Like Water In Wild Places

An outstanding and heartrending literary novel from a triple prize winner.

'Her understanding of character and motivation, of the way in which humanity can shine through in one area and fail lamentably in another is outstanding. Unreservedly recommended'

'Jooste is a sensitive writer and a master of understatement'

'A remarkable novel...ought to win prizes...a great book'

Pamela Jooste was born in Cape Town, where she still lives. She is the author of four critically acclaimed novels: Frieda and Min, Like Water in Wild Places, People Like Ourselves and Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter, her first novel, which won the Commonwealth Best First Book Award for the African Region; the Samlam Literary Award, and the Book Data South African Booksellers' Choice Award.

The stories and legends of the Bushmen were told to Conrad when he was twelve years old. He was on a hunting trip with his father, Jack Hartmann, a brutal but confused man who 'gave' Conrad an old Bushman to teach him the ways of the land. Bastiaan taught him not only about the beasts and plants and soil, but inculcated in Conrad a philosophy that would remain with him throughout his life. 
 
But at home Conrad learns a different set of rules as he and Beeky, the young sister he adores, huddle together listening to the sound of his mother being beaten and told she is trash. Jack Hartmann, a senator and man of power in the community, hates his wife and daughter as much as he loves his son and Conrad's mother impresses on him that he must always protect and guard his little sister. 
 
As they achieve maturity, Conrad appears to conform to the vision his father has for him. He joins the army, fighting on the Namibian borders - a savage and hideous conflict. But Beeky defies her father and the establishment, goes her own way, yearning for a new South Africa, a new life, tenderness and kindness in place of hatred and derision. 
 
The story of their fulfilment, tragedy, and the return of hope is the story of an ancient land fighting towards redemption.

People Like Ourselves

Sharply observed social novel of the New South Africa

'Her writing is clear, light and sharply observant'

'Jooste is a significant voice in South African writing...she challenges us to see the hurt, the anxiety, the truths'

'Few novelists have written about the new South Africa in this accessible, humorous and insightful way, to reveal a daring and provocative vision of life after truth and reconciliation'

Julia belongs to the inner circle of Johannesburg high society. But in the New South Africa, things have changed - the days of tea on the lawn are over. 
 
Julia's husband, Douglas, is a serial adulterer and is no longer willing to pay for the small luxuries she has always enjoyed. Her daughter has rebelled herself right out of her life. She doesn't seem to be able to manage the 'home workers' who have developed a will of their own, and her best friend, Caroline, is quietly considering killing her husband. 
 
Now Douglas's ex-wife, who is never spoken of, has announced her intention of coming to visit from London bringing, no doubt, her politically correct credentials along with her. She's coming to see Nelson Mandela, she says. 
 
People Like Ourselves takes a wry look at the brave new world that is the 'African miracle' today, by the prize-winning author of Frieda and Min, Like Water in Wild Places and Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter.

Star Of The Morning

Haunting literary novel about two sisters from South Africa's Cape Coloured community, orphaned and growing up in Cape Town during apartheid, by the award-winning author of Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter

Pamela Jooste was born in Cape Town, where she still lives. Her first novel, Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter, won the Commonwealth Best First Book Award for the African Region; the Samlam Literary Award and the Book Data South African Booksellers' Choice Award. Her other novels, Frieda and Min, Like Water in Wild Places and People Like Ourselves, were equally well received and are all published by Black Swan.

'I knew then that there were some things not even Ruby could keep from me for ever and this was one of them. We were coloured girls in a white world that didn't want us.' 
 
Born on the wrong side of a racial divide in apartheid-torn Cape Town, young sisters Ruby and Rose exist in a world where they are not welcome. As part of the Cape Coloured community they are considered socially inferior, yet even within their own social group the sisters live down the poor end of town. Their father was killed when they were very small, so when their mother dies after a protracted illness Ruby and Rose's fate falls into the hands of Aunt Olive. Ruby knows without being told that their aunt's home will not be opened up to them - charity does not extend to the poor relations who would cast a smudge on such a respectable house. Aunt Olive condemns her nieces to the local orphanage, relieving her conscience with monthly invitations to Sunday lunch. 
 
In the orphanage the girls grow up sheltered from a divided world that they do not yet fully understand, but the day approaches when Ruby and Rose must forge their own paths in life and confront the lessons that apartheid enforces. 
 
Like the award-winning Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter, this beautifully observed novel of sisterly love once again displays Pamela Jooste's poignant understanding of human nature.

Dance With A Poor Man's Daughter

The funny, sad, exotic, colourful world of the Cape Coloureds as told through the eyes of an eleven-year-old girl.

Moving and funny...A brave and memorable debut

Tough, smart and vulnerable ... emblematic of an entire people

Highly readable, sensitive and intensely moving ... a fine achievement

'My name is Lily Daniels and I live in The Valley, in an old house at the top of a hill with a loquat tree in the garden. We are all women in our house. My grandmother, my Aunt Stella with her hopalong leg, and me. The men in our family are not worth much. They are the cross we have to bear. Some of us, like my mother, don't live here any more. People say she went on the Kimberley train to try for white and I mustn't blame her because she could get away with it even if we didn't believe she would.' 
 
Through the sharp yet loving eyes of eleven-year-old Lily we see the whole exotic, vivid, vigorous culture of the Cape Coloured community at the time when apartheid threatened its destruction. As Lily's beautiful but angry mother returns to Cape Town, determined to fight for justice for her family, so the story of Lily's past - and future - erupts. Dance with a Poor Man's Daughter is a powerful and moving tribute to a richly individual people.

Pamela Jooste

'Perceptive and sensitive and extremely funny'

'One of the new breed of women writers in South Africa who are telling our story with such power and talent'

'A novel that everyone should read..has that rare ability to be both moving and funny...deserves all the praise that it will surely get'&nbsp;

When Frieda first met Min, with her golden hair and ivory bones, what struck her most was that Min was wearing a pair of African sandals, the sort made out of old car tyres. She was a silent, unhappy girl, dumped on Frieda's exuberant family in Johannesburg for the summer of 1964 so that her mother could go off with her new husband. In a way, Min and Frieda were both outsiders - Min, raised in the bush by her idealistic doctor father, and Frieda, daughter of a poor Jewish saxophone player who lived almost on top of a native neighborhood. The two girls, thrown together - the 'white kaffir' and the poor Jewish girl - formed a strange but loyal friendship, a friendship that was to last even through the terrible years of oppression and betrayal during the time of South Africa under Apartheid.

Pamela Jooste

Praise for Frieda And Min

'Perceptive and sensitive and extremely funny'

'One of the new breed of women writers in South Africa who are telling our story with such power and talent'

'A novel that everyone should read..has that rare ability to be both moving and funny...deserves all the praise that it will surely get'

'Perceptive and sensitive and extremely funny'

'One of the new breed of women writers in South Africa who are telling our story with such power and talent'

'A novel that everyone should read..has that rare ability to be both moving and funny...deserves all the praise that it will surely get'

'Perceptive and sensitive and extremely funny'

'One of the new breed of women writers in South Africa who are telling our story with such power and talent'

'A novel that everyone should read..has that rare ability to be both moving and funny...deserves all the praise that it will surely get'

Books by Pamela Jooste

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