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A review by _askthebookbug
Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais
5.0
• r e c o m m e n d a t i o n •
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"Some good-byes are as gentle and inevitable as sunset, while some blindside you like a collision you didn't see coming. Some good-byes are schoolyard bullies you are powerless to stop, while others punctuate the end of a relationship because you decided: enough. Some are heartbreaking, leaving you a little more damaged than you were before, others set you free." - Biana Marais.
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There are certain books that makes you want to grab hold of someone and to tell them how wonderfully good such books are. Hum If You Don't Know The Words was one such novel which not only moved me deeply but also surprised me by how beautifully Bianca has managed to write her debut novel. There was more than one instance when I couldn't read the words because of my blurred vision, tears on the verge of sliding down my cheeks. Set in 1976, when Apartheid was still very much present, this novel is everything about love, loss and friendship that is shown through a young white girl and a fully grown black woman. If there's anything that I have learnt through this story, it is the ability to give love and friendship a chance in spite of having suffered irreparable losses. I implore you to read this, for a book as fine as this needs to be cherished and talked about more often.
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Robin, a nine year old girl suddenly finds herself to be an orphan when her parents are murdered by black men. It only seems to go downhill when her black maid Mabel decides to leave her too. When she moves in with her aunt, Robin struggles not only with her own grief but also to see her strong aunt succumb to sadness. But if there's one thing that children are good at, it is the ability to give and take love even in the face of loss and Robin does exactly that. Many miles away, Beauty receives a message about her daughter who has gone to the city to study being in danger. Leaving behind her teenage sons, Beauty makes way to Soweto only to find out that Nomsa has run away to join the resistance. Mother's grief is unbearable but so is their determination. Beauty, thus sets on an impossible task to track her daughter and to bring her back home.
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When Robin and Beauty come together which is nothing short of a miracle, they find friendship and love in the most unexpected manner. Robin's perception of blacks were rigid to begin with where she considered all of them to be illiterate, dirty and also evil for having murdered her family. But she is quick to understand that people can be good or bad in spite of the different colours of their skins and how her father wasn't fair in his treatment towards them. Beauty finds a surprisingly comforting presence in Robin and can't help from drawing similarities between her and Nomsa. Amidst hostility, there were a handful of people who worked in secret and danger to help black people from being subjected to brutality and few such Samaritans look after Beauty and indirectly of Robin too. Hum If You Don't Know The Words is a powerful book that speaks of the horrors of Apartheid subtly, about strangers stepping in to help without expecting anything in return and about having faith in love even in most dreariest of places. I most definitely recommend this. It turned me into a melting pot of emotions but eventually left behind an immense feeling of warmth surging through my body.
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Rating : 4.9/5.
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"Some good-byes are as gentle and inevitable as sunset, while some blindside you like a collision you didn't see coming. Some good-byes are schoolyard bullies you are powerless to stop, while others punctuate the end of a relationship because you decided: enough. Some are heartbreaking, leaving you a little more damaged than you were before, others set you free." - Biana Marais.
.
There are certain books that makes you want to grab hold of someone and to tell them how wonderfully good such books are. Hum If You Don't Know The Words was one such novel which not only moved me deeply but also surprised me by how beautifully Bianca has managed to write her debut novel. There was more than one instance when I couldn't read the words because of my blurred vision, tears on the verge of sliding down my cheeks. Set in 1976, when Apartheid was still very much present, this novel is everything about love, loss and friendship that is shown through a young white girl and a fully grown black woman. If there's anything that I have learnt through this story, it is the ability to give love and friendship a chance in spite of having suffered irreparable losses. I implore you to read this, for a book as fine as this needs to be cherished and talked about more often.
.
Robin, a nine year old girl suddenly finds herself to be an orphan when her parents are murdered by black men. It only seems to go downhill when her black maid Mabel decides to leave her too. When she moves in with her aunt, Robin struggles not only with her own grief but also to see her strong aunt succumb to sadness. But if there's one thing that children are good at, it is the ability to give and take love even in the face of loss and Robin does exactly that. Many miles away, Beauty receives a message about her daughter who has gone to the city to study being in danger. Leaving behind her teenage sons, Beauty makes way to Soweto only to find out that Nomsa has run away to join the resistance. Mother's grief is unbearable but so is their determination. Beauty, thus sets on an impossible task to track her daughter and to bring her back home.
.
When Robin and Beauty come together which is nothing short of a miracle, they find friendship and love in the most unexpected manner. Robin's perception of blacks were rigid to begin with where she considered all of them to be illiterate, dirty and also evil for having murdered her family. But she is quick to understand that people can be good or bad in spite of the different colours of their skins and how her father wasn't fair in his treatment towards them. Beauty finds a surprisingly comforting presence in Robin and can't help from drawing similarities between her and Nomsa. Amidst hostility, there were a handful of people who worked in secret and danger to help black people from being subjected to brutality and few such Samaritans look after Beauty and indirectly of Robin too. Hum If You Don't Know The Words is a powerful book that speaks of the horrors of Apartheid subtly, about strangers stepping in to help without expecting anything in return and about having faith in love even in most dreariest of places. I most definitely recommend this. It turned me into a melting pot of emotions but eventually left behind an immense feeling of warmth surging through my body.
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Rating : 4.9/5.