Screens against the Sky

Elleke Boehmer’s highly praised Screens Against the Sky gives an aching portrait of an obsessive mother-daughter relationship that at the same time reverberates with its wider South African apartheid dimensions. Claustrophobia within the Rudolphs’ home repeats the stifling situation in the country at large—till at last Annemarie breaks free, only to find that her mother Sylvie is still by her side. ‘An astonishing debut … swift, deft … expertly told … with a mordant wit’ (Sunday Times). 'Eloquently expressive' (The Guardian).