Heather Noble's Reviews > Absolution

The story is about post apartheid South Africa but it's focus is on the devastating impact the politics has on a family as they adopt different positions. It's one of those fascinating books in which the way the story is told from multiple points of view persuades the reader to consider the tale from different perspectives. Versions of the facts differ depending on how much the narrator is willing to admit to the listener or to his or her self and may also change depending at which point of time we are glimpsing that version of the facts.
it's not an easy read in many ways but it is both devastating and satisfying in the way it confronts the lies we have to tell ourselves and others in order to continue to live a life which allows some degree of absolution.
There are 2 sentences on the last page of the book which will not give anything away to those who have not read it but which to me sums up the essence of what it is to live an imperfect life with no active intent to hurt any other human being: "There is no guile about him. And that, I know is the quality of the greatest liars."