The architecture of loss /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Dala, Z. P., author.
Edition:	First Pegasus Books cloth edition.
Imprint:	New York : Pegasus Books, 2017. ©2017
Description:	247 pages ; 24 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Mothers and daughters -- South Africa -- Fiction. Secrecy -- Fiction. Anti-apartheid movements -- South Africa -- Fiction. Anti-apartheid movements. Mothers and daughters. Secrecy. South Africa. Domestic fiction. Fiction.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11290190

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	1681774437 9781681774435
Summary:	Estranged at the age of six from her mother, who sent her away from her hometown of Brighton in rural Zululand, brilliant architect Afroze Bhana has carved out an impressive life for herself in Cape Town. But when she receives word that her aging mother is desperately ill, she finds herself compelled to return to her place of birth to find answers about her painful childhood. Afroze arrives in Brighton to find that her mother, Sylvie, who was a doctor and a fierce activist during the dark days of the anti-apartheid struggleis a shadow of her formidable self, but Sylvie has still retained her sarcasm and anger toward the daughter that she sent away. Somehow, Sylvie cannot draw her daughter close, even facing the looming threat of her own mortality. She remains in the cottage of Afrozes childhood, frozen in a world where she surrounds herself with luxury and garish indulgences, cared for by the fiercely protective Halaima, a Malawian refugee. Especially painful for Afroze is the love and affection that Sylvie showers on Bibi, Halaimas pampered and precocious daughterlove which she could never give her own daughter. A moving novel about the complexities of family ties, The Architecture of Loss beautifully explores the ways in which the anti-apartheid struggle, in which the roles of women have been largely overlooked, irrevocably damaged many of its unsung heroes.

Review by Booklist Review

Just take her. Take her. Take her away. Now. Please. Now. These words, spoken by her own mother, lead to Afroze Bhana being forced out of her childhood home in Brighton, South Africa. The incident has understandably cast a long shadow over her adult life, such that even though she is a successful Cape Town lawyer, Afroze is haunted by her mother's wrenching abandonment. As Dala's (What about Meera, 2015) novel opens, Afroze returns to that childhood home to visit her dying mother, Sylvie, a successful doctor, and to try to find answers to the questions that have been nagging at her. Unfortunately, Sylvie's frosty exterior is firmly in place, but Afroze slowly pieces together the reasons for her childhood trauma. Dala is most riveting when she dives into Sylvie's past, one of the first colored women to attend medical school in apartheid South Africa. Sylvie's actions as a young woman and her subsequent decisions feel much more authentic than the somewhat-stilted mother-daughter dynamics. Dala shows she has fire in her belly; she just needs to let it grow.--Apte, Poornima Copyright 2017 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

Review by Booklist Review

The architecture of loss /

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