Fiela's Child (New Longman Literature 14-18)

This is the story of a white baby, abandoned by his natural parents, who is found and 'adopted' by a Coloured woman (Fiela), who raises the child, Benjamin, as her own. It explores the joys of Benjamin's childhood, the education that he gets from Fiela (so very different to what he would have got in a white household), and eventually the heartbreak when he is torn away from the only mother he has, and is given to a white wood cutter, who claims that Benjamin is his child who went missing in the forest.

This is a story told with a great sensitivity of the life styles of the people who inhabited the Cape in the mid 1800's. It is a compelling book, heartwrenching at times, humerous at times, but always, it gives the reader a feel for what was happening in the hearts of the people involved. The Characters may come across as being very simple, but that is the essence of the book. Fiela's simple, but pure, love for her child, the woodcutter's simple, but hard way of life, and Benjamin's simple non-understanding of why he was taken away from the woman he loved, and given to a man he hated. His lack of understanding that he is "better" than Fiela because he is white, and she isn't, and his stuggle to adjust to a new and totally unfamiliar set of rules.

This book could be described a bit like a prison, because once it gets hold of you, it doesn't let go, not until it has finished with you, and not you with it.