Set in the turmoil of newly-post apartheid South Africa, Arianna Dagnino’s novel The Afrikaner (Guernica Editions) is the story of Zoe Du Plessis (33), a woman scientist of Afrikaner descent. A personal tragedy leads Zoe to face her family’s dark secret while she is struggling with the self-reproach for her country’s shameful past. A scientific expedition into the hot plains of the Kalahari Desert sets Zoe on a path of atonement and self-discovery that will allow her to reclaim her identity and meet some memorable characters along the way – among them, a troubled writer, a Bushman shaman and a Border War veteran.
The book is inspired by the five years (1996-2000) the author spent in South Africa working as an international reporter for the Italian press and has been adapted to the screen by the author in collaboration with Dr. Ernst Mathijs, Head of the Centre for Cinema and Film Studies at the University of British Columbia.
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“Arianna Dagnino’s transcultural novel of a young woman’s struggle to recover from the brutal killing of her lover, cope with her family’s tragic past and find her way in post-Apartheid South Africa is both moving and memorable. Drawing on her years as a journalist in South Africa, Dagnino de-layers the country’s conflicts, introduces some remarkable characters and takes the reader on a spellbinding journey” — Ian Thomas Shaw, author of Quill of the Dove
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- Release date: April 1, 2019. Release date of the audiobook: April 2021.
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