Suspense from Slovo

Suspense from Slovo

The Betrayal
By Gillian Slovo
Virago. 313 pp. $12.95
Reviewed by Stephen Robson

After reading Slovo's Ties of Blood last year it was with anticipation I pounced on her next novel.

Like Ties of Blood, this is set in South Africa, more precisely among the cadre of the African National Congress.

The backdrop to the plot is 1989 and the unbanning of the ANC, the past and the underground, the present and the struggle.

The key characters are Alan, a white ANC member who is suspected by his comrades of betraying the cause; Rebecca, the ANC leader who heads the commission that investigates Alan; and Sarah, an English woman who comes up against the secret police.

Slovo started on detective novels and, like them, this one is full of suspense.

From GLW issue 74