Phoebe & Nio: A novel

1987 edition, inscribed

Here for a change, is a novel that intimately and realistically depicts South African life in a spirit of delight and humour, daring to affirm that individual experience is what matters in discovering how much freedom is possible.

From the vantage point of the friendship of two young women in South Africa in the 1950s, it engagingly explores the perils and paradoxes of family relationships, including marriage and motherhood. Nio, at first still cradled by her family, is the perpetually ingenuous observer, acted upon rather than acting, and Phoebe, with an unconventional 'grandmother' as her only relative, is the fascinating, precociously sophisticated mentor of Nio's gradual liberation. Phoebe's own instructor is life itself, which she embraces with the gallant gusto of her curiosity and determination taste it all.