Mouthful of Glass
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is indicative only and does not represent the condition of this copy. For information about the condition of this book you can email us.
A mouthful of glass recreates the sad and desperate life of a man who was never sure what he was and where he stood. One day, in 1966, in the chamber of the South African Parliament where he has recently been employed as a messenger, he walked up to Hendrik Verwoed, the Prime Minister, and stabbed him to death. Verwoed was the father of apartheid; his was among the most dramatic political assassinations in modern history. Demitrios Tsafendas was born half-Greek, half-African, in colonial Mozambique, a world defined by racial prejudice. Van Woerden describes the man's flight from country to country - Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Germany, Britain and the USA - and his failure to fit in anywhere. He was Christian, communist, Coloured, black, white; he was, sometimes, the prophet of a multi-racial future. Rejection and disintegration went together; by the end he was taking orders from creatures dwelling in his body. This is a fine piece of narrative writing, pared down to essentials, balancing fact and imaginative recreation with great care and integrity. It has the power of a fable.
Author: Henk van Woerten
Published: 2000, Jonathan Ball Publishers SA, South Africa
Genre: General & Literary Fiction
Description
A mouthful of glass recreates the sad and desperate life of a man who was never sure what he was and where he stood. One day, in 1966, in the chamber of the South African Parliament where he has recently been employed as a messenger, he walked up to Hendrik Verwoed, the Prime Minister, and stabbed him to death. Verwoed was the father of apartheid; his was among the most dramatic political assassinations in modern history. Demitrios Tsafendas was born half-Greek, half-African, in colonial Mozambique, a world defined by racial prejudice. Van Woerden describes the man's flight from country to country - Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Germany, Britain and the USA - and his failure to fit in anywhere. He was Christian, communist, Coloured, black, white; he was, sometimes, the prophet of a multi-racial future. Rejection and disintegration went together; by the end he was taking orders from creatures dwelling in his body. This is a fine piece of narrative writing, pared down to essentials, balancing fact and imaginative recreation with great care and integrity. It has the power of a fable.
Mouthful of Glass
$10.00