The World Beneath

Impassioned and suspenseful, Janice Warman's novel deals with the many ethical quandaries Joshua faces as he learns about conditions in restive 1970s' South Africa - and as he becomes involved in the struggle for freedom. The close third-person narration allows readers to see the point of view of a child who doesn't entirely understand the forces at play. This provides a visceral and memorable introduction to the reality of apartheid - of the everyday humiliations meted out by the rich, white couple Joshua's mother works for, and of other, larger dangers. Issues of class and race are plausibly rendered, and they pervade the smallest details: "For a brief and wonderful moment, Joshua imagined his mother living in the big house, waking up in the bay-windowed master bedroom with its gray silk bedspread and its fancy cream-and-gold-painted dressing table with the curly legs and the triple mirror." Warman avoids making simplistic divisions between good and evil, granting characters a degree of complexity. The wealthy employers' son Robert is a journalist devoted to overturning apartheid, for instance, while the fighters Joshua eventually joins conduct themselves in ways he finds ethically dubious.

Joshua, a black boy in 1970s South Africa whose mother serves a white family, tries to follow the norms of his time. He is deferential to whites and wary of police, but when apartheid brings violence to his doorstep and his family, he joins the rising struggle for freedom. This affectingly told coming-of-age story explores the personal, familial, and social impacts of apartheid. Author's note appended. Glos.