Reviews
Kirkus Reviews STARRED REVIEW A gorgeous, devastating song of freedom that will inevitably be compared to Toni Morrison'sBeloved. But it deserves to stand on its own. Publishers Weekly Poet Christiansë (Castaway), born in apartheid-era South Africa and now living in New York City, channels the torturous history of South African slavery in her debut novel. Sila van den Kaap, whom Christiansë discovered in an early 19th century document, is a slave serving hard labor at the Robben Island prison colony after murdering her own son, Baro. As Sila breaks and hauls stones, evades the attentions of the prison guards and cares for her small children, she casts her mind back to the daily indignities, fleeting pleasures and larger injustices that have defined her life since, as a young girl, she was brought to South Africa from Mozambique. Addressed primarily to the spirit of her deceased son, Sila's absorbing, lyrical narrative is circular: she alternates between exhausted lament, seething rage and scripture-tinged poetic soliloquy ("their sins are like unto a plague of locusts that eat not fields but bodies and hearts"), and returns repeatedly to the broken promise of her freedom, granted in the will of one of her mistresses,Oumiesies("old Missus"), and disregarded by Oumiesies's cruel son, Theron. After many passionate digressions, Sila alights, finally, on the death of Baro. In the final pages, she movingly addresses "the daughters and sons of my generations"-those now living with slavery's legacy. Library Journal STARRED REVIEWThe story unfolds in fits and starts and reads like a confession to a soulmate. This stream-of-consciousness style gives readers an intimate if disturbing peek into the mind of a fierce 19th-century slave woman...Impossible to put down, this work deserves a place beside such classics as Toni Morrison'sBelovedand Edward P. Jones'sThe Known World. Highly recommended. ForeWord This Week ...Unconfessedby Yvette Christiansë takes place in South Africa in the Dutch-speaking Cape Colony in the 1820s. Sila was taken from Mozambique to South Africa as a child. She was promised freedom in the will of her mistress Oumiesies. But at her death, her cruel son Theron refuses to honor his mother's wishes. Sila is sold to a series of cruel masters and is eventually imprisoned for murdering her son, Baro. As she works in the rock quarry on Robben Island prison, she speaks to Baro, telling him her disjointed life story and the details of her days in the prison. Gradually through Christiansë's poetic stream-of-consciousness narrative, the reader learns how she came to be in her situation and the guilt she feels at the thought of her children's suffering. Booklist Little has been written about what it was like to be a slave in South Africa under the early white settlers. This debut novel tells it through the first-person, present-tense narrative of Sila, once a slave, now a prisoner on Robben Island off Cape Town in the 1820s....the history is authentic, and Sila's brave, desperate voice reveals the vicious brutality as well as surprising discoveries of love and friendship. Readers of Toni Morrison's classicBelovedwill recognize the story of a mother driven to save her children at any cost. Historic Novels Review Sila is a strong, likable character who survives adversities that would destroy most people. She has a few happy times to remember, but of course the tone of any book about slavery is mainly distressing. Readers who prefer a linear storyline may struggle to puzzle out the sequence of events, as Sila's memories come and go in a poetic, stream-of-consciousness fashion. Christiansë's word choice and syntax effectively con
Synopsis
PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD FINALIST A fiercely poetic literary debut re-creating the life of an 19th-century slave woman in South Africa. Slavery as it existed in Africa has seldom been portrayed and never with such texture, detail, and authentic emotion. Inspired by actual 19th-century court records, "Unconfessed" is a breathtaking literary tour de force. They called her Sila van den Kaap, slave woman of Jacobus Stephanus Van der Wat of Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. A woman moved from master to master, farm to farm, and driven by the horrors of slavery to commit an unspeakable crime from prison to prison. A woman fit for hanging . . . condemned to death on April 30, 1823, but whose sentence the English, having recently wrested authority from the Dutch settlers, saw fit to commute to a lengthy term on the notorious Robben Island. Sila spends her days in the prison quarry, breaking stones for Cape Town's streets and walls. She remembers the day her childhood ended, when slave catchers came whipping the air and the ground and we were like deer whipped into the smaller and smaller circle of our fear. Sila remembers her masters, especially Oumiesies ("old Missus"), who in her will granted Sila her freedom, but Theron, Oumiesies' vicious and mercenary son, destroys the will and with it Sila's life. Sila remembers her children, with joy and with pain, and imagines herself a great bird that could sweep them up in her wings and set them safely on a branch above all harm. "Unconfessed" is an epic novel that connects the reader to the unimaginable through the force of poetry and a far-reaching imagination.", PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD FINALIST A fiercely poetic literary debut re-creating the life of an 19th-century slave woman in South Africa. Slavery as it existed in Africa has seldom been portrayed-and never with such texture, detail, and authentic emotion. Inspired by actual 19th-century court records, Unconfessed is a breathtaking literary tour de force. They called her Sila van den Kaap, slave woman of Jacobus Stephanus Van der Wat of Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. A woman moved from master to master, farm to farm, and-driven by the horrors of slavery to commit an unspeakable crime-from prison to prison. A woman fit for hanging . . . condemned to death on April 30, 1823, but whose sentence the English, having recently wrested authority from the Dutch settlers, saw fit to commute to a lengthy term on the notorious Robben Island. Sila spends her days in the prison quarry, breaking stones for Cape Town's streets and walls. She remembers the day her childhood ended, when slave catchers came - whipping the air and the ground and we were like deer whipped into the smaller and smaller circle of our fear. Sila remembers her masters, especially Oumiesies ("old Missus"), who in her will granted Sila her freedom, but Theron, Oumiesies' vicious and mercenary son, destroys the will and with it Sila's life. Sila remembers her children, with joy and with pain, and imagines herself a great bird that could sweep them up in her wings and set them safely on a branch above all harm. Unconfessed is an epic novel that connects the reader to the unimaginable through the force of poetry and a far-reaching imagination., A 2006 PEN/Hemingway Award finalist: "Impossible to put down, this work deserves a place beside such classics as Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and Edward P. Jones's "The Known World,""--"Library Journal" (starred review) Slavery as it existed in Africa has seldom been portrayed--and never with such texture, detail, and authentic emotion. Inspired by actual 19th-century court records, "Unconfessed" is a breathtaking literary tour de force. They called her Sila van den Kaap, slave of Jacobus Stephanus Van der Wat of Plettenberg Bay, in the colony of South Africa. They called her murderer, and demanded that she explain her terrible violence. A woman fit for hanging...condemned to death on April 30, 1823, only to have her sentence commuted to a lengthy term on the notorious Robben Island. Sila spends her days in the prison quarry, breaking stones for Cape Town's streets or cleaning the Warden's house. Her fierce, sometimes tender voice recalls the dramatic events of her life--as well as its small, precious moments and pleasures. "Unconfessed" is an epic novel that connects the reader to the unimaginable through the force of poetry and a far-reaching imagination. Reading group guide included inside this edition., This fiercely poetic literary debut re-creates the life of an 18th-century slave woman in South Africa. With extraordinary detail and authentic emotion, Christianse connects the reader to the unimaginable.
