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A Sin of Omission
Marguerite Poland
- Publication date
- 26 Nov. 2021
- Print length
- 428 pages
- ISBN-13
- 9781838172039
- Dimensions
- 203 × 127 mm
- GoodReads
- Customer reviews
£15.95
A Sin of Omission
John MbangyenoAn emotional rollercoaster-the astonishing love story of a man for a church, an ideal and a woman. Heart-wrenching.
Mark GevisserPoland is a worthy descendant of Olive Schreiner in her heritage and passions.
About the book
A powerful novel about innocent faith and an abuse of trust.
Torn from his parents as a child, Stephen Mzamane is picked by the Anglican church to train at the Missionary College in Canterbury and then sent back to southern Africa’s Cape Colony to be a preacher.
He is a brilliant success, but troubles stalk him: his unresolved relationship with his family and people, the condescension of church leaders towards their own native pastors in the 1870s, and That Woman—seen once in a photograph and never forgotten. And now he has to find his mother and take her a message that will break her heart.
In this raw and compelling story, Marguerite Poland employs her massive experience as a writer and African linguist to recreate the polarised, duplicitous world of Victorian colonialism and its betrayal of the very people that it claimed to be enlightening.
Endorsements
Archbishop Rev. Thabo Makgoba of Cape TownMarguerite Poland, as always, is able to use words to paint reality. She has written an incredibly moving and compassionate yet piercing historical account which both demands apologies for the sins of the past yet is also redemptive.
Sindiwe MagonaI love the book and admire its courage, to say nothing of its skilfulness. The subject is painful. Reading the manuscript, I was driven to tears more times than I care to remember. I couldn’t stop thinking: if this is what priests thought, why do we wonder Apartheid happened? It is horrifying but also humbling to see how, with the best intentions, we err and betray the very values we preach. Marguerite Poland is to be commended for writing such a revelatory account of societal attitudes. The book is fiction but is based on church history and bigotry parading as decency. This is a painful and humbling reminder that none of us is above erroneous judgment.
Marguerite Poland
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