Princeton Walk Book Club: Hum if You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais

August 2, 2018

Book: Hum if You Don't Know the Words
Author: Biana Marais

Hostess: Amy
Attendees: Michelle, Lori, Debra, Emily, Cheryl, Pam

Summary from Publisher's Weekly May 1, 2017:

Nine-year-old Robin loves detective stories. So when the police arrive the night her parents are killed, she mistakenly believes she is now part of her favorite radio series. It’s a harsh awakening for her to realize that South Africa in the 1970s is a place far more violent than those stories. With her parents gone, Robin’s aunt puts her in the care of a Xhosa nanny, Beauty, a woman with her own tragic secrets: Beauty has vowed to stay in Johannesburg as long as it takes to find her daughter, Nomsa, who has disappeared after a student protest ends in bloodshed. However, as the days stretch into months, Beauty finds herself growing increasingly attached to the motherless white child she is being paid to raise. Likewise Robin grows to love Beauty, despite knowing her dead parents would disapprove of her close relationship with the black woman. In this standout debut Marais handles topics such as grief and racism with a delicate intensity that will make readers fall in love with her characters. From the first few heartfelt chapters to a fast-paced and heart-wrenching ending, Marais has created a stunning historical drama that shouldn’t be missed. (July)

Overall consensus: we really enjoyed this book and gave it 4.5 stars, and highly recommend it.

Great characters and development; we loved Beauty especially, but liked them all. We learned quite a bit about the Soweto uprising June 16, 1976 and Apartheid in general. Some of our members were about Robin's age (or younger) in 1976 while some of us were college-aged that summer and thus were also less concerned about world events at the time. This we contrasted to today's media-saturated world. In 1976 there was less news coverage, young people didn't travel as much like today, and we were just in our own (self-centered) worlds at the time. This book brought out so many topics to discuss, which kept things lively all night. A great start to our book club fall!