Ties of Blood

by Gillian Slovo

Riva Cyn flees the pogroms of Russia to make a new life for herself in Johannesburg, and becomes the first remarkable individual in four generations of strong-willed women, whose fates are entwined with that of the Bopape family

Genres: Fiction, South Africa, Africa, Historical Fiction

693 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Novelist Gillian Slovo was born in 1952 in South Africa, the daughter of Joe Slovo, leader of the South African Communist party, and Ruth First, a journalist who was murdered in 1982.

Gillian Slovo has lived in England since 1964, working as a writer, journalist and film producer. Her first novel, Morbid Symptoms (1984), began a series of crime fiction featuring female detective Kate Baeier. Other novels in the series include Death by Analysis (1986), Death Comes Staccato (1987), Catnap (1994) and Close Call (1995). Her other novels include Ties of Blood (1989), The Betrayal (1991) and Red Dust (2000), a courtroom drama set in contemporary South Africa, which explores the effects of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Reviews

[منوچهر محور · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب بر اساس زندگی خانواده نویسنده نوشته شده است؛ آنها از اروپای شرقی به کشور آفریقای جنوبی مهاجرت می‌کنند و نسل دوم خانواده درگیر مبارزه علیه آپارتاید می‌شود. روایت زندگی این خانواده با زندگی یک خانواده سیاه‌پوست همراه است. کتاب دید خوبی از روابط سیاهان و سفیدها در آفریقای جنوبی و مبارزات سیاسی ضدآپارتاید می‌دهد و اطلاعات تازه و خواندنی زیادی برای خواننده ایرانی دارد؛ به همین دلیل خوب است به فارسی ترجمه شود. در قسمت آخر کتاب که نویسنده به اروپا مهاجرت می‌کند، داستان افت می‌کند.

[Vicki Papworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly not a happy book but what a read! This story travels through 4 generations of South Africans (black & white) during the absolute worst times in SA through to before Mandela was released. What a land South Africa is and what terrible struggles there have been in this country. A tough book to read but I am assuming a lot of this is factually true and it's really distressing what happens to some of these poor people just because of the colour of their skin. I know bad things are happening all over the world but this certainly opened my eyes to a time in South Africa that I was probably to young to really understand. Great read!

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good read telling about life in South Africa before the regime change. It was a moving thought provoking book.

[Gerry Bruin · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I said, political books aren't really my thing, but this was a good read....(actually read it 3 times)

[Carol Rizzardi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three generations of black and white South Africans fight for justice with sadly predictable consequences in this epic. Powerful and worthwhile.

[Baron Olshevri · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are a lover of carefully crafted, rich language, this novel is definitely not for you. The English is basic and feels hurriedly written.
The author prefers to tell rather than show and her writing is very blunt. At times I felt manipulated by old worn out tropes.
On top of that it was clearly written by a person who hasn't lived in South Africa in a long time.
There is no way a respectable black person will call an elderly person by their first name.
In fact all the characters, black and white call their parents by their first name.
Also there is a passage that is outright laughable,- a white, English speaking South African woman finds Britain an "alien culture", sure, forgetting that South Africa was a British colony for a long time.
The only "good" whites in the book are the Jewish ones, same as the only good whites are English in The Power of One.
It seems to be the trope with the white South African writers, "everybody was bad except my kind".
I had to force myself through the last three hundred pages looking for some redeeming qualities. Sadly there were none.

[Daphna Peimer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to learn about the political turmoil in South Africa across the last century. The relationships throughout the four generations in the book are complicated, lots of mother-daughter tension as well as sibling rivalry and marriage challenges. The conflict between political activism and the personal price the family pays is well described. The general vibe is feminist ahead of its time. I was surprised at how children addressed their parents by their first names, how the parents were often negligent towards their children, and how the family ties were looser than I expected for South Africa.

[HilaryB · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book years ago, in my 20s. Having read Shades for Matric, I noticed many similarities between the two stories.

A heartbreaking read that took me back in time to apartheid South Africa. I learnt and felt so much.

Thank you, Gillian

[Will H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting and educational. Sad but a really good read with some very real characters

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 4 out of 5]

For reasons I cannot quite discern, my last two reads have both been set in Africa, when I have been typically ignorant of most of that continent and its history. By the Sea though, is a man's book about men, and Zanzibar, written by a man of letters. Ties of Blood is a multi-generational family saga about a white Jewish and a Black South African family, focusing on the women, and written by a woman who grew up as the daughter of the head of the South African Communist Party. (I can't help wondering which elements of it are autobiographical!)

I am half a dozen years younger than Gillian Slovo, so although I had heard of some of the events of this book (the Sharpeville massacre, the Soweto uprising), this is the first time I can put them into relation with one another, and it is all because of how the Cyn/Arnold/Swiece clan and the Bopape/Cuba family experience them.

I wouldn't want you to think of this as a history book in disguise, however. It's equally the story of how decades of oppression, struggle, state violence, and resistance shape and often warp families, love relationships, and individuals. Especially, it's about how people reveal and conceal, give and withhold, parts of themselves, even from themselves, and what liberation can accomplish in the way of healing.

[Ovie Berlian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very appalling story of a long battle for freedom. Great read!