After finishing, The Power of One years ago, Tandia is a really - a long, strenuous read - confronting follow-up with some really good pull-at-your-heartstring moments. I really enjoyed reading Peekay’s story in the first book. Seeing where he ends up in this story was very unexpected when he meets Tandia. Tandia is a powerhouse women of a character through her; skin colour and her adversity for survival is darkly-realistically told. I’m left speechless and remindful of how alike Peekay and Tandia’s world is a reflection to today’s social climate.

Side note: Took me almost the whole year to finish (in-between other reads). Stopped mid-way, as it was a little bit much with some very strong mature moments. Not for the faint hearted.

#teamTankay #powerplay #segregation #alongdamnread

Courtenay has blown me away once again. His first novel, The Power of One, easily became my favorite book of all time when I read it last year. I loved it so much that I decided to seek out a few of his other pieces of work, coming across Tandia and realizing it was the sequel. I had to get my hands on it right away. I couldn’t put it down! The characterization, the plot, the drama, the romance, the thriller, the mystery. Courtenay is able to accomplish so much and make his readers feel every type of emotion. This book took me on an emotional journey, one that I did not want to end. The lovable Peekay is back and a man now. We get to see his power of one mindset in the real world and watch him confront old enemies. Tandia is introduced to us as young girl, and we too get to watch her grow and also try to figure out how she relates to Peekay. Old characters come back, new characters are introduced, and the same racial inequities rage in South Africa more than they did before. 10/10 recommend if you’ve already read The Power of One, and still recommend even if you haven’t.

An amazing book about South Africa under apartheid, and the truly atrocious things done in the name of justice for the whites.
In places this book was extremely hard to read, but I persevered and thoroughly enjoyed it in the end.
It is the sequel to The Power Of One, which I haven't yet read.
As I do have a copy of it I suppose it should definitely be the next book I read.
If you're a Bryce Courtenay fan and haven't read this book, then you most definitely should.

Fortsættelsen til The Power of one, er meget mere mørk, deprimerende og voldelig bog, hvor hadet spiller en væsentlig rolle. Bogen foregår for det meste i Sydafrika i tiden hvor Apartheid-styret bliver mere og mere ondt, brutalt og himmelråbende uretfærdigt.
Bogen fortsætter historien om Peekay og hans kamp for at blive boskeverdensmester, mens han samtidig uddanner sig til advokat i Oxford, sammen med vennen Hymie slår han sig herefter ned i Sydafrika for at kæmpe for et frit og lige land.
Samtidig introduceres vi som læser for Tandia, en ung halv inder halv zulu, der allerede som purung oplever politiets brutalitet og ulovlige metoer på egen krop efter at Bordelmutter Mama Tequila har taget hende under sine vinger vokser hun op til en køn og intelligent ung dame.
Tandia og Peekays historie væves sammen i en spændende historie der indeholder det hele: had, mord, ludere, oprør, menneskemassakre, boksekampe, korruption, venskab, kærlighed, opofrelse og stolthed.
Det er ikke en bog man sidder og smiler mens man læser, men alligevel er det på en måde livsbekræftende at læse at der altid er mennesker der er parat til at kæmpe for retfærdighed i verden uanset hvor håbløst det ser ud.

Ugh, I did it again: I went ahead and bought the sequel to a book I really liked (The Power of One), only to be disappointed. This book felt like an insult to its predecessor, with its annoying, unconvincing characters, redundant storylines, endless pontificating about racial equality, and its over-glorification of the main characters. If you decide to read "The Power of One", do yourself a favor and stop while you're ahead.

I really wanted to love this book as much as I love other books by Courtenay. In the end I felt like it was too long and frankly more brutal than I expected. I thought the ending was great and enjoyed how it tied into the power of one.

Starts strong, contrasting the horror of Tandia’s life (true horror… very difficult to read/listen to) with Peekay’s life at Oxford. Sure, there are too many details of boxing matches, but that’s to be expected from Courtenay. However, then the book becomes all about Peekay and his white hero activities vs the evil cop. Tandia’s struggles to become a lawyer – because that *had* to be a struggle – and even her activities as a lawyer aren’t even mentioned once she is accepted into college. For the rest of the book, Tandia is relegated to a minor character that Peekay is infatuated with.

4 stars for the first half or so (although very difficult to stomach the horror) and 2 stars for the second half.

