Memoirs & Bios

Memoirs are stories told by one of the characters involved. They are meant to be ‘true’ in that they relate to an actual person’s experience. Biographies are similar, except that they are written by a third party, the biographer. South Africa is big on memoirs at the moment, perhaps largely because for so long people have felt ‘bottled up’ but are now much more able to see value in their experiences and to express them. This is an exciting time in local literature.

Memoirs & Bios

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  • Brand: Annemarie Conolly
  • Brand: Maria (Marijka) Keet
Absorbing too much of the...
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Absorbing too much of the...

What do you do when your son tries to strangle your husband? Only the author of this remarkable book has a ready answer for that. She takes the reader along for a frequently shocking life - affirming ride. It describes a wife and mother's journey into her son's mental illness. Her story allows us to see that recovery is not a neat, linear path, but instead a convoluted and complicated daily journey. 'In sharing her adversities and how she coped,' comments Kendal Brown, 'maybe we can draw some lessons from this brave lady to be better prepared for the lemons life all to often hands us.'

Price R250.00
No Taming of the Enthusiast
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No Taming of the Enthusiast

From skylarking at school to a professorship at the best university in Africa. It's all here in this collection of loosely related memoir-essays: all twists in the winding road the author travelled to become a female computer science professor at the University of cape Town. Born and schooled in the Netherlands, Ms Keet didn't stay home for long. Her winding road had a distinctly international flavour. She has worked and studied in Ireland and Italy, and briefly in Peru and Cuba, before finding her way back to South Africa. The author herself says of her essays: ' They offer a peek into a kitchen where underway is making of a woman into an academic scientist when the yeast has been gender-spiked against her chances of rising.'

Price R240.00
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