| The Children's Day Contributor(s): Heyns, Michiel (Author), Kennedy, A. L. (Introduction by) |
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ISBN: 0980243661 ISBN-13: 9780980243666 Publisher: Tin House Books OUR PRICE: $13.46 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2009 Annotation: "The Children's Day" follows the life of Simon, a boy living in a free-state village during the apartheid years of the 1960s. Through a series of finely drawn and illuminating episodes, the novel captures the essence of what it was like to grow up in a society fraught with strange and often violent contradictions of class, race, gender, and language. Adolescence, in all its angst and confusion, is explored through the acute eyes of Simon, who is torn between scorn for his surroundings and a desire to belong. It is through the lives of the novel's poignant, vulnerable, and sometimes eccentric characters -- Mr. de Wet, with his disconcerting eyes; chinless Betty; Miss Rheeder with her ever-present red shoes; Trevor, with his blonde bangs and pink shirt -- that Simon comes to understand what the complexity of love can mean. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Literary |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 2009010360 |
| Physical Information: 0.8" H x 4.9" W x 7.6" (0.55 lbs) 244 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The tender chronicle of a boy's coming of age in South Africa during the apartheid years of the sixties, The Children's Day captures the essence of growing up in a world fraught with the strange and sometimes violent contradictions of class, race, gender, and language. The widening world of adolescence, in all its allure and confusion, is explored through the eyes of Simon, who struggles to make sense of the adults around him--torn between scorn for his surroundings and a desire to belong. This debut novel is peopled with poignant, vulnerable, and sometimes eccentric characters, and it is through their lives that Simon comes to understand the complexities of love. |
Contributor Bio(s): Heyns, Michiel: - Michiel Heyns is the author of four novels: The Children's Day, The Reluctant Passenger, The Typewriter's Tale, and Bodies Politic. He has translated two works by Marlene van Niekerk, Agaat and Memorandum, and he has recently translated Equatoria by Tom Dreyer, (Aflame Books UK) 2008. He reviews regularly for the Sunday Independent. He was awarded the English Academy's Pringle Prize for reviewing in 2006 and the Sunday TimesFiction prize in 2007for his translation of Agaat. |