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Absolution

3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 · rating details · 380 ratings · 105 reviews

In this stunning literary debut, Patrick Flanery delivers a devastating and intimate portrait of post-apartheid South Africa, and the perils of taking sides when the sides are changing around you.

Told in shifting perspectives, Absolution is centred on the mysterious character of Clare Wald, a controversial writer of great fame, haunted by the memories of a sister she fears...more

Hardcover, 400 pages

Published March 27th 2012 by Knopf Canada (first published January 1st 2012)

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Jan 14, 2013 Friederike Knabe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: africa, us-lit

Patrick Flanery's debut novel is a very interesting example of an overarching story that incorporates another "novel" or "memoir", a journal and more embedded inside it... Set in post-apartheid South Africa Absolution is a thought provoking book, and engaging not necessarily, or least of all, in the sense one would initially expect. Much of the novel could be set in any other country that lived through two opposing government systems. While there are hints of the political realities of South Afr...more Patrick Flanery's debut novel is a very interesting example of an overarching story that incorporates another "novel" or "memoir", a journal and more embedded inside it... Set in post-apartheid South Africa Absolution is a thought provoking book, and engaging not necessarily, or least of all, in the sense one would initially expect. Much of the novel could be set in any other country that lived through two opposing government systems. While there are hints of the political realities of South Africa, such as the brief visit to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the central theme of the novel addresses deep moral questions of the human condition that are not time or place specific.

In the most overarching sense Absolution is a deep reflection on guilt and seeking foregiveness, on what is truth and why we may not even admit aspects of the truth and our behaviour to ourselves, let alone to others. How many shades of truth are there?

Two central characters - Clare, a grand old dame of literature and Sam, her much younger biographer - enter over the course of the novel into a kind of intellectual and emotional "pas de deux", whereby each reacts to or dances around the other's questions and answers. Both reveal slowly and tentatively snippets of themselves and their lives... leaving us as readers to sift through the many shades of truths. As we follow each piece within the emerging puzzle we may at times think we are ahead of the two protagonists, but are we really?

While the "pas de deux", the discussions between author and biographer, are central to the novel, the backstories of the two protagonists, told in separate sections and in different tones, are as essential. There is Clare's "letter" to her daughter Laura, which reflects on and responds to her daughter's notebooks, written while she was on the run from authorities during the "old regime" some twenty years earlier. Clare is also writing a "novel", Absolution, that reads more like a personal memoir and in another series of chapters we learn more about Sam's life that was deeply shaken early on in his youth...

Flanery is very effective in pursuing these different narrative streams, interleafing them in a way that,taken together, make for an engaging and comprehensive whole. Your attention is required to keep the different versions of the truth apart. Personally, I couldn't help comparing Clare with the real-life grand old dame of South African writing, Nadine Gordimer. Be assured, though, there are no parallels between the two, other maybe the home invasion that both experienced and that weighs heavily on Clare's mind. I was taken by surprise that, despite the important political undercurrent in the novel, so little was in fact expressed in terms of the complex South African realities then and now. Race or colour was hardly ever mentioned if at all. On the other hand, I found some sections too detailed and a tightening of those would have increased my reading engagement. Yet, for a debut novel, this book is a great achievement and we can hopefully look forward to more by the author. (less)

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Jul 06, 2012 CuteBadger rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Clare Wald is a South African author coming to the end of her life who has agreed to be involved in the writing of her biography. It is to be written by Sam Leroux, a fellow South African now returning to the country of his birth after some years' absence. Revisiting the past brings up old secrets for both of them and they must be truthful with themselves about the part they played in disturbing events.

This novel has four different narrative strands, which makes things complicated at times, espe...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Meg - A Bookish Affair rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, fiction, africa

3.5 stars. "Absolution" is a complicated but beautiful book about the secrets that some people try to leave behind. The book takes place during several time periods in South Africa both during and after Apartheid. The story is not told in a linear fashion, which made it hard to follow along sometimes as you had to keep track of when certain events were happening in order for the story to come together totally. That being said, as long as you read carefully, you will be just fine. This book will...more 3.5 stars. "Absolution" is a complicated but beautiful book about the secrets that some people try to leave behind. The book takes place during several time periods in South Africa both during and after Apartheid. The story is not told in a linear fashion, which made it hard to follow along sometimes as you had to keep track of when certain events were happening in order for the story to come together totally. That being said, as long as you read carefully, you will be just fine. This book will keep you turning the pages in order to find out what the connection is between the main characters. This book is a good illustration of how complicated life was towards the end of Apartheid and the period afterwards.

