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Unmaking Grace

Barbara Boswell

$37.95

Paperback

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English
Catalyst Books
19 December 2019
Family secrets run deep for Grace, a young girl growing up in Cape Town during the 1980s. Her family secrets spill over into adulthood, and threaten to ruin the respectable life she has built for herself.

When an old childhood friend emerges after disappearing a decade earlier during a clash with apartheid riot police in the Cape Flats, where South Africa's coloured community makes its home, Grace's memories of her childhood come rushing back, and she is confronted, once again, with the loss that has shaped her. She has to face up to the truth or continue to live a lie-but the choice is not straightforward. Unmaking Grace is an intimate portrayal of violence, both personal and political, and its legacy on one person's life. It meditates on the long shadow cast by personal trauma, showing the inter-generational imprint of violence and loss on people's lives.
By:  
Imprint:   Catalyst Books
Country of Publication:   United States [Currently unable to ship to USA: see Shipping Info]
Dimensions:   Height: 228mm,  Width: 152mm, 
ISBN:   9781946395238
ISBN 10:   1946395234
Pages:   240
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Barbara Boswell is an educator and literary activist. She is an alumna of the Women's Studies Program at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she lived for several years, and has taught at universities in both the USA and South Africa. Barbara is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Cape Town, where she teaches Black women's diasporic literature, African feminist literary theory, and gender and sexuality.

Reviews for Unmaking Grace

The novel creates drama while confronting intersecting systemic oppressions and intergenerational trauma by foregrounding its characters' needs, wants, wounds, and aspirations. The prose is taut with both clarity and complexity. A smart, compassionate portrayal of one woman's quest to end the cycle of violence. -Kirkus Reviews


  • Long-listed for Sunday Times (South Africa) Literary Award 2018 (South Africa)
  • Winner of Debut Prize, 2017 University of Johannesburg Prizes for South African writing 2018 (South Africa)

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