The Unlikely Secret Agent - Hardcover

Kasrils, Ronnie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1583673040 ISBN 13: 9781583673041

Publisher: Monthly Review Press, 2012

Synopsis

Winner of South Africa’s top literary prize, the Alan Paton Award, The Unlikely Secret Agent tells the thrilling true story of one woman’s struggle against the apartheid system. It is 1963. South Africa is in crisis and the white state is under siege. One August 19th, the dreaded Security Police descended on Griggs bookstore in downtown Durban and arrest Eleanor, the white daughter of the manager. They threaten to “break her or hang her” if she does not lead them to her lover, “Red” Ronnie Kasrils, who is wanted on suspicion of involvement in recent acts of sabotage, including the toppling of electricity pylons and explosions at a Security Police office in Durban.   But Eleanor has her own secret to conceal: she is, like Ronnie, a clandestine agent for the underground ANC and must protect her handlers and Ronnie at all costs. Astutely, she convinces the police that she is on the verge of a nervous breakdown and, still a prisoner, is relocated to a mental hospital in Pietermaritzburg for assessment. It is here that she plots her escape.   This remarkable story of a young woman’s courage and daring at a time of increasing repression in apartheid South Africa is told here for the first time with great verve and élan by Eleanor’s husband, Ronnie Kasrils, who eventually became South Africa’s Minister of Intelligence Services in 2004.

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Review

"This is a wonderful book about a courageous and extraordinary woman who was highly principled, yet endowed by nature with all the clandestine skills. Her exploits recall the heroism of the great SOE women agents of the Second World War, yet the values she fought for so intrepidly are still in the balance today. Ronnie Kasrils tells her story with humility and a pride that the reader can only share." - John le Carre 'Secret acts of great bravery by hundreds of heroic men and women overthrew apartheid - not brilliant secret negotiating, or a change of heart by the white regime's Western backers. Eleanor Kasrils's amazing role in this story is told by her husband Ronnie for the first time. Readers of his earlier books will recognise the excitement of his storytelling and his memory for telling detail, but the tenderness of this book is new ... Ronnie's response to Eleanor's sudden death last year at home in South Africa was to write this extraordinary book at breakneck speed. It is a love story, a historical document of great importance, and a terrific tale of a clandestine success.' - Victoria Brittain 'This "little" book about an "ordinary" woman with the heart of a lioness confirms the truth that our freedom was not free. From its pages rings out another truth that among the outstanding heroines and heroes of the South African struggle were those who did not set out to perform heroic deeds. These are the heroic combatants for freedom like the Unlikely Secret Agent, Eleanor Kasrils, the subject of this engrossing "little book", who did the equally "little" things without which victory over the apartheid regime would have been impossible ... Eleanor's story also poses a question about the future - what are the "little things" each one of us should do to win the new struggle for the further entrenchment of democracy and the defeat of poverty and underdevelopment, acting as our own liberators.' - Thabo Mbeki

About this edition

• Publisher: Monthly Review Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1583673040
• ISBN 13: 9781583673041
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192