The story focuses mainly on Clare, a South African writer who is almost at the end of her life, and Sam, a writer/journalist of sorts, that is contacted by Clare to write her biography. This is not the only tie that Clare and Sam have. Much of the story is focused on the mystery and secrets that bind Clare and Sam together. Flanery gives readers small bites to think over before all of the pieces come together. Clare is not exactly a likeable character but she is absolutely fascinating. She's tough yet vulnerable. She is semi-manipulative with some of the things she chooses to say or not say to Sam. Although by the time Sam is writing her biography it has been over a decade since Clare last saw her daughter, Laura, Clare is still fixated on what happened to Laura in her last days. A little bit of her even holds on to the idea that Laura could still be out there somewhere alive and well.

The writing in this book is really good. It's amazing to me how Flanery was able to arrange the book in such a way that there are some secrets remaining up until the end of the book. He has a great way of writing characters that you really want to read about. You just want to see what happens to them and where they end up.

This book definitely made me want to know more about the period after Apartheid ended. I wasn't familiar with a lot of things that happened afterward and I didn't realize how long some of the government commissions in order to seek justice for various crimes lasted after the fall of Apartheid lasted.

This book would be perfect for when you want a character driven book that tackles a difficult subject and keeps you in suspense until the very last page.(less)

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Feb 19, 2013 Leah rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who like complex thought-provoking fiction

Shelves: literary-fiction

Wonderfully complex and beautifully written...

This wonderfully written book is so complex it’s hard to give a full flavour of it in a short review. As Clare Wald, famous South African novelist, gives a series of interviews to her biographer, Sam Leroux, she begins a journey through her memories, re-assessing the part she has played in the lives of those around her. She is also writing an autobiographical fiction and we see all the different threads as we, like Clare, try to find the truth amidst...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Tonya rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I chose Absolution by Patrick Flanery based on a review of this book in the Omaha World-Herald. It was just vague enough to entice me and I also wanted the opportunity to compare my thoughts with the reviewer's once I finished reading it myself.

The review appeared on July 22, 2012. I downloaded the book to my Kindle Fire immediately and only just finished it.

This was one of the most difficult-to-finish novels I have read in quite some time. It was slow, confusing and I never felt like it was go...more

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Aug 11, 2012 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Patrick Flanery: Will you marry me? How I loved this novel! So much so that I am even willing to forgive your flagrantly Irish name and risk my father's English wrath.

In post-apartheid South Africa, acclaimed author Clare Wald and aspiring writer Sam Leroux come face to face -- as author and subject, as the rejecter and the rejected, as human beings coming to terms with painful ambiguous pasts. Both are suffering from the scars of apartheid and also (...I think?) from a too fierce loyalty to the...more

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May 28, 2012 Heather Noble rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The story is about post apartheid South Africa but it's focus is on the devastating impact the politics has on a family as they adopt different positions. It's one of those fascinating books in which the way the story is told from multiple points of view persuades the reader to consider the tale from different perspectives. Versions of the facts differ depending on how much the narrator is willing to admit to the listener or to his or her self and may also change depending at which point of time...more

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Feb 29, 2012 Dulwichbooks rated it 5 of 5 stars

An astonishing debut novel set in South Africa telling the story of Clare Wald, an aging author, and her conversations with her biographer, Sam as he sets out to write her life story.
The novel has four, often contradictory narrative strands: "Sam" is told from Leroux's perspective; "Clare" charts Wald's internal attempts to make sense of her daughter's disappearance; "Absolution" relates events in the third person; while "1989" begins at the point the lives of a young Leroux and Laura Wald firs...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Brian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Set in post-apartheid South Africa, Absolution focuses on a series of meetings between elderly writer, Clare Wald, and her recently-appointed biographer, Samuel Leroux. However at the real heart of the novel lies the fate of Laura, Clare's daughter.

