The story with its unique narration spans more than three decades, four funerals and changes in the political situation. It moves from apartheid to a post-apartheid nation. It portrays the decline of the White Afrikaans Swart family. The main characters are Ma (Rachel), Pa (Maine), and three children: Anton, Astrid, and youngest daughter Amor. Salome is the black maid of the family who is sparingly mentioned in the book. It depicts the invisibility of the person and her being irrelevant to the family.

The book is about changes. Changes in the nation and changes in individuals due to the passage of time. How a death in the family affects people and we see the true colours of people at this moment. People react very differently to such a situation. The oddity was that all the family members met mainly during these funerals.

Galgut projects a very dysfunctional family here. The father, Maine promises the dying mother, Rachel, that Salome would get her own property. How long does Salome have to wait to get her property, which is rightfully hers?

Though Amor is portrayed as a person with some mental illness, I liked her for her altruistic nature and paramount commitment.

The book signifies the relevance of life and death and how humans at any level are discriminatory towards others.

We discussed this book in our unofficial book club and one of the members created a unique opportunity to have an online rendezvous with the author Damon Galgut himself. We thoroughly enjoyed dissecting the book and discussing every aspect of the book. He enumerated all the thoughts and points that led him to write this masterpiece. When asked about the unique narrative, the author explained that it was meant to be a cinematic narrative, the way on a screen a camera zooms in or out. It’s like having discordant voices talking over each other. The author has a fondness for stationary and loves a particular Parker fountain pen that was gifted to him by someone. He has been using this pen for the past twenty years and believes in writing first and then typing it out.

Our discussion moved from apartheid to climate change to water scarcity to character analysis to various situations in the book. He told us about his love for Faulkner’s books, particularly ‘As I lay dying.’  We just didn’t have enough of the discussion. The meeting came to an end, but we were all filled with a sense of pride at having met such a brilliant, and unassuming Author.