"It wasn't any kind of physical stamina that kept her going, but a vague, instinctive pattern of normal human decencies combined with the work she did,...
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the people she met each day and the unfolding of a project with exciting inventive possibilities. But a person eventually becomes a replica of the inner demons he battles with. Any kind of demon is more powerful than normal human decencies, because such things do not exist for him." Bessie Head In this fast-paced, semi-autobiographical novel, Head exposes the complicated life of Elizabeth, whose reality is intermingled with nightmarish dreams and hallucinations. Like the author, Elizabeth was conceived out-of-wedlock; her mother was white and her father black a union outlawed in apartheid South Africa. Elizabeth eventually leaves with her young son to live in Botswana, a country less oppressed by colonial domination, where she finds stability for herself and her son by working on an experimental farm. As readers grow to know Elizabeth, they experience the inner chaos that threatens her stability, and her constant struggle to emerge from the torment of her dreams. There she is plagued by two men, Sello and Dan, who represent complex notions of politics, sex, religion, individuality, and the blurred line between good and evil. Elizabeth's troubling but amazing roller-coaster ride ends in an unfettered discovery. Other titles by Bessie Head available from Waveland Press: The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Tales (ISBN 9781478607601); Maru (ISBN 9781478607618); and When Rain Clouds Gather (ISBN 9781478607595). Other titles by African writers from Waveland Press: Amadi, The Concubine (ISBN 9781478634607) Andreas, The Purple Violet of Oshaantu (ISBN 9781478634584) Ba, So Long a Letter (ISBN 9781577668060) Campbell, My Children Have Faces (ISBN 9781478635017) Emecheta, Kehinde (ISBN 9781577664192) Kubuitsile, The Scattering (ISBN 9781478634591) La Guma, In the Fog of the Seasons' End (ISBN 9781478600251) Marechera, The House of Hunger (ISBN 9781478604730) Nwapa, Efuru (ISBN 9781478611011) p'Bitek, Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol (ISBN 9781478604723) Plaatje, Mhudi (ISBN 9781478609575) Rifaat, Distant Views of a Minaret and Other Short Stories (ISBN 9781478611288) Tadjo, The Shadow of Imana: Travels in the Heart of Rwanda (ISBN 9781478627814) Warner-Vieyra, Jultane (ISBN 9781478611783)
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