Such an awesome story, I enjoyed every moment of reading it. I actually enjoyed it more than The Power of One!

Another Great Book by a Great Author! May he rest in peace!

I had no idea that this was a sequel to The Power of One which I loved dearly. Tandia is as good and has just been the 'icing on the cake'. A must for those that loved The Power of One. Now I continue my Bryce Courtnay obsession and a am reading his Four Fires, which has great promise.

OK, I finished the book about 2 weeks ago and my heart is still broken. I can't even pick up and really get into another book (I have tried everyday, so far... no success yet.) It was an amazing book that I am still trying to come to terms with and am still thinking about, now.

In fairness, Courtenay did have some repetative notions about Hate and Power that were a little cumbersome in Tandia, that were not so obviously awkward in The Power of One...I felt he struggled with Tandia, much more than The Power of One. Righly so, I think, I've always wondered how someone could write a sequel to it... At least I know it wasn't easy for him to do what he did- read it and maybe you'll understand my sense of betrayal as a reader mixed with the acknowledgement of his absolute power as an author. I could not put the book down, nor do I think any less of the writer... Odd how that happens.

Without reservation, I highly recommend both The Power of One and Tandia to everyone.
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This is essentially the Power of One- Part 2... It's absorbing and Bryce Courtenay has a way of making me feel like I can taste the dust of South Africa. He makes characters that are real- riddled with human frailties or flaws and yet so utterly familiar that I cry with them and wince with them through their journey. I'm not even 1/2 way through the book yet and I already know its a masterpiece.

This is the sequel to my favorite novel ever so while it could never compare, it's still not bad. In Tandia, Peekay continues to strive for the welterweight world title as a boxer and for justice in a corrupt Apartheid South Africa as a lawyer. He joins forces with his best friend, Hymie Levey and a beautiful girl named Tandia Patel, who is half Indian and half African. Tandia's painful childhood and teenage years rival those of Peekay. Additionally, just like "the Judge" from The Power of One, there is a character by the name of Colonel Janie Geldenheius who despises Peekay, Tandia, and will do everything possible to destroy their pursuit of justice. All in all, it's a good read but it still cannot compare to the original, The Power of One.

Another great book, perhaps not as pleasant to read as, The Power of One, the book to which it is a sequel, but still an excellent book. The unpleasantness is in the telling of the story of apartheid.

Apartheid is a context and framework in the first book, like the set of a stage play. In Tandia, apartheid is a main character with its ruthless brutality front and center.

This book continues the story of Peekay, the South African lad who continues his obsession to become the welterweight boxing champion of the world while also becoming a lawyer dedicated to fighting apartheid in South Africa.

Tandia, the title character is an Indian/Negro mixed race girl who's life is no less limited by apartheid than the negro citizens we normally associate with being victims of apartheid.

This book provides insight into the formalization of apartheid after World War II. As so often happens in war and injustice, the entire apartheid regime was justified as some perverted form of gods will.

I finished Tandia. What a great read. As usual I've learned a great deal. In this case about boxing! As an author myself I'm always very impressed with the research Bryce does for each of his books. Not only does he gives the reader vivid descriptions about his characters, and the historical information that adds to the story about Tandia during the apartheid years in South Africa. Apart from the entertainment, of wanting to learn more about the gruesome treatments people in power are capable of towards different race groups. Its the compassion, trust and loyalty that always makes Bryce's books special to the end.

If you want a treat get the narrated version of this and the Power of One by Humphrey Bower (available on Audible). His story telling and accents bring a depth to an already amazing book. I have never cried, had goosebumps, held my breath and laughed so much in a single story. When the end came I had to sit for a long time. As a someone who did not live during apartheid but has only lived in its aftermath it really helped me understand some of the emotions that 1994 must have held on all sides.

3.5 stars. This is a sequel to the book, Power of One. In Tandia, the book begins by alternating between telling us of Tandia's life to continuing Peekay's story. The two story lines don't link up until about half way through the book and yet I think I preferred that first half.

I loved the chapters about Tandia. They were gut wrenching but Courtenay really brought out the horrors of being a black South African during apartheid. Tandia was written with such depth and I felt completely connected and absorbed in her story. However, once the two story lines joined, she became almost a secondary character. Her storyline was essentially forgotten and the depth of character written when she was a girl just wasn't there in the latter part of the book which focused on her life as an adult. It was disappointing!