Missing, presumed dead, Laura was actively involved in the liberation struggle and her life intersected dramatically with Sam's childhood, though we only learn the full significance of this intersection as the novel progresses and the truth about Sam...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Elaine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

This is a book of extraordinary power and intensity. I don't know if I was more surprised to learn that the author was a first-time novelist or that he was not South African -- the book conveys an amazing nuanced sense of place and history, and is written with serious maturity and talent. This book will break your heart, with its tales of betrayal, loss and missed chances, both historical and familial, and stretch your mind, as the maze of its interconnecting narratives show just how flimsy hist...more This is a book of extraordinary power and intensity. I don't know if I was more surprised to learn that the author was a first-time novelist or that he was not South African -- the book conveys an amazing nuanced sense of place and history, and is written with serious maturity and talent. This book will break your heart, with its tales of betrayal, loss and missed chances, both historical and familial, and stretch your mind, as the maze of its interconnecting narratives show just how flimsy historical "truth" is (and in the process seriously interrogate (on several levels) just what a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" could accomplish). There are also parts of this novel that will have your hair standing on end and your heart pounding, whether it's the vivid depiction of a home invasion (or the constant fear of one) or the reminiscing/imagining that the characters do about the violence done and tortures inflicted by the apartheid regime, as well as some of its opponents.

In addition to conveying fear and paranoia beautifully, I thought the sense of loss was masterfully done. I felt keenly both the personal loss that the missed connections and betrayals great and small between parent and child, brother and sister, and sister and sister, engender, and the great historical loss of South Africa, where a dream worth dying for has become ( at least in this telling) a harrowing dystopia, and where (in a neat touch) some of its most radical revolutionaries are now floridly middle-aged and work for the Tourism Board, while others are still lost in unmarked graves.

Most of this book is one of the most impressive books I've read in a long time -- but it just missed a five because the 2nd half is not as tightly constructed, and as heartstoppingly harrowing as the first. The conceits are a bit more dragged out, some passages are overwritten and some of the revelations (and concealments) are a long time coming.

Nonetheless, I think it's remarkable, likely bears re-reading, and Flanery's 2nd novel is eagerly awaited!(less)

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Jan 01, 2013 Jill rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-time-favorites

Absolution – set in post-apartheid South Africa – is so searing, well-plotted, moving and provocative that it is nearly impossible to believe that it is a debut book. In some important ways, it contains wisps of J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, a book that similarly centers around the break-in of a home,

The theme is, indeed, Absolution, the freeing from blame, guilt and consequences. Nearly every key character in Absolution is seeking forgiveness, either from the living or the dead, and as such, they ar...more Absolution – set in post-apartheid South Africa – is so searing, well-plotted, moving and provocative that it is nearly impossible to believe that it is a debut book. In some important ways, it contains wisps of J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, a book that similarly centers around the break-in of a home,

The theme is, indeed, Absolution, the freeing from blame, guilt and consequences. Nearly every key character in Absolution is seeking forgiveness, either from the living or the dead, and as such, they are microcosms for their nation – a place that is in true need of absolution.

Patrick Flanery masterfully layers his story in patchwork style. The conflicting points of view come from four different perspectives: that of Clare, an aging, reclusive and celebrated Cape Town author…Sam, her young chosen biographer who holds a mysterious connection to Clare…Clare’s semi-fictional memoir – appropriately titled Absolution – which imagines what might have happened…and a fourth thread, which reveals what may, indeed, be the truth.

In brief, Clare is re-examining her past, which includes two pivotal deaths. Her hated sister, Nora, who held a pro-apartheid view, was gunned down years ago in what was likely a political reprisal. Clare’s own daughter, Laura, an anti-apartheid activist, also disappeared without a trace. What culpability – if any – did Clare have in either of these deaths? Can Sam be the key to the absolution she seeks? And when Clare’s home is senselessly broken into and an object of little monetary – but great personal – significance is taken, another question is raised: can a flawed memory hold its own kind of truth?

Absolution is but one of this book’s riveting themes. Another is the falsity of the stories we tell ourselves. “It is possible, through a sense of vanity, either conscious or unconscious, to attribute crimes wholly to oneself in which one has only had a partial hand,” Flanery writes. A little earlier: “History is not always correct, because it cannot tell all the stories that have been, cannot account or everything that has happened.”

Like in many powerful books, definitive answers remain elusive. The truth of memory, Flanery implies, is no less accurate than literal truth. This was the last book I read in 2012, but it soars to the top of my personal “Best of 2012” list. It has everything I look for: complex characters, important themes, arresting and often lyrical prose, and stunning craftsmanship.

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Jan 06, 2013 Jamie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jamie by: Ryan Grubb!

