Written in water by Becky Apteker
(Maskew Miller Longman) R74, 95
Set in Hillbrow, a notorious suburb in central Johannesburg where crime is rife and many people live in squalor, Written in Water is about survival.
Noel is an intelligent teenager who, since the death of his mother, lives alone with his older brother, Lucas, in a rundown flat and they often go hungry. The situation goes from bad to worse when Lucas shows the same symptoms of disease as his mother. It is clear that there is little chance that Noel will be able to escape his circumstances.
But his best friend, Siphamandla, also an orphan, convinces Noel to attend school by hinting at free food being handed out. There the boys are introduced to Colleen, a volunteer bereavement counsellor who helps children who have lost their parents. She has a significant influence on Noel’s life.
However, because of the burden of Lucas’s ill health, Noel is often unable to attend school. On the day his teacher, Mrs Mnunge, enters some of his classmates into a competition in which the prize is a full scholarship at an excellent private school, Noel is absent.
But all hope is not lost. One day Noel receives a gift that has a dramatic impact on his life. This helps him to write an exceptional essay during his exam. Mrs Mnunge realises that it has the potential to win the scholarship and the essay could herald an entirely different direction for Noel.
Becky Apteker draws one into the world of Noel, Lucas, their friends and family members. She manages to convey the reality of the hardships many young people in South Africa face – the death of parents, abject poverty, illness and hunger. But, despite such horrors, the young friends also share some good times.
Written in Water is a moving read and undoubtedly a relevant book in this day and age.
Daniel Opperman is a grade eight learner at the Deutsche Internationale Schule in Johannesburg