Ladysmith
A Novel
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
From the author of the Whitbread Award-winning The Last King of Scotland comes a spellbinding tale of a town under siege in colonial Africa and a young woman who finds love and freedom in the midst of a devastating war.
The year is 1899, and the South African town of Ladysmith is surrounded by Boer forces. No one expects the siege to last, but it does, for a harrowing 120 days -- four months of dire emergency: food shortages during which bread is made with laundry detergent and the soldiers' horses are killed to feed the troops; bombings that force the townspeople into tunnels and makeshift shelters. But in the thick of shells and shrapnel, disease and deprivation, one young woman discovers an unexpected freedom: a chance to break old loyalties and establish new loves. Even as the world she knows collapses around her, Bella Kiernan finds the courage to escape from convention, to rebel against the political forces that threaten her homeland and to pursue her life's greatest romance. Based in part on the letters of Foden's great-grandfather, a British trooper, Ladysmith is a magnificent love story, a vivid portrait of the first modern war of the twentieth century and clear confirmation of Giles Foden's standing as one of Britain's most formidably talented young novelists.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Under siege for 120 days during the Boer War (1899-1901), the motley inhabitants of a South African town go to pieces in Foden's meticulously researched but ultimately unfocused historical novel inspired by letters written by Foden's great-grandfather, a British trooper in the war. Though the Boer forces surround Ladysmith, home of a British garrison, the townspeople don't expect the fighting to last long. The English General Buller is said to be on the way with reinforcements vastly outnumbering the Boer forces. But the siege wears on for months, and the people of Ladysmith become accustomed to horrific wartime hardships. In addition to the destruction and carnage of the ongoing shelling, a combination of too much livestock and too little food and water cause pestilence and famine. The difficulties and indignities exact a heavy psychic toll as well. Martial law is in force; homeless women and children shelter in holes in the ground and bathe in a dung-filled river; and horseflesh becomes a staple. Foden (The Last King of Scotland) concentrates his story alternately on many different characters and families, including a pioneering film journalist and his skeptical print-journalism colleagues, a covert Irish nationalist running a hotel with his daughters, soldiers of all ranks and loyalties, indentured African natives, European expats and even such historical figures as Churchill and Gandhi. This spreads the narrative so thin, however, that no true protagonist emerges. Pulled in several directions by the multiple stories and the many shifts of narrative point of view, the reader never comes to truly understand any of these people, whose lives seem sketchy against the almost painfully vivid depictions of the war. But Foden's simple, elegant writing and his ability to conjure milieu go a long way toward redeeming his scattered tale.