Shelves: adult, south-africa, unreliable-narrator, multiple-narrators

Oh how I love books with unreliable narrators, and this book has 2 major narrators, both incredibly unreliable, as well as a novelization of the story and a historical aspect that comes close to the truth. The pacing, the slowly unfolding plot, all work beautifully together. I feel as if having a stronger background in South African history would have added to my enjoyment of the novel, but not having it didn't make me not enjoy it.

A quote, near the end, sums up the book, and my feelings about...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Keryn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Considering the author is not a South African he does a remarkable job of characterising the country and in small brush strokes manages to convey a cast of authentic characters. The small details that contextualise the story and offer a sense of place led me to believe he was South African. In one scene he accurately lists the typing of reading material found on the bookshelves of every South African home during the Apartheid era. Clare Wald, the writer around whom the story unfolds, is arguably...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Featherbooks rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Dostoevsky says that everyone remembers things he would only confide to his friends, and other things he would only reveal to himself...But there are other things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself." In Absolution a first novel about memory and guilt and censorship, the author has produced a stunning, compelling tale of an aging South African author, Clare, and her biographer, Sam, told in multiple points of view. Absolution brought the country and its tragic past to life as much as...more

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Jun 09, 2012 Stephine Yoshikawa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow! Picked this up from the library's new fiction section. It is hard to believe this is his first work. The jacket synopsis describes a story about an renowned aged author pressured into having her biography written. She chooses a man from her past, connected to her through her daughter, a known anti- apartheid radical activist, assumed dead long ago. If that were all the story was about, it would be interesting enough. But ah, this a story about so much more; part political commentary, part t...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Monty rated it 3 of 5 stars

I guess that this review will go against the grain of all the other reviews. I almost stopped reading the book but forced myself to go to at least page 50; by then the storyline had begun to take shape. I think the problem for me is that this is in part an intellectual book, and I generally prefer to read mysteries and action oriented books. At times it was painful for me to witness the Clare and Sam not being able to come out with what they were thinking. Clare was an especially inconsistent ch...more

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May 29, 2012 Katherine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

“...and now her face is wind-cracked, a lake bottom in drought” (6).
“'Please remember to lower the seat when you've finished. It will encourage my sympathy'” (6).
“'In my experience, governments mostly take very little notice of what private citizens have to say, unless they say it in unison'” (7).
“His mother had read him the book and he knew what happened to orphans if they asked for more” (33).
“'Under such conditions, one cannot even begin to put pen to paper in the morning without weighing the...more “...and now her face is wind-cracked, a lake bottom in drought” (6).
“'Please remember to lower the seat when you've finished. It will encourage my sympathy'” (6).
“'In my experience, governments mostly take very little notice of what private citizens have to say, unless they say it in unison'” (7).
“His mother had read him the book and he knew what happened to orphans if they asked for more” (33).
“'Under such conditions, one cannot even begin to put pen to paper in the morning without weighing the implications of every letter, because the censoring mind, parsing and legalistic, looks for meaning even in spelling and punctuation. And that is when one knows that the censor has won, because, ultimately, what the censor most desires is not total control of information but for all writers to self-censor'” (71).
“I wonder in a surge of irritation why the guard, a plump uniformed woman who seems aware of nothing except the romance novel she’s reading, failed to stop the man from coming in to bother paying customers. I’m outraged, and just as suddenly I can’t believe that I’m outraged, and then I become outraged at my own outrage” (202).
“After another quarter hour of such annoying small talk—not quite my idea of a proper haunting…” (217).
“As he began to recount his life after going to live with his aunt, he realized that the memories were all folded into the books he had been reading, the books he had inhabited in order to make sense of his life, in order to unlock the earlier memories…” (273).
“…contorting their view of the traffic, the canary sludge of taxis, bleeding brake lights along West End Avenue” (298).
"Sam knew what kind of place put a prison at its heart" (368).
"Perhaps the literal truth is not what you have remembered, but the truth of memory is no less accurate in its way" (378).
"That is why, as Dostoevsky sayis in his quotation of Heine, that a true autobiography is almost an impossibility, because it is in the nature of humans to lie about themselves" (379).
"Language makes the world around us, and all that we encounter" (383).

