An Act of Terror
by André Brink
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`A massive apartheid thriller centred on a plot to blow up none other than the State President outside the gates of Cape Town Castle. . . Brink at his robust and imaginative best' Adam Low, Daily Telegraph. `A political thriller, set in South Africa, laced with all the angst and pain and lacerating emotion that comes from attempting to intellectualise, and hence come to terms with, living in that volatile, unnerving, but ultimately fascinating land' Peter Brown, Time Out.Tags
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Member Reviews
Brink's novel is simultaneously a travelogue, a thriller, and a meditation on South African history, with the protagonist's genealogical research constituting a 200 page appendix. Despite its length it is very easy to lose oneself in Brink's prose, as the hero ponders the consequences of his actions and how he is going to escape South Africa. The perspective changes often, with other characters pondering how their son, brother, or acquaintance could have engaged in "terrorism". One of the best novels I have ever read.
This is an impressive book, but my copy was also a feat of endurance. A hard back library copy, it was so heavy I could barely hold it up, oh for a kindle copy!But that would mean spending money. It's a fascinating insight into what could motivate someone to acts of violence under a repressive regime, in this case, South Africa's State of Emergency in the last few years of Apartheid. The main character, Thomas Landman, is such a nice guy, but he sets off a bomb which kills 6 innocent people. How to reconcile nice guy Thomas with his actions? And what were the alternatives for opponents of the regime? Once you accept that this is not a linear narrative, but a few weeks in a man's life, lots of flashbacks to his past, and lots of the show more incidents told from the points of view of other characters,then it's a realy interesting book.It's a long book, over 600 pages, and then there's the supplement, which is the family history that Thomas has been writing, which tells the bizarre stories of 13 generations of his Afrikaner family in SA.I wasn't going to read this, another 200 pages, but I got hooked. It was really a fascinating potted history of SA, including ancestors who had visions, married slaves, were giants, built arks in the desert and disappeared on them!If you're not daunted by a long book, I recommend this book for the thoughtful reader. Brink is an accomplished writer, and an afrikaner. I'll bet he ruffled a few compatriots' feathers when this book was published just a couple of years after it was set, as they were just starting to dismantle Apartheid. show less
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Author Information
94+ Works 4,908 Members
André Brink was born on May 29, 1935 in Vrede, South Africa. He studied English and Afrikaans at the University in Potchefstroom and comparative literature in Paris. He was a South African writer and educator. He became a part of a group of writers known as Die Sestigers upon returning to South Africa in the 1960s. The group aimed to broaden show more Afrikaner fiction by writing about sexual and moral matters and the failings of the traditional political system. His books included Rumors of Rain, Looking on Darkness, A Dry White Season, and States of Emergency. Some of his books were banned in South Africa. He became a professor of Afrikaans and Dutch literature at Rhodes University and professor of English at the University of Cape Town. He has received the 1980 Martin Luther King Prize, the 1980 French Prix Medicis Etranger, and the 1982 Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur. He was shortlisted for the Booker Prize twice and nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature on several occasions. He died on February 6, 2015 at the age of 79. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Un acte de terreur
- Original title
- An Act of Terror
- Original publication date
- 1991
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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Statistics
- Members
- 179
- Popularity
- 182,352
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- 8 — Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian (Bokmål), Norwegian, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 15
- ASINs
- 4
