FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Publicists: Elizabeth Hayes [email protected] 212-206-7417
Erin Cox [email protected] 347-581-0211 "Sure to spark discussion, the novel vividly evokes white culture in South Africa, past and present, and the myths it has engendered: no one ever supported apartheid." - Booklist "What distinguishes Schmahmann's take on the subject is an insistent focus on aspects of race relations far more complicated than egregious discrimination by whites against blacks... a probing and ruminative novel about the legacy of apartheid in South Africa." - The Miami Herald "A rich and arresting tale of human need and national rebirth." - Tampa Bay Online "[A] beautifully recognized exposition of family, myth, the stories we tell ourselves about our lives, and about apartheid itself... poignant and unforgettable." - Shelf Awareness COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU -- David Schmahmann will be traveling extensively in the continental United States during 2011. If you are interested in having him speak or do a reading with your organization please contact us to see if and when he will be in your area. There will be no travel honorariums expected. IVORY FROM PARADISE By David Schmahmann From John Gardner Fiction Award Winner, David Schmahmann comes a return to South Africa in his new novel IVORY FROM PARADISE (Academy Chicago, February 22, $24.95). A story of betrayal, family lies, and the changing nature of history. Helga Divin, the matriarch of a prominent Jewish family from Durban in Kwa Zulu-Natal, South Africa, lies dying in the splendid London mansion of her second husband, the unscrupulous industrialist Arnold Miro. Her children, Danny and Bridget, both well established in Boston, rush to her side where they quickly realize that Arnold, in addition to mistreating their mother, has begun to claim as his own a priceless collection of African artifacts that their father spent a lifetime assembling and chronicling. The collection's most important pieces are a pair of majestic ivory tusks that were once owned by King Shaka, founder of the Zulu nation and a major symbolic figure in modern South Africa. Their father's account of the origins and provenance of the tusks -- how, after a long and complicated journey, they finally had come into his possession -- was a story often told and long accepted. As Danny and Bridget move to thwart what they see as an unforgivable theft of their family heirlooms, they find themselves instead having to face the truth about their father's stories, the true ownership of this unique collection of Africana, and long held beliefs about their own past and their country's history. After many years away, the two return home to Durban to finish what they started in London. Amid the turbulence of the "new" South Africa, and against the backdrop of dramatic changes in the lives of old family friends' and former domestic servants, Danny and Bridget come face-to-face with the reality that much of what they always thought to be true is instead as fragile and as suspect as the story of King Shaka and his ivory tusks. Praise for David Schmahmann's EMPIRE SETTINGS: "Unexpected, even unforgettable....[an] artful battle against cultural and historical amnesia." - Washington Post "Thoughtful, affecting and skillfully constructed....Schmahmann's portrayal of South Africa, past and present, is as poignant - and nuanced - as his delineation of the characters and their relationships." - Los Angeles Times ABOUT THE AUTHOR: David Schmahmann was for many years a senior partner in the Boston law firm founded by Louis Brandeis, but he was born and raised in South Africa where his family had a long and successful history. One of his ancestors fought on the side of the Boers during the Anglo Boer War, and his grandfather, who owned a store and hotel in Middleburg, Transvaal, was deputy mayor there after the first World War. His father, a doctor, sixty years ago established a groundbreaking medical clinic for outpatient surgical procedures that still exists, and his mother, who taught politics at the University of Natal, was a founding member of the Progressive Party, on its National Executive, and twice ran for parliament. She was also very active in Jewish communal affairs, served as editor-in-chief of Hashalom, Durban's Jewish periodical, and was widely respected for her political activities and principled positions. Schmahmann himself attended Durban's Jewish Day School and on graduation was drafted into the South African army where he was made an infantryman and posted to the South African Mozambique border. His military service was complicated by his being labeled a "security risk," presumably because of his mother's reputation, and he was banned from his unit's headquarters building and removed from participation in a Republican Day parade. Ultimately the inevitable friction that came from functioning successfully under a system that is morally intolerable drove the Schmahmanns away. David Schmahmann lives in Boston, as does his brother who is a full professor of neurology at Harvard. His sister, a lawyer, lives in Israel where she is married to a professor at Tel Hashomer, was on the national tennis team for a number of years, and until 2010 was CEO of Israel Tennis Centers - the largest tennis school in the world. She now works for Nefesh B'Nefesh, an organization partly funded by the Israeli government whose mission is to encourage and facilitate the aliyah of highly skilled individuals. David Schmahmann brings a unique Jewish perspective to our understanding of apartheid South Africa. For more information please visit http://www.davidschmahmann.com/. --- Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: [email protected] SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
