Fiela's Child (Phoenix Fiction)
Set in nineteenth-century rural Africa, Fiela's Child tells the gripping story of Fiela Komoetie and a white, three-year old child, Benjamin, whom she finds crying on her doorstep. For nine years Fiela raises Benjamin as one of her own children. But when census takers discover Benjamin, they send...
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Set in nineteenth-century rural Africa, Fiela's Child tells the gripping story of Fiela Komoetie and a white, three-year old child, Benjamin, whom she finds crying on her doorstep. For nine years Fiela raises Benjamin as one of her own children. But when census takers discover Benjamin, they send him to an illiterate white family of woodcutters who claim him as their son. What follows is Benjamin's search for his identity and the fundamental changes affecting the white and black families who claim him."Everything a novel can be: convincing, thought-provoking, upsetting, unforgettable, and timeless."—Grace Ingoldby, New Statesman "Fiela's Child is a parade that broadens and humanizes our understanding of the conflicts still affecting South Africa today."—Francis Levy, New York Times Book Review "A powerful creation of time and place with dark threads of destiny and oppression and its roots in the almost Biblical soil of a storyteller's art."—Christopher Wordsworth, The Guardian "The characters in the novel live and breathe; and the landscape is so brightly painted that the trees, birds, elephants, and rivers of old South Africa are characters themselves. A book not to miss."—Kirkus Reviews
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780226510835 (0226510832)
ASIN: 0226510832
Publish date: 1992-09-01
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Pages no: 360
Edition language: English
Category:
Young Adult,
Classics,
Novels,
Academic,
School,
Literature,
Cultural,
Africa,
Historical Fiction,
Drama,
High School,
Fiction
A story of two families as different as they could be, and a court that wasn't as wise as Solomon when asked to choose between two women claiming the same child. Fiela Komoetie, living on the open veld, raised her white "hand-child" (adopted child) Benjamin with all the love she gave her other child...