Painful. Beautifully written.

"The history books... only 1 generation old..."

The way this book is written - the style, the voice - everything is beautifully done. Each chapter flows effortlessly into the next, pulling you in, making it impossible to stop reading.
A must-read for anyone and everyone. As a Coloured South African woman, I was especially moved by the author's deep empathy for her struggling family members and the system that failed them. It made me think of my own family - of those who fought, and those who lost, their battle with substances while living in a system designed for their failure.
It made me think of my father, a man who loved to read but never got to finish high school because he had to become the man of the house. A brown man carrying the weight of responsibility under the crushing reality of Apartheid. I remember him showing me the tree he used to sit under, reading his books while watching other kids his age go to school - a story I once heard but couldn't fully grasp the weight of at the time.
It made me think of my mother, who, despite everything, held onto her warmth. Who made sure I felt safe and loved. Who fought to give me everything she never had. Her stories of being spat on by white South Africans, their rage fueled by her intelligence, while she had no choice but to endure their daily taunts, unable to fight back or defend herself.
The stories of my uncle, lying on a cement block in an Apartheid prison, insects crawling over him in the dark—a stark reminder that the system white South Africans benefit from to this day is the same system that did everything to show us that, at best, we were simply not worth the effort, and at worst… not even seen as human.
And yet, we were all expected to "just forgive and forget" while the system remains rigged in favor of white South Africans. This book made me reflect on what that means - not just for South Africa, but for the modern world, and our ongoing fight against white supremacy.

ありがとうございました。

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