There are wonderful lists for bibliophiles on the internet. From The Best Books Of All Time and 100 Greatest Novels Ever Written, to Top 100 Books You Need To Read Before You Die. Why they always have to bring death into these indexes, nobody knows.
I’m very proud to announce that I own no less than 12 of the titles listed on the Fyodor-Mazov Institute’s Top 20 Books Of The 20th Century. I always knew I had good taste.
Joanne Jazinski’s astonishing novel, Timeless Tides of Trinidad (first published in 1958) is my favourite. Why she was never considered for the Nobel Prize will remain a mystery.
This hauntingly beautiful story of a woman who murders her son’s lover, illustrates the author’s uniquely sensuous, lyrical prose and uncovers a world where love and hope walk hand in hand. As one reviewer put it: “Her triumph, apart from remaining one of the most lucid contemporary poets of dispossession, is her tenacious probing of compulsive violence, exorcism and reparation.”
Among the other books on my shelf, which also appear on the authentic Fyodor-Mazov list, are Peter Hillsence’s Broken Fuselage, Terrence Viltman’s Sons of the Sun Valley, and Shipwreck by Peter Jason Shalifak.
I’ve read Shalifak’s Shipwreck at least three times over the years. It is the story of Jerry Hanover, an ambitious businessman and failed politician, who is missing at sea, presumed dead. Elaine, his wife, emerges from her grief to discover that the Jerry she knew and loved, had many secrets. When the enigmatic Professor Andrew Westerland introduces Elaine to the philosophy of ennuism, the truth finally emerges.
We all tend to believe the things we read in a newspaper or hear on radio or see on television. But we live in an era of rampant misinformation. Falsehoods and fake news are lurking everywhere. Did I fool you with my narrative above? Not a single word is true. None of the authors, titles, characters or storylines even exist. I made them all up.
One simply has to learn to be sceptical about everything. Trust nobody!
Albé Grobbelaar
