The Other Side of Silence (Magill’s Literary Annual 2004)
At a glance:
- Author: André Brink
- First Published: 2002
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The early 1900’s
- Setting: Bremen, Germany, and South-West Africa
- Principal Characters: Hanna X, Fräulein Braunschweig, Frau Agathe, Pastor Ulrich, Lotte, Katja, The Rev. Gottlieb Maier
- Genres: Long fiction, Historical fiction
- Subjects: Africa or Africans, Abused persons, Twentieth century, Rape, Violence, Women, Revenge, Orphans or orphanages, Germany or German people, Massacres, Imperialism, Genocide, 1900’s
- Locales: Africa, Germany
André Brink frames The Other Side of Silence with an author’s commentary to explain that much of the novel draws from the history of the German colony formerly known as South-West Africa. Brink establishes how the German government, during the early twentieth century, sent to Africa destitute German women—of child-bearing age—to become the male colonists’ wives and to produce a new generation of Germans who would rule and exploit the region for years to come. He also reveals how the men rejected some of the women whom they considered unattractive or disobedient or...
[The entire page is 1781 words long]
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