Blood Runner

Gr 5–8—Samuel is a fictional character inspired by Josiah Thugwane, the marathon runner who was the first black South African to win an Olympic gold medal. The novel begins when Samuel is a child and his parents and sister are killed in a police massacre of antiapartheid protesters. Samuel and one of his brothers are sent to the rural Bantu homeland to live with their uncle, while another brother, an amputee, is left in the city. Samuel herds goats and begins to mold himself into a long-distance runner. He marries and goes to work in the gold mines. All this time he tells himself that his contribution to the fight against apartheid will be to show that he can beat white marathon runners. There is no real plot tension; that he'll prevail is a foregone conclusion. Historical and geographical accuracy are given short shrift, characters are sketchily drawn, and major events in the story appear in near-summary form. While the massacre in which Samuel's parents and sister die is set up as a portrayal of the events in Sharpeville in 1960, the time line of the story, which includes the 1996 Olympics, when Samuel wins his gold, requires that the action takes place in the 1980s. Riordan's failure to ground his story in accurate historical details drains it of any richness or resonance it might have had. For a powerful fictional look at South Africa's history and politics, stick with Beverley Naidoo's Out of Bounds (HarperCollins, 2003) or Colleen Craig's Afrika (Tundra, 2008).—Sue Giffard, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, New York City