Mystic Tears

 NIGHTMARES AND A TWIST IN THE TALE

Child marriage and the traumas of family violence are set against a background of the systemic abuses of apartheid South Africa in full stride.

This heart-breaking memoir gives insight into a community, a time, a culture, a level of poverty and family dysfunction which is not as changed today as the writer might have wished for. The way it is written also provides some intrigue. Most revealing, however, is the poignancy which sifts its way through the often brutal narrative. Even when severely battered, human beings cry out for love and a place to be themselves.

Here is an intimate portrait of a family – and a country – struggling through the wars within.