A special thank you to Goodreads First Reads for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.Kenneth Bonert’s debut is fresh, exciting, and confident. Gitelle's fierce with love for her children is juxtaposed against the fierce disfiguring facial scar that drives the plot's backstory. Her son, Isaac, with hair "gleaming like fresh-skinned carrots" is every bit the spirited red head. Isaac is likeable at times, but can be tiring and his schemes naive—if anything, he is interesting.
Bonert fleshes out his story in rolling scenes, dialect, and sharp prose. With its sweeping scenes I could easily see this book being adapted for the big screen.
My only complaint is that I felt the book to be a bit long and that Bonert was trying to hard to prove himself. The writing speaks for itself—Bonert has arrived.
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KENNETH BONERT is a South African-Canadian writer. His debut novel The Lion Seeker won both the 2013 National Jewish Book Award for Outstanding Debut Fiction and the 2013 Edward Lewis Wallant Award. The Lion Seeker was also a shortlisted nominee for the 2013 Governor General's Award for English-language Fiction, and the 2013 Amazon.ca First Novel Award.
Originally from Johannesburg, Bonert moved to Toronto, Ontario in 1989.