5 stars
In 1993 Amy Biehl drove into a South African Township around the time of the dissolution of Apartheid. Her death at that moment became a media target for how the new South Africa politics would work and what constitutes politically motivated violence. The author discovered this story after moving to Cape Town with her fiancé and realizing that while numerous articles had followed the story, a book had never been written. She then threw herself into the research and made close acquaintance with many of the people involved. This is not an easy story and there is definitely not a clean conclusion. South Africa is a place with a tumultuous and violent history of race relations (not very much unlike my own country) and the riot that eventually killed Amy was not a clear cut murder case but instead a convoluted event with many people involved and too many differing accounts to keep track of. This book is extremely well written and the author does an incredible job of fairly telling the complicated story. I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The A to Z of You and Me by James Hannah
4 stars
While forty year old Ivo suffers from kidney failure in a hospice, his kindly nurse tries to keep him busy by inventing a game. He must think of a body part from A to Z and as he does this he reminisces about his relationships with friends, his true love that ended tragically and the bad decisions he made that resulted in his current situation. This book surprised me with its intensity and complexity. It was simply but elegantly written and even though it was sad, there was also a strange sort of hope at the end. This is one of those books that I didn't know much going into but am really glad that it came into my life. I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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