Heaven forbid: A novel

by Christopher Hope

An unforgettable, highly acclaimed novel of African childhood by a prize winning author In the jacaranda leafed garden of his Johannesburg home, six year old Martin Donally is king of a small and perfect world. It is 1948 and life is full of buoyant childish rhymes and his colourful, Irish extended family. There`s exuberant Grandpa who sings and races horses; chain smoking Auntie Fee, who always sides with the ogres in fairy tales; and above all Georgie, the family`s servant and Martin`s confidant. But this cosy world of fixed certainties is about to end as Martin`s tale turns to one of political and personal tragedy. He can`t possibly foresee the resounding defeat of the liberal government that will usher in a new era of bigotry and intolerance, nor appreciate the significance of the fact Dr Voerwoerd, architect of apartheid, is a neighbour. And what is he to make of dour, racist, Gordon his mother`s husband-to-be, a man who seems determined to shatter the care-free world of the Donally`s for good? Heaven Forbid is a wise, moving tale of innocence blighted and paradise lost; an unforgettable novel of childhood, family and the impact on a private world of a crucial moment in history. `A clever, economical novel... a potent rendering of childhood` - Penelope Lively `A vivid, tender evocation of time and place, fresh and unsugared by nostalgia` Observer `Immensely alive and involving` Sunday Times

Hardcover

First published January 25, 2002

About the author

He studied at universities of Witwatersrand and Natal. He is an author of poems and novels, also published autobiography, biography of Robert Mugabe, dictator of Zimbabwe, and travel book Moscow! Moscow!, which he got prestige PEN Award. Debut novel A Separate Development (1981), satire on apartheid system, forbidden in South Africa, got the David Higham Prize for Fiction.

Reviews

[em · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked this up out of a “take me, I’m free” basket outside someone’s house. Took several chapters to understand anything about the main character. Some good lines of prose, but overall average.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely child's eye view of South Africa just pre apartheid. Sinister and entrancing in equal measures with polar opposite characters such as Grandpa and Georgie on the one hand and the dreadful Gordon on the other. Martin, the 5 year old at the centre of the story, enjoys a golden childhood alongside Georgie, his much loved black nanny and friend, a way of life and friendship soon to be cut short as the storm clouds of apartheid gather on the horizon.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hope has a lovely way about him, even as he's tackling such gutsy stuff as early-days South African apartheid. Coming from there, as he does, only adds to the drama. Hope backs down to no one (he's gone after Robert Mugabe in a piece of non-fiction on tyrants which I've not read). This is, I suspect, the novel Hope was always planning to write. It has that 'gut' about it.