If someone had asked me if I would enjoy a book about boxing and about South Africa I probably would say, "I don't really think so."
So you never really can tell about a book until you try it.
I had picked up this book, the Power of One a year or so ago thinking the title sounded interesting. I didn't notice that on the cover it said "classic novel of South Africa. A couple of weeks ago I picked up the book again and started to read it. What a surprise! Once I had started to read it I was completely engrossed by the story and the easy way it could be read.
This book was published in 1989 and tells the story of South Africa in the periods between 1930 and 1945. It is really a time and a place I knew nothing about. This book changed that. It tells the story of an English boy called Peekay. He is very young at the beginning of the book and is being cared for by a Zulu wet nurse who becomes his nanny. The book develops showing how he goes through life until he is a young man. He manages to cope with boarding school and all the horrors that surround him by developing "the power of one" taught to him by a black magic man.
On the way back from boarding school to his home Barberton, he meets a black boxer, who is such a friendly person and so inspiring to the young boy that he makes a decision that small as he is, he will one day become the welterweight champion of the world in boxing.
And so the story continues. Very entertaining but also most informative.
I am very pleased I read this book
Love all of Bryce Courtenay's books and he does give you an insight into another world, from war seen through the eyes of the soldier to Australia South Africa and the Far East.
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