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In the long run, however, all their attempts at keeping up appearances cannot disguise the fact that, for a multitude of reasons, their marriage is failing, and that they have also lost touch with their son, that they have no idea about where, and how, he is actually spending his time. They find out
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A birthday party thrown in Silas's honour is the last event where the Alis are seen together. By that time, Silas is toying with the idea of going abroad, preferably to Europe, to make a fresh start there, especially now that
President Mandela is about to resign and he may lose his prestigious
194:. For almost twenty years, Silas and Lydia have kept quiet about the crime, both to each other and towards the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and Lydia has never shared her terrible suspicion that du Boise is Michael's
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too late that, while performing brilliantly at university, he has turned into a seducer of older women—he has had affairs with one of his father's former "comrades in arms", who is rich, white, and
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government job; Lydia has stopped working as a nurse and is planning to leave her husband for good; and
Michael has acquired a gun and lets himself be influenced by
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while Silas was made to listen to her screams from inside a police van—an act of brutality obviously triggered by Silas's involvement with the
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In the end it is
Michael Ali who takes the most drastic actions. Reinventing himself as a Muslim and planning to go into hiding and eventually to
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with his daughter—who is a friend of
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occasionally even seen on television next to
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for a number of sexual assaults, including the one on her. In an act of
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assigned to coordinate governmental activities with those of the
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The past catches up with Silas Ali one Sunday morning at a
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lawyer approaching 50 who has risen to prominence during
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when he sees, and recognizes, François du Boise, an
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121:in 1998, it is about the disintegration of a
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198:with anyone other than her secret
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321:21st-century South African novels
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232:fundamentalist Islamic circles
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202:. Trapped in an unpromising,
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212:self-injury
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264:paperback
180:Afrikaner
127:apartheid
117:. Set in
115:Cape Town
89:868430318
53:Published
220:bisexual
123:Coloured
249:Edition
224:Muslims
208:amnesty
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239:India
200:diary
184:raped
61:Pages
268:ISBN
188:veld
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