Sheila Kohler delves into the complexities of the human psyche and interpersonal relationships, often set against the tense South African landscapes she knew intimately. Her writing is characterized by sharp introspection and meticulously crafted suspense, drawing readers into a vortex of emotions and moral quandaries. Kohler explores themes of identity, oppression, and the search for freedom with remarkable sensitivity and literary skill. Her works stand as testaments to the power of narrative and literature's capacity to uncover the deepest recesses of the human soul.
Toloki is an eccentric and dignified professional mourner. Ways of Dying tells of his odyssey from a rural community to the vibrant outskirts of a contemporary South African city, where the beautiful and tragic Noria helps him to heal the past. By turns magical, brutal, and funny, this compelling work is a major contribution to South African writing.
This is the story of Maxine and Sheila Kohler, two sisters who grew up in the suffocating gentility of 1950s South Africa. When Maxine is just shy of her fortieth birthday her husband, a brilliant and respected surgeon, drives their car off the road and kills her. Devastated, Sheila returns to the country of her birth, haunted by questions. How had she failed to protect her sister? Was Maxine's death a matter of chance, or destiny? What lies in the soil of their troubled motherland that condemns its women to such violence?
EVEN THE INNOCENT HOLD VIOLENCE IN THEIR HEARTS … A beautiful schoolgirl mysteriously disappears into the South African veld. Forty years later, thirteen members of the missing girl's swimming team gather at their old boarding school for a reunion, and look back to the long, dry weeks leading to Fiamma's disappearance. As teenage memories and emotions resurface, the women relive the horror of a long-buried secret. A stunning and singular tale of the passion and tribalism of adolescence, CRACKS lays bare the violence that lies in the heart of even the most innocent.
Eine junge Frau wird plötzlich gezwungen, sich mit einem verdrängten Geheimnis aus ihrer Vergangenheit auseinanderzusetzen.