Ryan's Mom gave me this book to read and Wow, she was right! An amazing read! Picture South Africa, 1940s-60s roughly--if you are anything like I was pre-this book, you can't picture it, can you? I knew NOTHING about South Africa during this time, and now I know a little!
My prerequisite for a book is that it grabs me from the first sentence--I have no loyalty to a book I've not read and therefor have no qualms about closing it and setting it right back down where I got it. You'll have to pick up this book yourself to discover that first sentence, but here is my favorite paragraph from the book:
(read this to yourself in your best German accent--and old man's German accent;))
"Peekay," he said, "in this world are very few things made from logic alone. It is illogical for a man to be too logical. Some things we must just let stand. The mystery is more important than any possible explanation." He paused for a moment and tapped his fingers on the edge of the piano keyboard. "The searcher after truth must search with humanity. Ruthless logic is the sign of a limited mind. The truth can only add to the sum of what you know, while a harmless mystery left unexplored often adds to the meaning of life. When truth is not so important, it is better left as a mystery."
For now, all you need to picture is a white boy, a Zulu nanny, WWII, an enchanted and yet bitterly divided country...you won't regret it, happy reading!
