The Portrait of Stella- Susan Wüthrich
Portrait of Stella by Susan Wüthrich
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Portrait of Stella is the story of a woman, from whom the knowledge of her birth was withheld for no reason other than to protect her from the ugliness of the societal conduct she would otherwise have to endure. This book illustrates the phrase ‘Desperate times call for desperate measures’ in a way no other text has ever been able to.
The story has been set in two different eras. The 1950’s and 1980’s. An unprecedented revelation about the identity of Jemima Ashton, or lack thereof leaves her baffled, threatening to shake the very foundation of her existence on Earth. Upon learning that her birth certificate was falsified and that there are no records of her Father’s identity in Archives at the repository, Jemima sets out on a journey to trace the path her mother traversed before settling down with her father in England. As with most mysteries, the unraveling of her comes up blank initially, until she discovers she should have traveled to South Africa in pursuit of her answers.
Little by little, she learns the truth of her parents’s relationship and their respective families. From the time of the war, the extermination of jews, apartheid taking root in South Africa to the 2000’s, the author has explained everything in vivid detail. The main characters of the story experienced it all first hand. Forced apart on more than one occasion, be it by the laws that encouraged complete segregation of all races or the difficulty of communicating with loved ones halfway across the world or by their own people turning their back on them, caused darkness to be a constant bystander in their excursions.
And what do we see when the dots finally connect to form the true big picture? Why, the portrait of Stella of course!
For the first time in my life, I find myself at a complete loss for words. I don’t know which words to use to review this book. Not because I have a problem with expressing myself but because I have a feeling that the words I have at my disposal can in no way justify the quality of content this book offers. My respect for Susan Wüthrich is beyond words.
The writing is wonderfully clean, refined, pure and impelling. The pace of narration is steady and keeps the reader hooked. It had been a while since I read a story with a historical backdrop and I can say with complete conviction that this one alone was enough to satisfy the long standing thirst.
A
MUST
read guys!
