My Cousin's Cousin: Families in a Time of Change

Publisher Marketing: South Africa is at a crossroads. The country is potentially explosive for change. Into this general setting, the author places several families which echo the complexities of the country itself. Readers will see how the different members of these families - actually one extended family - form their different beliefs and how their journey across the volatile landscape of the sixties through the nineties brings them into conflict with each other and with the apartheid regime. Susanna Malan feels that she belongs to neither the English nor the Afrikaans sides of her family. Not English enough for the English and too 'Engels' for her Afrikaans family, she finds an easier acceptance with the children of the workers on her uncle's farm. She slowly comes to realise that her privileged lifestyle is due largely to the injustices of apartheid and passionately embraces the African National Congress - and one of the comrades in particular. Her relationship with these 'Communists, Terrorists, Gevangenes' impacts negatively on her cousin Magriet's marriage and career. But as her new relationships strengthen, she realises that there are questions about her and her cousin's family background that require answers. My Cousin's Cousin dissects a microcosm of South African society and explores the question of how and why racial and political lines are crossed.