The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam
ABOUT
THE BOOK
Nyree and Cia live on a remote farm in the east of what was Rhodesia in the late 1970s. Beneath the dripping vines of the Vumba rainforest, and under the tutelage of their heretical grandfather, theirs is a seductive childhood laced with African paganism, mangled Catholicism and the lore of the Brothers Grimm. Their world extends as far as the big fence, erected to keep out the ‘Terrs’ whom their father is off fighting. The two girls know little beyond that until the arrival from the outside world of ‘the bastard’, their orphaned cousin Ronin, who is to poison their idyll forever.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
This is a story of two young girls growing up in rural Rhodesia in the 1970’s and being looked after by the black farm steward and his wife. It is narrated by 8 year old Nyree O’Callahan and wonderfully evokes their magical childhood despite the increasing political unrest in the country and a sense of impending doom and rising tension with the arrival of their cousin, Ronin. Liebenberg vividly contrasts the lives of the privileged O’Callahan’s and the abject poverty of their employees. The deliberate use of racist language used by the characters often successfully leaves the reader feeling very uncomfortable. The reader squirms and flinches at the behaviour of many of the characters but this adds to the poignancy and haunting feeling that remains with the reader long after the books has ended.