Patricanne's Reviews > Absolution

Disturbing and shocking , set in South Africa past and present, and showing that nothing much has changed except the participants. The story concerns Clare and Sam, who each want something from the other, but neither is willing to ask. Clare, a world renowned author, writes a memoir which is pitched as “fictional” in an effort to forgive herself for things she may or may not have done to her sister and daughter, while telling Sam, who is writing her biography, another version of the truth. He in turn tells her, and himself, different versions of his past. Additionally, Clare imagines what her daughter’s fate might have been. The timeline jumps back and forth, and between characters, and it’s hard to tell if something actually happened or if the person doing the telling thinks or wishes it did. Regardless, the book is an indictment on South African politics, and was summed up for me by what one character, newly arrived, said :- “ This is my idea of paradise…… The only drawback is the lingering fear that I might wake up with a shotgun in my face”. She then added, “But I guess that could happen anywhere “, apparently not realising that would be most unusual outside of South Africa or the USA.