During the first half of the book where Courtenay was going back and forth between Tandia and Peekay, there was also a lot more detail and depth about what was going on with Peekay. Like Power of One, much of it was boxing focused. Even though I'm not a boxing fan, I loved these initial chapters. But, once the two story lines joined up, even though there was more focus on Peekay than Tandia, the story still often felt rushed and underdeveloped. It almost felt like Courtenay realised the novel was already tremendously long so he would write a very brief description to fill in a bit of back story of the event he would then describe. Because of this, I felt like I lost connection to characters and while I was still completely interested in the story, was reading to get to the end. It was still a great read overall.

Bryce Courtenay impresses again with another ‘practice novel’ as he called them when taking up the art of writing. The sequel to his extremely popular The Power of One , this novel seeks to look at South African political and social transformation (regression?) from the other side of the coin, through the eyes of a teenage girl, Tandia, and the rest of the subjugated population. Tandia is raped soon after her father’s funeral. A mixed-race bastard—her Indian father’s affair with his black house servant—Tandia does not fit into either of South Africa’s non-white populations, but remains downtrodden and the victim of extreme racism. When she is tossed from her home, Tandia takes matters into her own hands, landing up in trouble with the law and facing the man who violated her not long ago. Police officer Jannie Geldenhuis holds his power over her and, with nowhere else to go, Tandia is stuck signing a false statement of facts to save her life. When they arrive at one of the local brothels, Geldenhuis demands that she remain here, under the watchful eye of Mama Tequila, and report back on all the clientele who frequent the establishment. With the Immorality Act — a strict law prohibiting sexual relations between the races—in full effect alongside other pieces of the larger apartheid system, Tandia is sure to have a long list of those who wish to cover themselves in a veil of secrecy. Meanwhile, Peekay, young protagonist from The Power of One, is now at Oxford, reading law and honing his boxing career. He befriends a young sculptor who seeks to explore him through her artistic lens, but this forces Peekay to explore more of himself and his interactions with others. As things heat up in the boxing ring, Peekay must also dodge jabs that life is throwing his way, away from his African homeland. When Mama Tequila sets off with Tandia during a brothel holiday, they encounter the big city of Johannesburg, where racial segregation is in full-swing in the apartheid-fuelled way of life. Shantytowns and oppression populate every corner of the city, though the people rally behind their love of boxing. Tandia hears stories of many men who entered the ring and fought, transforming themselves from lowly black men to heroes for the entire community. One such boy, the Tadpole Angel, is white, but appears to have the love of all the people, as he is happy not to look at the colour of your skin, but the person inside. With Geldenhuis also on the boxing scene, Tandia is terrified that she will see him again, his ruthless ways leaving scars deeper than the ones he has delivered to her skin. With his boxing career going exceedingly well, Peekay returns to South Africa to open a legal practice, only to butt heads with some of the closed-minded police officers, including Geldenhuis. Tandia grows closer to Peekay, though the Immorality Act makes any future between them all but impossible. With race relations reaching a fevered pitch and Peekay heading up a legal challenge to the core of the apartheid system, something will have to give, while the world looks on. Brilliant in its literary delivery, Courtenay pulls the reader in and leaves them wanting so much more, while some will surely remain disgusted by the abhorrent treatment by the Afrikaner population. Recommended for all those who have the patience to endure a slow-building story about race relations, jaded politics, and the power of one man’s convictions fuelled by the determination of one woman to change her country of birth.

