Christopher Hope grew up a member of a minority within a minority of South Africa. His family was white, but English and Catholic, rather the ruling Afrikaan and Dutch Reform group. The Afrikaans distrusted the English for being insufficiently tough on the black majority. The book begins with Hope ending his self-imposed exile. His first novel, Separate Development was banned by the Nationalist government. Hope returns to his homeland for the 1988 elections. This would be the last election the Nationalist party would win. The Nationalist party was responsible for the development and implementation of the apartheid system.
Christopher Hope tells the story of South African's recent history through the story of his growing up. The Nationalists rise to power when Hope is about five or six. It bears repeating that the Nationalist did not take power in a putsch, but were elected (although of course the black majority did not yet have the franchise). For me at least, history told in this personal manner had much more impact than an traditional, impersonal history.
I'd recommend this as an introduction to South Africa history. ( )

Christopher Hope is well-known as a novelist. In this book he returns to his native South Africa after 12 years abroad. To me it reads like the account of an inmate who has escaped revisiting the Mental Asylum. He uses his usual comic touch to assess the state of white South Africa (this is written in the late 1980s) and finds it so mad, so incredible that it is almost like reading a farce. ( )