Purchase
Penguin Press
March 2018
On Sale: March 1, 2018
Featuring: Geert; Lena
272 pages ISBN: 1415209332 EAN: 9781415209332 Kindle: B0719VVJFH Hardcover / e-Book
Add to Wish List
Literature and Fiction
Softness of the Lime is a captivating love story about a
Dutch slave owner, Geert, and his slave, Lena, set in the
1700s in the Cape Colony. Born free in the Highlands of Madagascar, Lena is sold into
slavery and transported to the Cape, where she is bought by
Geert’s wealthy father. The emotionally damaged Geert, who
takes over his deceased father’s estates and businesses at
the age of twenty-two, falls in love with Lena. Their cloistered relationship produces a daughter, who
remains within the confines of the house until Geert marries
to rescue himself from financial hardship and loss of social
status, and his new wife demands that the child be removed
from the household. But Geert refuses to free Lena, and she remains in the
house, where she simultaneously loves and loathes her
master. Softness of the Lime is a compelling account of
degrees of love in a hostile landscape. It captures the
appalling losses, isolation and scarred hearts of slaves,
and it tells of traditions old and emerging, at a time when
competition for ownership of almost everything in the Cape
was at its peak. Spanning more than eighty years, the novel concludes in
1854, twenty years after the abolition of slavery in the
Cape Colony.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|