WHEN THE GROUND IS HARD
A young adult novel set at a Swaziland boarding school where two girls discover friendship across class and racial divides.
Work Information
A young adult novel set at a Swaziland boarding school where two girls discover friendship across class and racial divides.
A young adult novel set at a Swaziland boarding school where two girls discover friendship across class and racial divides.
Book Information
- Publisher
- G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
- Published
- 2019-06-04
- Pages
- 272 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 14.9 x 2.4 x 21.7 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780525515579
- ISBN-10
- 0525515577
- Price
- 3479 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Children's Books
Edgar Award nominee stuns in this heartrending tale set in a Swaziland boarding school where two girls of different castes bond over a shared copy of Jane Eyre . A Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of the Century Adele Joubert loves being one of the popular girls at Keziah Christian Academy. She knows the upcoming semester at school is going to be great with her best friend Delia at her side. Then Delia dumps her for a new girl with more money, and Adele is forced to share a room with Lottie, the school pariah, who doesn't pray and defies teachers' orders. But as they share a copy of Jane Eyre , Lottie's gruff exterior and honesty grow on Adele, and Lottie learns to be a little sweeter. Together, they take on bullies and protect each other from the vindictive and prejudiced teachers. Then a boy goes missing on campus and Adele and Lottie must rely on each other to solve the mystery and maybe learn the true meaning of friendship.
After her family migrated to Australia to escape apartheid, Malla Nunn graduated with a double degree in English and History and then earned a master of arts in Theater Studies from Villanova University. Faced with a life of chronic under-employment, she dabbled in acting and screenwriting. She wrote and directed three award-winning films including Servant of the Ancestors , which won best documentary awards at film festivals in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Zanzibar and was shown on national television in Australia. She has published several adult books and has received two Edgar Award nominations. She married in a traditional Swazi ceremony. Her bride price was eighteen cows. She now lives and works in Sydney, Australia.
Reviews
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A great read. The vivid characters and powerful detail paint a vivid picture of a hard life and courageous girls and women.
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While this is billed as a young adult novel, and is certainly a great book fro tweens and teens, don't let that stop you if you are full grown. This book tells a fantastic story that touches on subtle issues of race, class, and social acceptance. Though it takes place in apartheid era Swaziland it is totally relevant to issues that we face today. It is also just a great, well written book with fantastic characters.
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Good South African coming of age story in difficult times. Reads good when you're adult, too. Eagerly awaiting more books by Mala Nunn, adult or not, she writes well.
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I have always been impressed by Malla Nunn's writing and this is another brilliant work, quite exceptionally beautiful in fact. The title comes from an African proverb, "When the ground is hard, the women dance," but Adele, the child narrator, doesn't understand what the saying means till the end of the book when her insight fills us with hope. I hadn't appreciated that this book was pitched at a "young adult audience" when I bought it, but it's an exceptionally powerful book for any reader, all the more so when Nunn explains in the acknowledgements that it is her mother's and her aunties' story. Buy it!
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I’ve been trying to diversify our “school stories” lit circle unit for YEARS. I added FRANKIE LANDAU BANKS, but students are always kind of meh about her. This book though! PERFECT! Every student who read it loved it and we all had LOTS to analyze.