This is undoubtedly one of my favourite novels. It can only be fully appreciated if you have read 'The Power of One'. But as a warning do not try to circumvent its reading by watching the movie!!!

Even though this was a re-read for me, I can tell you that I will never be prepared for the introduction of Tandia, a girl of Indian & Black African heritage during the years of South African Apartheid. Immediately you are affronted by the brutality of her rape and the ongoing complicit behaviour and use of this abhorrent policy. Life for and around Tandia follows but it is always with an anticipation of hate, fear and injustice. The story turns back to Peekay and his relentless pursuit of 'boxing' glory and his ambition to study law for a return to South Africa, to fight against the persecution.

There are moments of friendship, superstition, destiny and love in this book, but ultimately it is a story of fighting. One to uphold a promise and the other to free an oppressed people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandia
Sequel recommended not just for fans of BC.
South Africa - so many depressing stories.
A reader I respect said she preferred it to PK's story. Potent tale. Not one for me to re-read.
For me Tandia links with Dalene Matthee's Pieternella
Pieternella: Daughter of Eva
From the Wiki
"Tandia is Bryce Courtenay's 1991 sequel to his own best-selling novel The Power of One. It follows the story of a young woman, Tandia, who was brutally raped and then banished from her own home. Tandia later meets up with Peekay, the protagonist from The Power of One and their stories continue on together. "

probably a 4.5

Also can we get a hallelujah for the representation? An ace character, a polyamorous relationship, well written women (though they aren't always treated very well), strippers and prostitutes who aren't just written off as 'sluts' but are actual fully formed people and well respected by other characters.
This book was ahead of its time man.

Also we stan the Onoshobishobi Ingelosi.

After reading this I feel like I need to go back and give The Power of One five stars. It's always been a favorite and I was so excited to find out a sequel existed. So many memorable characters and really captures the spirit of South Africa during this period (post WW2, apartheid). There were a few gaps in the story and I was disappointed that Tandia's character really started dropping off about halfway through. As expected, the boxing was epic - I'm not even a boxing fan and I got really emotional reading those scenes.

Tandia starts very promising and hooks the reader immediately through even more horrific circumstances than The Power of One began. Where that book is written as a memoir (albeit fictional), this is a straight up novel, with most of the first half’s chapters alternating between Peekay’s point of view and the title character — 3rd person omniscient, so we also get scenes and even chapters from other points of view, which mostly works except when it jarringly doesn’t.

The latter half doesn’t quite hold up as well — all the characters revert to stock and as the end approaches, it becomes an overt action-adventure novel.

There are some dropped balls along the way. Either my audiobook skipped a chapter or otherwise a chapter or two had been edited out to keep this below 1,000 pages, but something about a magistrate’s house being firebombed, and Johnny Tambourine saving Tandia’s life? Unclear, although referenced later. Additionally, there were some missed opportunities, if I were rewriting it. The helicopter pilot could have been Hoppie Groenwald — maybe a little too corny, but with that kind of unbelievable coincidence it would have fit right in and it would have been nice to have him have a pivotal role somewhere in the latter half. Similarly, why the final vengeance is taken by Dee (or was it Dum?) and not Peekay’s spirit animal, the cobra, seems a huge miss.

All that said, having just listened to The Power of One right before this, I was glad to have this to slake my thirst for more story about the struggle for justice in apartheid South Africa combined with boxing — but, oh, so much boxing! Consider my thirst slaked.

This book takes the reader and jumps right into the tragic ring of apartheid. Unlike its prequel, The Power of One -one of my favorite books of all time - be prepared for a heaviness of heart for 900 pages. Peekay returns as a champ for all things in the boxing ring, in the classroom and, finally, in the courtroom. Tandia, the central figure, and he fight the good fight on behalf of their beloved country which is so knotted up in hatred and fear that hope is squeezed right out of the pages. This was a hard read. Nowhere was there any lightheartedness like with Doc and his "absoloodles" in the first book. I had to put it down for days at a time due to the depth of despair and brutal violence, especially against women. Amazingly, for all that, now that I'm finished, I'm really glad I read it. The Boer War, the Boers/Afrikaners, the tribes, the English - all that history which I never absorbed until now. The government corralled the black people into 'townships' much like Native Americans were forced on to reservations 150 years ago here in the USA. The thing about apartheid is that it ended only recently. Because this book wraps up in the 60s, it shines the barest glimmer of hope down the tunnel of time. It's heartbreaking how Peekay and Tandia fight so hard for the change that must come but which won't occur for another 40 years.

3.5 stars

Courtenay writes of Africa beautifully but I felt this book had a less direction than the first. The strength and bravery of the main character was also absent …

Although I loved it, it didn’t need to be made, sometimes felt a bit forced and the characters always somehow having ties to other characters in the first book got a bit old. Still fantastic

This sequel to The Power of One (one of my favorite books) was certainly worth reading and just as gripping as the first book, however it was not quite as tight and polished. I think this is likely due to the book's direction diverging from Bryce Courtenay's personal experiences about halfway through the novel. In this uncharted plot territory, the events, character interactions and timelines can get a bit confusing, even jumbled, and there isn't as much amazing, delightful detail in his descriptions which I enjoyed so much in the first book. I also noted at least two or three instances where there was reference to events happening which had never been mentioned prior, almost as if the chapter had been cut in editing, or somehow lost when transferred from print to electronic version.

With those criticisms out of the way, I have to say the book was still good and I enjoyed reading it. The first half was excellent and was a great continuation of the first book in tone and style, while also providing the interesting juxtaposition of Tandia's POV as a mixed race, abused and oppressed South African woman compared to Peekay's much more privileged experience as a white South African man. But I agree with another reviewer that I felt betrayal by the author with the finale. However in retrospect the outcome does make sense in the long run given certain factors about white-black relations at the time, and it gives more of a gut punch with emotional impact.

I would have given the book a rating of 4 stars if it were not for the few jarring 'missing' segments/events I encountered in this version of the book, which seemed like sloppy editing more than anything (understandable since this book is really lengthy). Get ahold of the first book if you haven't read it yet!

The boxing chapters are great. The rest of the book is pretty terrible. Boring, self indulgent, repetitious, gratuitous and perverted. Highly sexual and misogynistic. Such pathetic and one dimensional female characters, who only exist for the pleasure of the good guys or as an outlet for the sadism of the bad guys. Bryce Courtenay is a sicko for imagining some of this, let alone putting it to paper. Peekay has become a tedious and pitiful main character who becomes impossible to care about after a while. A woeful, bleak and unnecessary sequel.

Tandia is a long book, weighing in at a hefty 900+ pages, and it's an effort to get to the end.
However, the effort is worth it.
Courtney is a master storyteller with a special gift for characterisation. The epic story moves along at a good pace, although some passages require that extra bit of work to get through.
This novel is the sequel to The Power of One, which I haven't read but fully intend to.
Amazing commentary on the evils of apartheid and corrupt systems and the power of the human spirit in good people to prevail.
Recommend.

Another great novel from Bryce Courtenay! Not for the faint-hearted (comprising some 900 pages!) Tandia is set in South Africa and shows the best and worst of humanity during the apartheid years. It follows Tandia's life through her upbringing in a brothel, her escape from becoming a prostitute to her successful adult years. Peekay, the other main character, is a successful white boxer. Whilst his boxing training and triumphs are clearly documented, it is written in such a way that even someone like me, with no interest in boxing, will not be bored. A great but sad story and one from which you will learn much about South Africa.