What We Lose is a moving journey through the emotional life of a young woman of mixed race (called "coloured" in the apartheid parlance of her ancestral homeland of South Africa) as she lives her life in America. Coming from a relatively privileged background in S.A., she grows up in a warm upper middle-class household in Pennsylvania that is dominated and centered around her strong and loving mother. Most of the book deals with the death of the mother and the protagonist's long struggle to deal with the almost overwhelming loss. There are ripple effects through all aspects of her life, including her marriage, her own motherhood, etc. The somewhat conventional topic of the novel is kept from pure sentimentalism and predictability by the unconventional and non-linear writing style that mixes genres and chronologies while keeping the force of the emotion intact. It's not a happy book, but one that makes you glad you worked your way through it.
For a review of the book from The Atlantic, click here: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/08/what-we-lose-confronts-the-dilemma-of-authenticity/535065/
For a review of the book from The Atlantic, click here: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/08/what-we-lose-confronts-the-dilemma-of-authenticity/535065/
