I was very much enjoying this book until Peekay returns to South Africa and Tandia (whom the book is named for) is relegated to a secondary role. From random comments through the course of the rest of the book the plot was there for Courtenay to continue to develop her character as something more than just Peekay's love interest but for some reason he chose not to do so in a focused manner. This choice on the part of the author is completely baffling. He spends the last half of the book completely focused on the theme of good and evil in such a heavy handed manner, and he could have gotten these same ideas across much more subtly if he had just finished the way he started.

Power of One is in my top 5 books I have read. I put off reading the sequel because I am usually disappointed in a follow up story. Not the case for Tandia! Bryce C was able to create another magical story of South Africa.

I gave it a four and not a five which it really deserves because I would have to give so much apologetic preview to someone before recommending. It’s so different from anything I’ve ever read. Raw! In Courtenay’s words, it’s complicated. The fight between evil and good, both among people and within one’s self. The interplay of being “sometimes friends” for personal gain and then mortal enemies. It shows the universal struggle for justice as multi generational and international. Is Justice blind or does Justice wear blinders? The book, the story, the characters are all triumphant and tragic simultaneously.

I could never have read the epic tale by myself. (Tandia is actually part two for the book entitled “the power of one“. Both are long reads.) The narrator made it a movie in my mind and I couldn’t wait to drive about town and hear it on the radio or have it on my earbuds while I cleaned the house or worked in the yard. I never could have said the names, pronounced the various accents, not knowing them. Stupendous narration.

I’m about to download my third Bryce Courtenay book.

This book was a roller coaster ride of emotions. The book starts with Tandia, a girl who is half African and half Indian. She is a bastard and belongs to neither colour, which meant that she was always going to have a hard life. She works hard and becomes a promising lawyer despite her disadvantaged past.

As a lawyer she meets Peekay (from The Power of One) boxer and barrister. Together they work hard to fight injustice under apartheid. He is the chosen one (the Tadpole Angel) and has the respect of the African people.

If you are going to read this book be prepared. It is quite brutal and the descriptions of what happened to African people, and their sympathisers, is quite graphic. There is a rape scene very early and that brutality continues throughout the book.

I found it interesting that the back of the book highlighted that Tandia and Peekay become lovers. That was not really the focus of the book and it did not happen until much later . They don't even meet until about half way through. That threw me a bit.

Although others were not happy with the end, I didn't mind it too much. It seemed to have been left open for a third book but one was not written. I am not sure if that was deliberate and there were a few things left hanging but I thought it was ok.

I would recommend this book. It is not as good as The Power of One and it is a lot darker but it does portray what is a particularly dark time in South African history. While some readers didn't like that, sometimes you have to tell things how they are.

This was one of the most depressing books I've ever read. It took an excellent protagonist and reduced him to a quivering sack of helplessness and despair. I have never before seen such a striking switch in an author's perspective. Bryce Courtenay wrote the Power of One from an uplifting, beautiful perspective and then Tandia from a bleak and morose one. I was upset that I read this book. It tarnished my memory of Peekay. If I could take it back and unread it, I would.

I read The Power of One years ago and loved it so I don't know why I waited so long to read the second book. This book is beautiful! It deals with difficult topics (definite content warning) but does it with wonderful characters, beautiful writing, and an incredible story. I will admit that I'm still mulling over what I think about the ending but, overall, I am so glad I returned to this series.

Unless you are really into boxing and sudden endings, do not read this book. 900 pages for that ending? And over half of the book is about boxing. Detailed boxing. It was hard to finish. The third part of it finally started getting good then it ended.

The reason I gave it 3 stars is because the story telling is good. The characters are well thought out. And the visual description is good.

He did a good job of showing what true black oppression is.

Terrible. Do not recommend.