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Jun 23, 2012 Carla rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had to force myself to give this book 100 pages before I let myself give up on it. The beginning was very jumbly and confusing - which I think the author meant to use as a technique to give the reader a feel for the multiple angles and confusion caused by trying to figure things out in hindsight, as well as from multiple points of view. It took that 100 pages for me to really sink into the groove of the story, to understand the perspectives and to care about the characters. I'm glad I read it,...more

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Apr 29, 2013 Jillian Goldberg rated it 2 of 5 stars

I was very disappointed with this book, particularly as I had waited a year to get it from Amazon, no idea why, perhaps the paperback was only published recently. The initial review I had read was so exciting and I had tremendous expectations.
I found the language and craft peculiar at times; there were inexplicable errors in syntax, bits that were just odd. I also found the characters completely unbelievable and terribly annoying in every respect. I wanted to just slap them all! While the physic...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Lynn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Absolution is a complicated novel set in post-Apartheid South Africa. Sam Leroux is writing the biography of Clare Wald, a renowned South African writer. During his interviews with Clare, Sam tries to draw out details of her long missing daughter, Laura. This is a subject that Clare is reluctant to discuss. As the novel progresses, we begin to hear parts of Laura's story which complicates the relationship between biographer and subject.

The timeline is fluid in this book and the story is told fro...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Cheryl rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, literary, literature, fiction, africa, 2012-favourite

This is a story of lives lived in ways which give cause for regret. This is becoming a genre. Ian McEwan talked about Atonement. Here the quest is for Absolution. In both cases memory and remembrances are fluid. They are fuzzy or not reliable. The quests for Atonement and Absolution become larger, more significant then the events that precipitated the need.
Will this bring us to The Sense of an Ending? All of these books are characterised by muddy memories and relative truths, and unreliable auth...more This is a story of lives lived in ways which give cause for regret. This is becoming a genre. Ian McEwan talked about Atonement. Here the quest is for Absolution. In both cases memory and remembrances are fluid. They are fuzzy or not reliable. The quests for Atonement and Absolution become larger, more significant then the events that precipitated the need.
Will this bring us to The Sense of an Ending? All of these books are characterised by muddy memories and relative truths, and unreliable authors within the stories.

It’s hard to believe that this is the first novel from Patrick Flanery. It is a self-assured and complex work that braids together the related stories of several characters. Clare is a famous South African author, a bit of a curmudgeon, who is working with her biographer. (If this was ever made into a movie, Maggie Smith would be perfect for the role.) She is using her own literary skills as a tool to clarify mysterious past events involving her family’s roles in the political history of South Africa, but she is a bit obtuse with her young biographer who struggles to understand how his own life has figured into hers. Most of the novel leads to discovering why Clare feels the need for absolution.

Flanery’s writing is intelligent, incisive, and he can write a mean bit of suspenseful action. “Before killing you they would burn the names from your mouth, pull syllables from your fingernails, soak vowels and consonants from your nostrils, remind you of their authority with steel and wire, electricity and fire.”
There was an intense scene of a home invasion, where you could almost hear the scared breathing trying not to be heard, the tense silence broken by stealthy creaks. Clare is interviewed by police afterward, and that becomes a brilliantly Kafka-esque interaction.

There are wonderful gems of prose. On family: “One can but sow the seed and provide the proper environment, and hope that the flower promised by the illustration on the packet is the one that will grow, trust that the hybrid will not revert to the characteristics of some earlier generation, or be so transformed by unpredictable and wholly external factors – a drought, a storm, environmental pollution – that the seed mutates and something unrecognizable grows.”

Or when one’s vacation plans are suddenly upset by a phone call with unexpected news: “Lying in bed that morning, the phone still in his hand, he could feel the broken expectation of that escape raining down around him, and then he realized the rain was not just in his head but outside the window, a shower of ice that began to coat the glass, contorting their view of the traffic, the canary sludge of taxis, bleeding brake lights along West End Avenue.”
And I loved this description of a minor character: “Timothy is overripe and over-processed. His nails have been manicured, his suit is more expensive than anything I’ll ever be able to afford. He’s rotten with success.”

Flanery is American but writes convincingly of what daily life is like nowadays for some in cities like Capetown and Johannesburg. Some descriptions were so detailed that I followed along in Google Maps Streetview. That was an interesting exercise — I felt as if suddenly I was seeing the scene as the author saw it in his own mind.

