Publisher’s write-up (translated from the French edition by me):
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“For George, this trip to
South Africa was a promise to return to the land of his Afrikaner ancestors. However,
they were just not the nostalgic memories that resurfaced. Between fear, silence
and a ruined world from ‘the past’, the return of the prodigal son turns
quickly into suffocation. For the peasant families forgotten by history, George
represented everything at once. The foreigner who is a son of the country. The
past and the present. A role that would soon prove to be too heavy to bear.”
Note: I read the book in French translated from Afrikaans by Pierre-Marie Finkelstein.
Promised Land is a novel from the
well known writer from South Africa, Karel Schoeman, who wrote novels in
Afrikaans, a language spoken by a majority of the Afrikaners in South Africa.
The plot takes place in 1972, during the apartheid regime of South Africa.
George Neethling returns to his
country of birth, after having been raised and lived in Switzerland for most of
his life; in order to see the farm where he grew up in, the farm that belonged
to his family at Rietvlei in South Africa. En route, he stops at the house of
the Hattingh family, who inform him that there is nothing left in Rietvlei
considering how his mother had left long ago and that there was nobody who took
care of the farm. He was welcomed into the Hattingh family and everybody were
interested in him for some reason or the other, as most of them had never seen a
foreigner, or in this case, someone who had lived abroad. The conversations
between Carla (Hattingh’s daughter) and George was my favourite part of the
novel, where both sides made some very strong points. I also enjoyed the feast organized
for George, where during the party, everyone wanted to dance with George to
strike a conversation with him, for reasons of their own.
The author also explored most
human emotions that is common all over the world, such as nostalgia with George,
where he spends too much money to come all the way even though he had very little
hope that he was returning to a better country than the one that his mother had
left; and equally on the other side, the family values that are displayed by
Hattingh and his friends. There was always an air of mystery, be it with George
or the Hattingh family and their friends, which lasted for almost two thirds of
the novel, which was something I appreciated. The contrast between someone from
the countryside and someone from the city was also a topic well explored, where
Carla even tells George that though they speak the “same words”, they do not
speak the “same language”. I also enjoyed the description of the landscape and
the Afrikaner village – where I felt like personally being in that setting in 1972.
The novel also subtly touched upon political aspects of the time, though not
directly, by using characters like Gerhad, who reminds George of his duty
towards “his country”, “his people” and “his ancestors”. Even George’s gradual
change was interesting, where he initially saw himself as being in his country
but eventually identified himself as a foreigner.
A potential problem for readers
could be that they need a context as the novel is written for Afrikaans
speaking population in South Africa and if we do not know the history of the
Afrikaners or the country, it could be difficult to appreciate the subtleties of
the novel or even boring. It was a remark made by around half of the participants
in the book club I attended to discuss this book (in French), and I understand
their point of view.
To summarise, I loved this book,
it was well written and the author invoked several complicated subjects despite
the small size of the novel (around 250 pages in my pocket French edition). So,
I award the book a rating of eight on ten.
Rating – 8/10
Andy
