From Publishers Weekly
In this searing novella, acclaimed South African novelist Brink tells the tragic love story of a Khoikhoi chieftain leader (a nomadic people, the Khoikhoi were derogatorily called "Hottentots" by European colonists) and a white woman left behind by members of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama's crew when they rounded Africa's southern tip in 1498. The romance between T'kama (Big Bird) and the castaway he names Khois (meaning "woman") forms the touching core of an often ribald tale, narrated by the chieftain in lilting prose. T'kama, who learns to mistrust the murderous European invaders, feels terrible pain when a fleet returns and drags off Khois, mother of their infant son--the possibility that she voluntarily abandoned them only compounds his grief. In an introduction, the author relates T'kama's story to that of Adamastor, a giant in Greek mythology who fights the armies of the sea and yearns for the nymph Thetis. Just as Zeus turned Adamastor into a rocky cape, Brink's parable suggests, so have white Europeans punished native Africans. Readers who were wary of tackling Brink's previous novel, An Act of Terror , because of its length, will find this short fable a stunning introduction to his work.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Following An Act of Terror ( LJ 12/91), a study of political agitation in his native South Africa, Brink moves back in time to the first European exploration of Africa. As the story begins, an innocent young tribal leader encounters a strange new creature in a pool. T'kama is immediately taken by the white woman he sees bathing, but she flees screaming to the beach, where Vasco da Gama's men rush to her aid. T'kama, wounded by gunfire, seizes the woman and escapes to the bush. A bloody confrontation develops, but the explorers are eventually forced to abandon the woman. Under her spell, T'kama leads his people on a dangerous inland journey, and they become divided over this strange white outsider. Still, T'kama's love is unrequited until he can make the supreme sacrifice. Presiding over this collision of cultures is the mysterious Adamaster. Interweaving magic and history, this wonderful tale is essential for all collections.
- Brack Stovall, Carrollton P.L., Tx.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
