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: Vanessa Neo Mosupi

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

ORPHANED, WITH LIVING PARENTS

Many thousands of South African children are brought up by their grandmothers. This is one of the many manifestations of an unstable and distraught society, where the mother to child bond is too often broken, causing pain and a deep-seated sense of loss to both parties. Each Gogo-raised child’s story is different, but the general theme is the same: it deals with abandonment, with only qualified acceptance, but most of all with the simple absence of a real mother presence. The title of Vanessa Neo Mathope’s book – Orphaned, with Living Parents – tells it all. A monstrous imbalance has occurred, and the consequences run deep.

Price R260.00