First of December
Karen Jenning's new South African historical fiction is worth the wait!
Author Karen Jennings has a new book out today. First of December follows three people during the final week of November 1838, the week before enslaved people would finally be freed in South Africa. The three are: James and Caroline Kendrick, and an unnamed runaway slave making her way to Cape Town along the coast, desperate to reach it by midnight on the 31st November.
The blurb explains more:
Caroline is trapped in an unhappy marriage, in a place she hates, always longing to go home; bored, lonely, without purpose or any sense of belonging. James is forever on the move, desperate for success after a lifetime of failure and humiliation, seeing South Africa as his last great hope, preparing for the climax of his work, a bank to serve the city. Each resents the other, feeling trapped and unloved, yet with a wish for it all to change. Meanwhile the slave-apprentice, fearful of being caught before the deadline, meets others living on the coast, at the edge of society, yet always remaining alone, without any clear idea of what to expect in Cape Town.
Now HoD at the Creative Writing department at Northwest University, Karen was a writer-in-residence at LEAP when she wrote the manuscript. I recruited Karen to Stellenbosch with an explicit goal in mind: to make our research more accessible, specifically our work on Cape slavery. I’m very happy to finally see the product of this in print.
The idea is simple: not many people read academic papers. Historical fiction can make ideas travel much further. I hope First of December wins many prizes – it should – but more importantly that it finds a wide readership. If it does, our understanding of the Cape’s past (and, unavoidably, its present) can be pulled out of the archive and into everyday South African conversation.
First of December is available in the UK from today. It will be available in South Africa in August.
Karen kindly agreed to share an excerpt for paid subscribers. Enjoy.
