorality Act, prohibiting sexual intercourse between "Europeans" (white people) and "natives" (Black people). Those who break the draconian new law face imprisonment-for men of up to five years, for women, four years. Abram and his wife Alisa have their share of marital problems, but they also have a comfortable life in South Africa with their two young girls. But then the Act is passed. Alisa is black, and their two children are now evidence of their involvement in a union that has been criminalized by the state. At first, Alisa and Abram question how they'll be affected by the Act, but then officials start asking questions at the girls' school, and their estate is catalogued for potential disbursement. Abram is at a loss as to how to protect his young family from the grinding machinery of the law, whose worst discriminations have until now been kept at bay by the family's economic privilege. And with this, his hesitation, the couple's bond is tattered.

  • Product Features

    • Suggested age range - Adult
    • Format - Hardcover
    • Product dimensions - 6.1" W x 9.1" H x 1.1" D
    • Genre - Fiction
    • Publisher - HarperCollins Publishers, Publication date - 12/13/2022
    • Page count - 288
    • ISBN - 9780063264113

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3 years ago
from Lubbock

Beautiful, haunting and emotional read

Scatterlings is a beautiful, lyrical, haunting punch in the gut. The book opens in South Africa in 1927. Apartheid is not yet the law of the land but looms on the horizon. The Immorality Act, a law prohibiting sexual relations between whites and blacks, has just gone into effect. This presents problems for Abram van Zijl, his wife Alisa, and their two young daughters Dido and Emilia. Alisa is Black and of Jamaican descent. Overnight this new law has turned her life and family into a crime. Her response to this most recent assault on her identity and precarious mental health is nothing short of cataclysmic... it is beyond devastating. The rest of the book serves as a form of recovery for both the reader and those left behind. The author, Resoketswe Manenzhe, does a masterful job of incorporating African mythology and storytelling traditions into the novel. They form the framework for exploring issues of identity, race, belonging and alienation. The book is beautiful, complex, compassionate and despite it's moments of great despair, there are also quiet glimpses of love and hope. They may be fleeting but they are precious and beautiful.

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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com

3 years ago

Most Powerful Read of the Year

Resoketswe Martha Manerzhe’s Scatterlings takes the prize as the most powerful book I have read in 2022. Set in South Africa as the House of Assembly passes the 1927 Immorality Act, the novel focuses primarily on Johannesburg’s already troubled van Zijl family and its disintegration in the weeks leading up to the law’s enactment. Threatened by Daniel Ross, an officer of the House of Assembly, and worried about what will happen to herself and her daughters in face of the law’s enforcement, Alisa van Zijl carries out a desperate act resulting in two deaths and further endangering the survivors. Readers see into the minds of the wealthy white Dutch-English father, the black Caribbean/British mother, the older of their two young daughters, the father’s estranged former best Dutch friend Johannes in the Transvall, and two native South African servant women--Mmakoma/”Nanny Gloria” in Johannesburg and Možaži/Josephina in the Transvall. Divided into five multi-chapter parts titled “Children of the First Gods,” “The Gift of Bonds for These Orphan People,” “To Teach a Monkey to Climb,” “To Africa,” and “Children of the Sky God,” Scatterlings moves between the spirit world and the physical world. It encompasses African folklore, superstitions, traditions, the natural landscape, and heartbreaking colonial history while dramatizing loss, displacement, and the human need for hope, belonging, and home. Although relatively short at roughly 225 pages, Scatterlings is not a book to skim. It demands the reader’s full attention. With that attention and perhaps a few quick Google searches focused on historical events or geography, readers interested in international fiction should find this a thought-provoking, emotional portrayal of the devastating human cost of colonialism and the search for emotional peace and belonging. Many thanks to NetGalley and HarperVia for an advance reader copy of this highly- recommended South African novel.

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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com