Those new to Bryce Courtenay will likely find the author to be one they either love or cannot stomach. This is Courtenay’s second foray into writing—his first just as brilliant—permitting the reader to experience his unique style. The novel combines well-developed characters with a plot that is rich with detail and shakes the reader to the core as the political events and police implementation come to life on the page. Some may find his writing to be both excessive and too much to digest in a single novel (or both this and the previous novel), but it is this that makes the books even more enjoyable. Courtenay uses an interesting formula in his writing, which the attentive reader will discover as they meander throughout his novels, this one being no exception. There are scores of characters who cross the pages, each serving to develop their own backstory and to offer a slice of character revelation for Tandia, as well as further enriching of Peekay, now that he has reached adulthood. The story builds on itself in such a way that the reader can see Tandia’s growth (personal and emotional) while she still struggles to find her place in South Africa’s repressive political system. Courtenay inundates the reader with names and characteristics, which may cause some to stumble or require crib notes, but, rest assured, it is well worth the temporary confusion. Having read all of Courtenay’s novels, I can see character themes that reemerge, including token characters of a variety of backgrounds. The story itself becomes a tale full of twists and turns, such that the path on which the narrative is leading the reader along two paths, Tandia’s life and that of Peekay’s time in England. I must insert here that while Peekay’s passion for the law is visible throughout the story, his development into a world class boxer is also found within the various chapters attributed to him. Courtenay does a sensational job describing these fights in detail, such that they reader (boxing fan or not) is on the edge of their seat as the match progresses on the page. One can only imagine the strife in which South Africa found itself in the 1950s and 60s, with the apartheid momentum gaining and the deprivation of the non-white population reaching its zenith. The Afrikaner population is armed and ready to exact their power at any cost. Courtenay’s narrative shows the subjugation of the black population and the brutality that is inflicted upon them. While I do not condone this whatsoever, I have always been very interested in the apartheid mentality and how the Afrikaners justified it to the world. Courtenay offers up a front row seat to the reader, hoping they will better understand what went on. It is this sort of depth that has drawn me to all of Courtenay’s books, as he offers more than a superficial look at the world, while entertaining the reader. True, his books are long and tangential, but, like a well-paced journey, they permit the reader to gather many wonderful nuggets of information from page to page. While Courtenay turned away from writing about his homeland after this piece, there are many other novels which turn their focus to his adopted country of Australia. I will be sure to revisit them in time, allowing myself to get lost in the magical style that Courtenay has, paired with his audiobook reader, Humphrey Bower. Two fantastic men who are at the top of their games!

Kudos, Mr. Courtenay, for such a stupendous piece. Re-reading this book has solidified why I have come to call you one of my favourite authors of all times.

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I have to admit I was a little skeptical of this book when it started, the protagonist, Peekay , was doubting/ regretting his last interaction with his nemesis, The Judge in "The Power of One". That last interaction is probably one of the single most compelling acts of vengeance ever written! I probably re-read that last chapter 10+ times! (In truth, Courtenay masterfully guided us to this conclusion).

In the beginning of Tandia, we meet up with Peekay a few months after he interacted with The Judge. We are then are introduced to Tandia. Courtenay then, very methodically walks us through every woman's nightmare at the hands of a hateful, corrupt police officer. The officer's boot on her neck was an unfortunately familiar image. The maddening pace was somewhere in between Adagio and Andante. Courtenay maintains this pace throughout the book, I was in a constant state of "omgz whatttt's gonna happen next, can we get on with it?!?" The pace made us witness in full detail the breadth and depth of the effects of apartheid in South Africa.

As a woman of color, I was very moved by this book and its social commentary of apartheid. In the book, there is a massacre where 69 Black people died and 250 were injured. (I was shocked to learn that this event actually happened in 1960 called the Sharpeville Massacre.) The mourning relatives resignedly waited quietly in long lines and were prepared to be hassled to before retrieving their loved ones. As I read this, in real life, I was also seeing Facebook videos of the retrieved bodies of Native American/ Indigenous/ First Nations children being laid to rest by their people. Tough stuff.

Bryce Courtenay wrote his first novel, The Power of One in 1988 when he was 55... !! Both were amazing.

I must admit that I was disappointed by this sequel. I loved the first book, but the prose in this one was so expository that I felt disconnected from the characters. Also, it didn’t help that my electronic copy, which I read on Libby, was peppered with typos (“Doe” instead of “Doc” being the most irritating one), missing commas, and garnished with random quotation marks placed in the middle of paragraphs for no reason at all.
In the course of the narrative, the author started suddenly revealing unknown more or less trivial facts about main characters that so far had just been ignored (such as Tandia being quite the chain smoker), and it felt as if he brought them out too late in the story to matter or be taken at face value. I kept thinking, WHY? Characterization is a slow process which needs to be built up page after page. Suddenly gifting characters with certain traits late in the story does not feel earned. This is really too bad, because I have learned a lot about South Africa‘s sad history in the course of this novel.