Children of the Stone City

Set in an imaginary country with strong overtones of modern-day Israel, this searing story does not pull its punches. Young Adam and Leila, both ‘Nons’, try to share living space with the bullying ruling group who speak another language and are known as the ‘Permitted’. At the end of their street a local house previously lived in by Adam’s aunt is taken over by a Permitted family following more legal jiggery-pokery Adam is then arrested on a trumped-up charge by police who try to frame him. His best friend Zak gets a prison sentence of three years for a crime he did not commit.

Beverley’s genuinely ground-breaking first book, Journey to Jo’burg, still in print, was banned in South Africa until 1991.  Published thirty-five years later, this current novel is no less powerful, but written in a style that now feels somewhat dated. Too often open dialogue is abandoned in favour of indirect speech, where questions in characters’ minds are conveniently followed by instant answers. Adam remains almost unnaturally good all the way through, practising his violin every day with uncomplaining zeal. He is backed up by a family and friends of unimpeachably consistent high virtue. So far, so noble in their day-to-day struggle to get by. Things warm up considerably when he is briefly in prison, but it is no surprise when an almost happy ending finally rounds off proceedings.

In an epilogue Beverley writes how the main inspiration for this story arose from four visits made between 2000 and 2016 to Israel’s Occupied Territories and Jordan. She has also drawn on memories of Apartheid South Africa, known by her at first hand and also resisted with huge courage. Anything she writes is well worth reading, with this passionate and well-constructed novel no exception. While not her best, it still works and younger readers can only benefit from renewed contact with an author of such grace and moral probity.