Home |Register |Sign In Home Top Picks: All Books The Mandela Plot The Mandela Plot by Kenneth Bonert Price: $27.00 (Hardcover) Published: May 22, 2018 Rating: 0.0/ 5 (0 votes cast) From the Publisher: A vibrant, propulsive literary thriller that charts the high-stakes journey of a young man trying to find his place in a country that has lost its wayâ As the 1980s draw to a close, South Africa is a maelstrom of political violence with the apartheid regime in its death throes.</p><p> YoungMartin Helger is the struggling odd duck at an elite private boys school in Johannesburg, with his father a rough-handed scrap dealer and his brother a mysterious legend.</p><p> When a beautiful and manipulative American arrivesat the family home, Martin soon finds himself wrenched out of his isolatedbubble and thrust into the raw heart of the struggle.</p><p> At the same time,secrets from the past begin to emerge and old sins long buried return in terrifying new ways, tearing at the Helgers, a second-generation Jewish family, even as the larger forces of history and politics tear apart thecountry as a whole.</p><p> Mercy is in short supply and ultimately Martin mustrely on alternative strengths to protect himself and fight for a better future.</p><p> From the acclaimed author of the National Jewish Book Award– winning debut novel The Lion Seeker, The Mandela Plot is at once a riveting literary thriller, a moving coming of age tale, and anunforgettable journey through a world that entertains and terrifies inequal measure, and holds profound resonance for the present moment.</p><p> Rate This Book Add To Wishlist |Rate/Review Add To Bookshelf Get This Book Personalize / Add More ChoicesGo to your preferred retailer, click to choose a format and you' ll be taken directly to their site where you can get this book.</p><p> What We Say Kenneth Bonert's second novel has a setting of time and place that's so weighty it can feel crushing.</p><p> Our hero Martin is a Jewish teenager growing up in apartheid South Africa.</p><p> His family has just enough money to send him to an elite privateschool for Jews, but not quite enough money to make him accepted there.</p><p> Martin's father is decent to his black workers, but not enough to avoid the threat of unions and radicals or the unwitting stain of his paternalistic attitude.</p><p> The boy'sShare This Book About The Author Kenneth Bonert KENNETH BONERT's first novel, The Lion Seeker , won the National Jewish Book Award, the Edward Lewis Wallant Award, and the Canadian Jewish Book Award.</p><p> Bonert was also a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award.</p><p> He was born in South Africa and now lives in Toronto, Ontario.</p><p> Release Info List Price: $27.00 (Hardcover) Published: May 22, 2018 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Pages: 480 ISBN 10: 1328886182 ISBN 13: 9781328886187brother is a hard case who turned his back on the safety of university and essentially volunteered for the military at a time when it was engaged in deeply oppressive and brutal battles.</p><p> And really all Martin wants to do is get closer to the new white American college student staying with them -- pity she turns out to be an activist teaching blacks at a school in the townships.</p><p> From random violence to anti-Semitism to the disdain of his "betters," Martin simply can't get a break.</p><p> His worldreally is filled with landmines -- both literal and figurative -- and every choice he makes is rife with moral complexity.Bonert captures the claustrophobic, dangerous atmosphere of the time with impressive weight; honestly, Martin's optionswere all poor and you felt dreadful for him, even as he did things that made you like him less.</p><p> The darkness closes in and Martin's grasp on reality becomes unmoored and this book melted down in impressive fashion.</p><p> It's a pity to report that the book becomes too cinematic in the final act.</p><p> The bigger in scope it reached for, the less convincing it proved.</p><p> Martin is avery memorable character and for a while the poisonous environment seeped off the page in impressive fashion.</p><p> That willlinger long after the fireworks of the finale fizzled out. -- Michael Giltz What Others Say A Publisher’s Lunch “Emerging Voice” A New York Post "Must-Read Book" "This is fiction that illuminates shifting allegiances and power struggles during a dark time and place in recenthistory.</p><p> A riveting thriller with a solid historical base."—Booklist , Starred Review "The Mandela Plot is as suspenseful as a thriller, and the truest kind of Jewish family story—suffused with love and secrets both.</p><p> It's also a masterful, terrifying portrait of a nation, at once bewitching and brutal, whose years on the edge have so much to teach America, and the world, today.</p><p> You won't be able to put this book down." —Boris Fishman, author of A Replacement Life and Don’t Let My Baby Do Rodeo “Propulsive, bare-boned, and riveting, The Mandela Plot shows how competing loyalties to family, truth, and history can tear a person—and a country—apart.</p><p> Kenneth Bonert’s unvarnished characters are fierce andsurprising—there are no seat belts on this ride.” —Rachel Kadish, author of The Weight of Ink “Chaim Potok meets Leon Uris: a solid […] portrait of violence and renewal.” —Kirkus Reviews "It’s the late 1980s in South Africa, where an awkward boy named Martin struggles to find a place at an elite private school in Johannesburg.</p><p> A beautiful American activist comes to live with Martin at his family home, andshe makes him see his own chaotic, changing country through a new lens."—New York Post , "This week's must-read books" - What You Say Filter by No Reviews Found ..... about us |faq|advertise |privacy policy |newsletter |contact us ©2018, BookBuddha LLc.</p><p> All Rights Reserved.