This book has been one of the best I’ve read in a few months.(less)

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Apr 26, 2012 Ferris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Early Review edition through LibraryThing.com..............It is difficult to believe that this is a debut literary effort! The writing is masterful, dreamlike, and gripping. The form of the novel reels the reader into a confusion of dream, truth, and untruth, creating the confusion which is the primary theme of the novel. What is truth? What is history? What can ever be known for certain? This is true for personal and social history as portrayed in this wonderfully woven story of the pursuit of...more

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May 05, 2013 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Well, I've found my book of the year, and it's only May. You're dropped into Absolution with few bearings. Sam is preparing to write the official biography of Clare, a famous South African writer who has family connections to the apartheid regime (when it existed) as well as to the anti-apartheid ANC movement. Clare is prickly and will not talk about her sister, brother-in-law, and daughter, all of whom were killed or disappeared as a result of their political actions. Sam has met Clare before,...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Paul Lunger rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Patrick Flanery's "Absolution" is a book you'll either love or hate due to the complexity of a story that at times can be very confusing. The story primarily revolves around Clare Wald a writer whose story is told from shifting perspectives as apartheid comes to an end in South Africa in the late 1990s. Flanery's characterizations are fine & the overall writing is fine as is the historical value of the book itself. However, this is a book that needs to be pretty much read without interruptio...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Kasa Cotugno rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: location-africa, themes-family, themes-loss, themes-books-about-books

One of the best books I've read. There are three major characters, two of whom, Sam and Clare, are unreliable narrators, and Clare's daughter Laura who lives only in their memory. The intricate, violent, complicated final days of apartheid in South Africa are rendered in four platforms, through narrative fiction and memoir. Lies are told and truths distorted.

The story unravels but not in Roshomon fashion. The truth is elusive, as elusive as memories of Laura and her motivations. What is truly r...more

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May 10, 2013 Denali rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, chicago-public-library

I picked this up b/c I heard good early reviews of Flanery's forthcoming book. In short, this is the best book I've read all year although I didn't think I would enjoy nearly as much based on the descriptions. Flanery has written a book full of revelations and conflicting stories, yet it isn't a mystery. The reveals don't serve to push the plot along so much as to push the reader to meditate on ideas of personal truth and history in the context of family and national history. It's hard to believ...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Christie rated it 4 of 5 stars

An astonishing debut novel of post-Apartheid Africa viewed from 4 perspectives, alternating chapters, between an elderly South African author who is in her words "a flawed mother"; her assumed-dead, rebel, anti-Apartheid daughter; and the author's biographer, Sam (Lawrence) Leroux. The themes of redemption, censorship, and the regrets of mothers whose "higher cause" forfeit a fulfilled mother's role are brilliantly and seamlessly woven throughout this tragic tale.

Clare Wald, has reluctantly agr...more

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Apr 25, 2012 Joy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

On a South African role (wished I had read this first, just an easier read than the Gordimer book).

So glad I listened to my horoscope today: Simply stay put and tackle some minor household chores. If even that proves too much, then curl up with some tea and a good book.

It grabbed me on the first page, then kept surprising. Very well written. Hard to believe this is a debut novel by someone so young...

Not sure about if it's right for book club...need to think about that one. A lot to discuss but...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Matthew Godfrey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Keeping company with theses characters as they live into the giant tear the tide of South African history has dragged through their personal lives is an experience that invites you to intimacy with some of the most unmentionable parts of our humanity. It is a meditation on the violence of our shared stories that refuses to blink. I don't usually appreciate novels but this book sat with me with in a period of personal complexity and grief with understanding and the capacity to hold paradox in ten...more

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Mar 10, 2013 Di rated it 4 of 5 stars

A very interesting first novel that gives a scary picture of contemporary life n post apartheid South Africa,where former critics of the apartheid regime now live in fear behind dube locked doors and have panic buttons in every room. It was overly convoluted with many "voices" which felt a bit undifferentiated to me. But a good read a bout a young academc interviewing a venerated writer to write her biography. The story of her past is revealed as well as that of her duaghter and the bond that ex...more

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About Patrick Flanery

Patrick Flanery was born in California in 1975 and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. After earning a BFA in Film from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts he worked for three years in the film industry before moving to the UK, where he completed a doctorate in Twentieth-Century English Literature at the University of Oxford. As well as publishing scholarly articles on British and South African...more

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13073575-absolution?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327952526l/13073575.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13073575-absolution?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Absolution by Patrick Flanery[/url]

Absolution

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