In the last month I have read three books published in 2020 by South African writers that have all made deep impressions on me and which made me realise that local is indeed lekker. They were vastly different books, but each contained topical and interesting themes.
Six years with Al Qaeda: The Stephen McGown Story by Tudor Caradoc-Davies; Saving a Stranger, The Diary of an Emergency Room Doctor by Anne Biccard; and Bloedvreemd by Juliana Coetzer, are three books you will want to add to your list.
Six years with Al Qaeda: The Stephen McGown Story by Tudor Caradoc-DaviesTudor
This is the true story of how South African-born Steve McGown was taken captive in Timbuktu by Al Qaeda and held hostage in the worst conditions imaginable for six long years. Driven deep into the desert with two other prisoners, Steve, who had just qualified for his British passport after spending a few years in London, suddenly became one of the most valuable pawns in Al Qaeda’s geo-political operations. Naturally, the shock and trauma of his kidnapping also impacted and forever changed the lives of his wife Cath and the rest of the McGown family, who spent the next six years tirelessly jumping through diplomatic hoops and navigating political red tape trying to free Steve.
It‘s a gripping tale of how McGown went into full survival mode with no control over his future and no end in sight to his incarceration in the harsh Sahara desert conditions. The force of will and tenacity shown in surviving both his prison and his prisoners is admirable and fascinating – even leading him to convert to Islam in order to guarantee at least some quality of life in the desert.
Steve not only survived his ordeal but returned home a changed man having spent six years becoming a stronger and more positive human being. Six Years With Al Qaeda is not only an incredible reminder of the mental and physical endurance of the human spirit, but it also offers rare insight into one of the world’s most feared terrorist organisations.
Saving a Stranger, The Diary of an Emergency Room Doctor by Anne Biccard
The diary of Anne Biccard – who’s worked as an emergency doctor in Johannesburg for more than 30 years – is both thrilling and terrifying. Reading about her jaw-dropping daily experiences, I find it truly astounding that she’s been able to keep it up for so many years. But what I found most valuable in her memoir is Biccard’s willingness to share the mindset and coping mechanisms she uses to stay true to her calling.
After decades of dealing with one crisis after the other on a daily basis, she eventually came face to face with a new and deadly enemy that added a whole new dimension of fear: Covid-19. In her memoir she celebrates the camaraderie and dogged determination of her fellow health workers holding fast in the face of the corona nightmare as they battle daily to save strangers’ lives.
It is a heart-warming and at times laugh-out-loud chronicle that effortlessly holds the reader’s attention with some of the strangest and most peculiar cases that have landed in Biccard’s emergency room, and how the Grim Reaper, as she puts it, can occasionally be outwitted with skill and quick thinking. Of course, it contains much tragedy and grim reminders of the fleeting nature of life when these medical troopers lose the battle against Mr Reaper.
Ultimately, it’s an exceptionally interesting glimpse into what our health fraternity deal with on a daily basis and how they use their vast experience to carry them through the many emergencies, tragic incidents and losses, while at the same time always honouring their ethical values.
Bloedvreemd deur Juliana Coetzer
Soms beland ‘n boek in ‘n mens se hande wat jy nooit self sou gekies het nie. Juliana Coetzer se Bloedvreemd was só een. Nie ‘n maklike tema of storie nie maar toe ek eers begin lees, het Coetzer my vasgevang, enersins met haar uitmuntende skryfstyl, en andersins met haar verhaal van ‘n gesin wat hulle in ‘n situasie bevind wat in baie opsigte vreemder as fiksie lees.
Dit is die verhaal van ‘n doodgewone en gelukkige gesin wie se lewens afsonderlike en as ‘n gesinseenheid eensklaps verander toe hul sewe-jarige dogtertjie ‘n seldsame virus opdoen wat haar by die dood laat omdraai. Juliana Coetzer, ‘n psigoterapeut, vertel die pynlike verhaal van hul dogter, Anneke, ‘n slim kind en uitblinkertjie op elke gebied, wat weens die virus wat in haar liggaam voortwoed, breinskade en stelselmatige afgetakeling tot gevolg het. Dit blyk dat geen medikasie of alternatiewe behandelings die volgehoue epileptiese toevalle kan verhoed nie.
Hul eens vrolike huis word ’n oorlogsone waar elkeen op sy eie manier probeer ‘cope’ en waar die ma veral gedwing word om diep in haarself te delf om dinge in haar verlede en die donkerplekke in haar siel aan te spreek. Dit is ‘n pynlike verhaal, maar ook ‘n reis wat elke ma met Juliana, as ma van ‘n kind sonder hoop, sal wil meemaak. Dis boonop ‘n lekker lees omdat sy so ‘n uitstekende verteller is en dikwels die hartverskerendheid slim met humor en menslikheid verweef.
