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Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor
Bitter Fruit tells the story of Silas and Lydia Ali, both of mixed race ancestry, and their son Mikey, a promising university student in post-apartheid South Africa. Silas was an ANC activist and now a lawyer working with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He unexpectedly encounters Francois du Boise, a white policeman who had raped Lydia 20 years earlier while Silas was being beaten in the back of a police van. Even though he doesn't confront du Boise, the encounter reopens old wounds and creates new ones as Mikey learns of his real heritage. Even in the post-apartheid world they longed for, they find their happiness hard to achieve when the past never really goes away. Achmat Dangor's novel has received positive reviews and is a Booker Prize nominee. The Telegraph says, "Dangor's vivid prose, narrative fluency and facility for literary experiment make Bitter Fruit a considerable achievement."
