The Cry of the Hangkaka
Anne Woodborne
The Cry of the Hangkaka is the story of young Karin and her mother Irene. Shamed by a divorce, Irene seeks to flee with her daughter from post WWII South Africa.
R220.00
Out of stock
DATE
GENRE
PAGES
ISBN
The Cry of the Hangkaka
The Cry of the Hangkaka is the story of young Karin and her mother Irene. Shamed by a divorce, Irene seeks to flee with her daughter from post WWII South Africa. Jack, a Scotsman who works at the tin mines in Nigeria, seems to be the answer to Irene’s prayers. In the torrid heat of the Nigerian plateau, Karin is exposed to the lives of the colonisers, colonised, and most of all to the dictatorship of Jack.
Anne Woodborne was born in Cape Town, where she still lives. She spent a large part of her childhood in Scotland and Nigeria. She has been widely published in women’s magazines, and in various anthologies and collections. She is working on her second novel, and has written and illustrated two children’s books for her grandchildren.
“With jewel-like clarity, with writing that is as fluid as it is creative, Anne Woodborne brings a colonial mining town in Nigeria to life. a beautifully nuanced story.”
Máire Fisher
“At a time when the literary machine has many authors pushing out a book a year, this debut novel by an author now in her seventies has the feeling of having percolated for a long time. There is a richness to the language that is often absent from books written in hurry. And the end of the novel is likely to spark debate in book clubs.”
Andie Miller
“Anne Woodborne’s deceptively gentle narrative, about the many guises and limitations of love, pulled me along on its strong, relentless and convoluted current, crossing continents. The clear and steady voice of young Katrin, herself adrift on a course of events beyond her control, guides the reader to the novel’s graceful and redemptive conclusion.”
Willemien de Villiers
“Woodborne has created a powerful view of a suffocating 1950s colonial society.”
Margaret von Klemperer
