If you can walk you can dance
By Marion Molteno

about the book
Beautifully written, entertaining and moving, this book won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for the best book from the Africa region. The story of a young woman's life on the run across frontiers, cultures and life-styles - and an exploration of the power of music.

As a politically naïve student, Jennie suddenly has to flee her native South Africa with a boyfriend she had almost decided to leave - to be stranded as an exile in neighbouring Swaziland. Fending for herself in a new culture, she discovers ways of living and a kind of music that she connects with unexpectedly strongly.

As the story moves between Africa and 1970s London, it weaves the music of different cultures through the patterns of work and love and politics in which she tries to find a meaning in her everyday life.

'Suffused with the colours of Africa and the sounds of song, this is an exhilarating book that celebrates the power of music as universal language, healer, political tool - the thread that links humankind across cultures and continents.' Diana Burrell, composer

'Epic breadth and intimate detail combines to build to a poignant crescendo.' Sunday Times

'An ambitious and gripping story.' The Independent

Price: £8.99
ISBN: 9 780951 975213
To order this title please email sales@longstonebooks.co.uk

Books by Marion Molteno are distributed in the UK by www.centralbooks.com, in New Zealand by www.addenda.co.nz, in Australia by www.towerbooks.com.au

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