Phew, what an epic novel! I learnt a lot about South Africa in the 1950s and 60s. Set roughly in three main parts, the book starts with Tandia as the main character, an illegitimate half Zulu half Indian girl who grows up more or less a servant in her father and stepmother's household. After the sudden death of her father her stepmother throws her out of the house and then trouble and salvation ensue. The story then switches to the character of Peekay, an idealistic white guy of English origin who studies law at Oxford and building up his boxing career to challenge the world welterweight champion. The novel then integrates the two main stories - along with a whole host of characters, all well drawn and memorable, like Mama Tequila, Juicey Fruit Mambo, Hymie Levy, Magistrate Coetzee, Gideon Mandoma, Jannie Geldenhuis and many more.
It's a vivid and vibrant South Africa with a colourful (pun intended) cast of characters and settings. I got a really good sense of the Afrikaaners (Boers), the English (rooineks), the coloureds, Jewish, the Zulus, Swazis, Bantus, Xhosa and other tribes, and I was especially interested in the references to all the different languages of those tribes and more like Fanagolo and Siswati. Most of the Afrikaans phrases and sentence were translated but I found myself understanding a lot of it anyway. I really got the sense of a country rich with different peoples, languages and cultures.
There's history in here, like the Sharpeville massacre, and stuff about the ANC, and there's crossing and double-crossing the whole way through - keeping the reader hooked in right through the whole 900 pages. It sagged a bit here and there for me mainly in the bits about boxing, but even though I have no interest in boxing (and am in fact repulsed by the idea), the descriptions of the fights were electric. The tension builds more and more towards the end, with madness and myth playing out at high altitude.

Spoiler Alert!!! If you have not read the book DO NOT READ FURTHER!









I have taught writing for over 30 years. In teaching how to write a narrative, I stress the importance of following a plot line with all of the required elements, one of those being a satisfying ending that makes sense and is believable because it is consistent with the elements of the story and stays true to the story as a whole. While the details of the ending in “Tandia” may have stayed within the reality of the story, it was neither satisfying nor true to the essence of the story. After all of the build up which appeared to be leading to a natural climax of the struggle between Peekay and Jannie Gendenhuis, I was left wanting, (dare I say, abandoned?) by the author. How could he do this to his reader? Do you mean to say that after all of the struggle, abuse, loss, and death, Gendenhuis goes without suffering? Is there no true justice in this world? Well, maybe there’s not but, I had hoped that at least a book could provide me with that sort of banal reprieve from such an insulting injustice. Peekay represented hope that defied the power of evil. Gendenhuis represented every bully that called you names in front of everyone, hit you when no one was looking, and stepped on you while leaving a footprint for all to see. Peekay needed to vanquish that sort of evil that seems to always get away with being so vile. We needed evil to get his just desserts, to have his comeuppance, to be served an oversized, thick, gelatinous slice of sickly-sweet humble pie. Instead poor Dum (or was it Dee?) needed to be added to the pyre of loved ones required to be sacrificed in order to crush this bastard. Peekay’s death was an insult to all of them. Where was the the moment when Peekay would, literally, fight the bully who tormented our days and came back for more in our nightmares? Who would save us? Now, who would assume the mantle of fighting the injustice beset by the white-race tyranny? There can never be another Tadpole Angel. That would go against everything that made Peekay the one and only Tadpole Angel. Are we to believe Tandia would be Africa’s new Abraham who would lead these people out of the desert? I don’t believe that for a minute! Has she ever demonstrated the will, tenacity, or strength necessary to do that? No.

I apologize for the long rant but, I’m insulted and angry. It was a long book wrought with so much tragedy and strife. I wanted someone to stand up for the oppressed. I wanted vengeance, and falling off a cliff was just too painless.

Sequel to "The Power of one".
I loved to be a witness of the man Peekay would become and how he defied the system and saved Tandia, another lost soul in South Africa.
Won't never forget this book.

4.5⭐️

“The Power of One” still stands as one of my favorite novels, with compelling commentary on complex themes through the eyes of a young boy in South Africa. When I heard about Tandia, I was anxious to read the continuation of a beautiful story, and instead found myself in a half-baked and pornographic telling of what doesn’t even seem like the same characters. It is a terrible warping of what should have been timeless, and given my love of the first book, I could not be more disappointed.