Act of Terror - Softcover

André Brink

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0749399317 ISBN 13: 9780749399313

Publisher: Minerva, 1993

Synopsis

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 profound novel set in South Africa that combines compelling action with an intellectual confrontation of the author's poitically volatile home country. A brave masterpiece from Booker Prize shortlisted, award-winning author Andr Brink.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

A pretentious megabook with mega themes from South African novelist Brink, already somewhat overtaken by events in South Africa and elsewhere. At the heart of the story are Tom Landman and Nina Jordaan, a young couple with impeccable Afrikaner credentials, who join a group plotting to assassinate the State President. When the attempt fails and Nina is killed trying to escape, Tom goes into hiding. As Tom, haunted by the death of Nina, tries to evade the security police headed by a fanatical brigadier, he recalls the seminal events that led to their decision to resort to terror. He meets free-spirited and courageous Lisa, another rebellious Afrikaner, who accompanies him on his long and perilous flight through the Cape countryside to the border. The police are always close behind, though the journey provides opportunities for leisurely encounters with certifiable types--the religious obsessive father, treacherous on principle; the loyal family retainer; and the simple but good self-made man. The pursuit ends in a fiery climax in which much is resolved, but the book doesn't end--not yet. To add more heft to an already big tome, Brink, who has frequently interrupted a basically exciting suspense story with self-conscious and labored discussions of when terror is justified, a sort of Ethics 101, now adds what is virtually another book: Tom Landman, somewhere in Africa, gives a ``tribal history'' of the 13 generations of Landmans in South Africa, conveniently allowing Brink to explore Afrikaner preoccupations and their place in Africa. Set in 1989, before the release of Mandela and the end of communism, the story, however compelling the scenes of police brutality, seems already dated--which wouldn't matter if characters weren't relentlessly trendy stereotypes illustrating equally trendy theories. Disappointing. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal:

A young Afrikaner is drawn into a conspiracy to assassinate the president of South Africa. The attempt fails, leaving black and white bystanders dead in its wake, and he flees consumed with grief but still convinced of the rightness of his actions. There are echoes here of Nadine Gordimer's Burger's Daughter ( LJ 7/79) and Marge Piercy's Vida ( LJ 1/15/80), but Brink's story is wholly his own. The novel moves back and forth with ease among the varied voices that comprise Thomas's life--family, lovers, terrorists, blacks, pursuers--to expose the corrosive effects of a vicious and corrupt system on its supporters and opponents alike. The novel is not comfortable to read, for its burning indignation leaves no room for moral complacency. Yet Brink sympathizes with the plight of oppressor as well as oppressed; everyone pays in a system of absolute injustice. There will be few books this year as good as this, and none that moves the heart as much.
- David Keymer, SUNY Inst. of Technology, Utica
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Minerva
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0749399317
• ISBN 13: 9780749399313
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 864