The Syringa Tree

June 15, 2006
Six-year-old Lizzie Grace sits in the syringa tree in her South African backyard whenever she's troubled. From there, she watches her Afrikaner neighbors and the black workers her part-Jewish family employs. Although her parents -an always-busy doctor father and a depressed mother -have tried to insulate themselves and their staff, it is impossible to shield Lizzie from the racism that permeates daily life. Indeed, as the meaning of apartheid unfolds, Lizzie struggles to understand racial laws that force her nanny to carry work papers and hide from the police. Through her eyes, readers see South African townships and experience the indignities that provoked underground resistance movements. Although the protagonist is occasionally cloying, this is part of the book's charm. Nonetheless, there are spots where the child's perspective weakens the text and leaves the reader hungry for more. For example, Lizzie's grandfather is murdered by a Rhodesian rebel, but the reason for this political crime remains unclear. South African -born Gien, who created this novel from her Obie Award -winning play of the same name, here illuminates a shameful history of a country by highlighting the juxtaposition of race, anti-Semitism, and class privilege. Highly recommended." - Eleanor J. Bader, Brooklyn, NY"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2006
Adult/High School-Six-year-old Lizzy is present when her doctor father secretly delivers the baby of her nurse, Salamina, in a white suburb of South Africa in 1963. It becomes Lizzy's special responsibility to keep the infant hidden from the police as well as from the Afrikaner neighbors. As the irrepressible child grows, it becomes more and more difficult to keep Moliseng hidden, and she is sent to the slums of Soweto to live with her grandmother. At the age of 14, she is killed by police as she leads other children in a final defiant and heartrending gesture, proclaiming her freedom. The narrative is told from the point of view of Lizzy, who grapples with the conflicting social, political, and religious values of the times and with her mother's depression. She finds comfort, if not answers, in the distracted attention of her father, the unconditional love of her nurse, and her own Syringa tree with its sweet-smelling blossoms. Readers will be carried away by lyrical descriptions of the sensual beauty of the veld and will experience the heartache of the characters as their lives are torn apart by the violence of the period. The story is as compelling and enlightening as Alan Paton's "Cry, the Beloved Country" (S & S, 1977), and the writing is evocative of that classic work."Jackie Gropman, Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2006
In the tradition of such great southern African writers as Nadine Gordimer and Doris Lessing, this gripping first novel tells the apartheid story through the eyes of a white child who loses her innocence as she confronts the anguish of a black family torn apart by law, separated from each other and from her. Gien was born and raised in Johannesburg, and her acclaimed autobiographical Broadway play with the same title won the 2001 Obie Award. Now her spare, beautiful prose fills in the history and politics at the height of apartheid. But the focus is on the child Elizabeth and her liberal home. Her part-Jewish dad is a surgeon at the black Baragwanath Hospital. Her parents allow her beloved nanny, Salamena, to give birth to a baby girl, Moliseng, born illegally in the white suburb and hidden for years from brutal police raids that would banish the child. When finally Moliseng must leave for the seething Soweto black township, Elizabeth is bereft at the loss of her sister-friend. And what of Moliseng and her broken mother? The small, daily details reveal the savage cruelty of displacement and of servants in the backyard, even with a kind, white "madam." Beyond message, the story builds to the unforgettable climax of the 1976 Soweto uprising, led by children, who are massacred.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)