The Smell of Apples: A Novel - Softcover
Winner of the Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction from the Los Angeles Times
Winner of the M-Net Award
Winner of The Eugene Marais Award
Winner of the CNA Literary Award
Winner of the Betty Trask Award
A Booker Prize Nominee
Set in the bitter twilight of apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s, The Smell of Apples is a haunting story narrated by eleven-year-old Marnus Erasmus, who records the social turmoil and racial oppression that are destroying his own land. Using his family as a microcosm of the corroding society at large, Marnus tells a troubling tale of a childhood corrupted, of unexpected sexual defilements, and of an innocence gone astray.
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Review:
It's not that Marnus Erasmus is forced to parrot his major-general father's prejudices--the 11-year-old has no idea he's even doing so. The voice Mark Behr has created is a mix of youthful innocence and hope and terrible hatred and ignorance. Unconsciously relaying tales of Communist indoctrination and Coloured abomination, the boy is all set to become another soldier of the white South African state. "Dad says he'll never forget what the Communists and the blacks did to Tanganyika. And Dad says we shouldn't ever forget. A Volk that forgets its history is like a man without a memory. That man is useless." Marnus's domestic memories, however, turn out to be far more difficult to deal with than any issues of national import. His final essay of the school year ends with the triumphant "Open eyes are the gateways to an open mind," even as his family is attempting to keep his firmly shut.
About the Author:
Mark Behr was born in Tanzania in 1963, and moved as a child to South Africa. He was educated in South Africa, Norway, and the United States. The Smell of Apples won South Africa's biggest literary prize, the M-Net Award, The Eugene Marais Award, and the CNA Debut Literary Award. It also received the Betty Trask Award for the best first novel published in the United Kingdom, and was shortlisted for both the Steinbeck and Guardian Literary Awards.
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- PublisherPicador
- Publication date1997
- ISBN 10 0312152094
- ISBN 13 9780312152093
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number1
- Number of pages200
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Winner of the Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction from the Los Angeles TimesWinner of the M-Net AwardWinner of The Eugene Marais AwardWinner of the CNA Literary AwardWinner of the Betty Trask AwardA Booker Prize Nominee Set in the bitter twilight of apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s, The Smell of Apples is a haunting story narrated by eleven-year-old Marnus Erasmus, who records the social turmoil and racial oppression that are destroying his own land. Using his family as a microcosm of the corroding society at large, Marnus tells a troubling tale of a childhood corrupted, of unexpected sexual defilements, and of an innocence gone astray. This remarkable novel evokes the twilight of South Africa's apartheid society in the early 1970s as seen through the eyes of a young Afrikaner boy, Marnus Erasmus. From the story of a seemingly stable and affluent family, whose self-delusion and arrogance masks a troubling undercurrent, comes a harrowing parallel tale of a childhood corrupted and a society beginning to crumble. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780312152093
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