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Hum If You Don't Know the Words

Review

Hum If You Don't Know the Words

It’s probably not quite right to call a novel set in apartheid-era South Africa “entertaining,” yet Bianca Marais’ HUM IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE WORDS manages to be just that, even as its action unfolds against the background of nearly unimaginable injustice and inequality.

The novel begins in June 1976, just days before a historic uprising of black schoolchildren from the Soweto township of Johannesburg. The students, who were inspired to protest by the government’s insistence that they learn Afrikaans, the language of their oppressors, soon grew violent, as police released dogs and then bullets at the protesting youth.

"HUM IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE WORDS is an effective evocation of a difficult time in history, and its compelling storyline will both enthrall and, yes, entertain readers."

In Marais’ novel, one of those children is Nomsa, the daughter of Beauty, a teacher from rural South Africa who has sent her only daughter to school in the city, in the hopes that she might achieve at least as much education as Beauty herself once did. Beauty has received word from her relatives in Soweto that Nomsa might be in danger. Fearing for Nomsa’s life, Beauty rushes to Soweto just as the student uprising is beginning --- but Nomsa is nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, across Johannesburg, nine-year-old Robin lives in a comfortable suburban home with her mother, father and twin sister Cat. On the night after the student uprising --- an event that might as well be a world away from where Robin resides, rather than just a few miles --- Robin’s life is turned on its head, and in one fell swoop she loses not only the life she once had but essentially all the loved ones in her life.

Soon Beauty is desperately seeking her missing daughter among the carnage following the student protests, risking her own safety due to her lack of proper papers. And Robin is living with her aunt Edith, an air hostess who couldn’t be less well-suited to accidental guardianship. Robin and Beauty’s seemingly very different stories soon begin to share certain parallels --- and eventually the two are brought together in a new and surprising relationship that changes both their lives.

Readers who barely remember or don’t know much about apartheid-era South Africa will certainly have their eyes opened by this novel. Marais includes vivid and powerful details about life under apartheid and about ordinary citizens’ heroism and bravery in the face of this oppressive and cruel policy. HUM IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE WORDS is also a moving story about the progression of an unlikely friendship; the circumstances that bring Beauty and Robin together may seem somewhat contrived, but the bond the two eventually create is genuine and poignant. The book at times makes some fairly simplistic commentaries about race and diversity, but given that at least half the story is narrated from the point of view of a child, perhaps these straightforward observations and conclusions should not seem out of line with the novel’s overall focus and tone.

All told, HUM IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE WORDS is an effective evocation of a difficult time in history, and its compelling storyline will both enthrall and, yes, entertain readers.

Reviewed by Norah Piehl on July 14, 2017

Hum If You Don't Know the Words
by Bianca Marais

  • Publication Date: July 11, 2017
  • Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction
  • Hardcover: 432 pages
  • Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
  • ISBN-10: 0399575065
  • ISBN-13: 9780399575068