This was one of the most depressing books I've ever read. I have never before seen such a striking switch in an author's perspective. Bryce Courtenay wrote the Power of One as uplifting, and beautiful. And Tandia from a brutal and unforgiving one. I was upset that I finished this book. It tarnished my memory of Peekay. If I could take it back and unread it, I would. We followed the life of Peekay and watched him overcome huge obstacles in his difficult life because of his courage and strength of character. It was a wonderfully told story that I caught myself thinking about months after. Then I read Tandia, and was shocked to find out that PeeKay turns out to be a quivering sack of cowardess and weakness. I really had much higher expectations for him as an adult and I think Doc and Giel Peet would be rolling in their graves.

In the end he uses his remaining strength to try and slither his way into the cave where Doc was buried so he could meekly lay down and die next to him. What! The real Peekay from The Power Of One would have done much better.
He should have gone with Tandia and continued to fight apartheid and injustice- and actually raise their child. But Tandia also was disappointing in the end. Mentally strong and physically so very weak.

Tandia - her father never loved her, she was homeless/mistreated, she was raped, sold as a prostitute

Peekay - He is absolutely pathetic. Scared that they—I don’t know who “they” is—that they will find out who I really am. For Peekay, welterweight champion of the world wasn’t a title, it was the meaning of his life, the very principle on which he’d based his entire personality.

‘Most revolutions, no matter how quiet, are not served well by the sympathetic intellectual who carps at the injustice of the culture but seems to live quite happily off the resultant lifestyle it affords

The world was full of bastards and hating them was a time-consuming and poorly paid business.

‘People are people through people.’

I thought I had the wrong book: saw there was a follow up to “The Power of One”, clicked on it, and immediately a girl is cruelly handcuffed and raped. Checked Goodreads, and, indeed I had the right book. It is definitely harsher than “Power”, but there are still uplifting moments. Courtenay is an excellent story teller.

I guess The Power of One only applies to dudes, since that Tandia chick was worth having really great characters killed over because she was super beautiful, though she had almost no personality, was weak and did some dumb things. I would have loved for Peekay to find a brilliant partner to build a life with, instead of throwing his friends and family and life away over this girl. The book was mostly soft porn with some bloody drama. I'm glad it took me twenty years to read after The Power of One, else maybe I wouldn't have grown up to be the badass chick I am today if I knew the author didn't feel a girl could have as great of a personally as a guy. The writing was not nearly as clean, with many storylines ging unfinished, such as what happened when Peekay visited the Judge in the hospital at the beginning of the book. I feel like I was hit by a truck. The writing was good enough for me to get through the whole book, that my one compliment.

The follow up to the semi-autobiographical The Power Of One, Tandia is a pure work of fiction, no longer told in the first person as it strives to merge the story of the titular Tandia, a beautiful half Black, half Indian girl, with the story of Peekay, the narrator of the Power Of One. For a good chunk of the book the characters are kept separate, Tandia going through a series of horrific life experiences which were common to the Black population of South African during apartheid, while Peekay is swanning around first Oxford and London, and then Europe and the US in his quest to become the welterweight champion of the world, a goal which he had set himself as a small boy in South Africa.

Although Peekay's life plan has always been to return to South Africa with his best friend Hymie to start a law practice once they have graduated from Oxford, it is actually boxing which brings him home first to settle the world title in Ellis Park in Johannesburg. It is there that he reunites with friend and fellow boxer, Gideon Mandoma, who is fighting in the pre-championship match and who happens to have Tandia as his number one fan, and later girlfriend.

The key point of both The Power Of One and Tandia is that hatred along racial lines is abhorrent, and the book builds up through a series of incidents, some of which actually happened in real life (such as the Sharpeville massacre), to a final showdown, but will good triumph over evil? I'll let you read the book to find out.

Sometimes it’s great to lose yourself on a long book.

Bryce Courtney writes everything in such detail that it is so compelling to read , he can make me love things like boxing that I wouldn’t ordinarily have an interest in.
I love that Courtney writes with the underlying message of equality of all peoples. His female characters are always strong and badass and the novel describes the atrocities of the South African apartheid in a realistic way.