(Marguerite Poland)
Due to be launched by
Penguin Books next week is The Keeper
from acclaimed author Marguerite Poland who returns with a heartfelt tale of
loss and light.
Her latest novel is
set on a small guano island on the south-eastern coast of South Africa in 1957,
inhabited only by lighthouse keepers, guano workers and gangs of convicts who
harvest the island’s “white gold”. The
Keeper tells the story of Hannes Harker, the island’s senior lighthouse
keeper and his young wife, Aletta, destined for one of the loneliest and most
confined postings in the service. Here they are forced to challenge and
confront the three “commandments” implicit in the lives of those who serve the
island: never leave the light, never fall and never cross the line.
For Hannes, a
keeper’s son himself, the posting to the island initiates a pilgrimage to
concealed childhood memories. His fascination with the “light” is intimately
bound to his distant, autocratic father, the defection of his brother and the
secrecy surrounding the tragic death of his mother. But for the wildly-spirited
and guilt-haunted Aletta, also born into the lighthouse tradition, the island
brings frightening isolation before it does enlightenment. Thrust into a
struggle against the desolating hold of the light, both Hannes and Aletta need
to transcend the rigid requirements of an existence that denies the grace of
compassion and the value of community.
One of Penguin’s
most respected authors, Marguerite Poland has successfully mastered writing for
both children and adults. In 2003, in collaboration with artist Leigh Voigt and
Professor David Hammond-Tooke, Poland wrote the highly acclaimed The Abundant Herds: a Celebration of the
Nguni Cattle of the Zulu People, based on her doctoral thesis. She is one
of South Africa’s best loved novelists, whose works include Shades, Recessional for Grace, and Taken Captive by Birds.
The Keeper is published in paperback by Penguin Books. Recommended Price R235.
ISBN: 9780143539032
(Review to follow
shortly)
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