Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country

(Paperback)

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A passionate witness to the colossal upheaval that has transformed her native South Africa, Gillian Slovo has written a memoir that is far more than a story of her own life. For she is the daughter of Joe Slovo and Ruth First, South Africa's pioneering anti-apartheid white activists, a daughter who always had to come second to political commitment. Whilst recalling the extraordinary events which surrounded her family's persecution and exile, and reconstructing the truth of her parents' relationship and her own turbulent childhood, Gillian Slovo has also created an astonishing portrait of a courageous, beautiful mother and a father of integrity and stoicism.

Reviews

'A luminous achievement' OBSERVER 'Wonderfully moving ... anger, frustration, and the hunger for sharing wash her pages, though they never swamp the admiration for her parents' GUARDIAN 'Gillian Slovo has written a brave book, as unsparing of herself as it is of her parents ... a moving testimony' Christopher Hope, INDEPENDENT An extraordinary expression of the very nature of loving, which illuminates, with the anger and tenderness of deep emotion, that human territory we all occupy, and where we conceal so much from ourselves' Nadine Gordimer 'If it doesn't become one of 1997's bestsellers we can only deduce that the reading public has lost its marbles.' Dervla Murphy 'A brave book... guilt, longing, envy are all present, but so are love, courage and stoicism in the face of danger.' MARIE CLAIRE 'An intriguing journey... a fine book.' SCOTSMAN 'An enthralling story about the cruelties of compassion, the anguish of loss and the courage to pursue the truth that brings its own peace.' OBSERVER 'Others have written about this remarkable family... but no one as painfully or as frankly as this book. Nowhere else have I seen the personal cost of political commitments so starkly portrayed.' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'A beautiful examination of the ties that bind a couple- principle, passion, power, pain... Excellent.' TIME OUT 'Told with a powerful, underplayed directness.' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY 'A painfully honest tale.' ECONOMIST 'This is a valuable book which speaks for a generation of white South Africans whose parents fought the injustices of apartheid, often with terrible personal consequences.' SPECTATOR

Author Bio

Born in South Africa, Gillian Slovo has written nine novels, one of which, Red Dust has been filmed with Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Her first play, Guantanamo, played in London's West End and off-Broadway in New York. ICE ROAD was shortlisted for the Orange Prize.