Confessions of a Gambler

Rayda Jacobs' enthralling portrait of contemporary Muslim life in one of the world's most dynamic and dangerous cities is delivered through the eyes of Abeeda, a single mother in her late forties who is leading a double life. To her community in Cape Town, she is a pious Muslim mother of four, coping with the death of one of her sons to AIDS. But Abeeda has succumbed to a gambling addiction, winning and losing huge amounts of money amid the glittering lights of the local casinos. As her secret vice leads her into a shadow world of sin, lies, and life-threatening stakes, Abeeda's identity as the very picture of Muslim womanhood gives way to an unforgettable portrait of a woman haunted by the memory of past desires and a life-long love affair with risk.

Confessions of a Gambler has won multiple international awards, including The Sunday Times fiction award, South Africa's premier prize for fiction. As timely as it is universal, this powerful novel animates the conflict between modernity and tradition in a society in which, when it comes to judging women who stray from the narrow paths laid out for them, all bets are off.

A toxic mix of addiction and loss undoes the staid life of a South African Muslim woman in novelist and filmmaker Jacobs's American debut. Abeeda "Beeda" Ariefdien is a 49-year-old single mother who, having raised her four sons after her husband left the family, is now supported by them. But her pious, quiet Cape Town life unravels after her friend Garaatie suggests they take a trip to the local casino—a place Beeda hadn't known existed. Beeda wins a slot machine jackpot and becomes hooked, even though her Muslim religion forbids gambling. Beeda's addiction begins slowly, but after her youngest son tells her he is dying of AIDS, "going to see auntie" (her euphemism for gambling) is her only solace. As rumors circulate about Beeda's son's illness and the amount of time she spends at the casino, Beeda defends her son and forsakes her robes in favor of jeans when gambling (to distinguish her separate lifestyles from each other). She eventually tries to conquer her addiction, but it may be too late. Jacobs realistically portrays the psychology of an addict, though Beeda can come across as something of a sympathetic if didactic straw woman. Beeda may lose big, but readers will be enriched. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Life has been a struggle for Abeeda Ariefdien. Abandoned by her husband while pregnant with her fourth child, she raises her kids alone. She watches her youngest son die of AIDS. She burns with love for her sister's husband. She battles a gambling addiction that leads her into insurance fraud to cover her losses. And she is a Muslim. Author Jacobs is also Muslim, and she has crafted a compulsively readable novel of family, love, loss, shame, and redemption. Set in Cape Town, South Africa, the story combines a cosmopolitan atmosphere with piety, insight into Muslim and South African societies, earthy wit, and a mix of words drawn from Arabic and Afrikaans that should beguile U.S. readers. Abeeda and her sisters and their friends worry about their spouses, college tuition, neighborhood gossips, social slights, and what to serve for dinner. In doing so, they reveal a universality of experience that makes this novel compelling and heartening. Soon to be a film starring the author, Confessions of a Gambler won South Africa's most prestigious literary award in 2004, and it should be received warmly in the U.S. Thomas Gaughan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved