{"product_id":"the-house-gun-by-nadine-gordimer-3575k","title":"The House Gun by Nadine Gordimer","description":"\u003cp\u003eHow else can you defend yourself against losing your hi-fi equipment, your TV set and computer, your watch and rings? A house gun, like a house cat; that is a fact of ordinary life in many cities of the world as we come to the end of the twentieth century, especially in South Africa. At this time the successful, respected executive director of an insurance company, Harold, and his doctor wife, Claudia, for whom violence could never be a means of solving personal conflict, are faced with something that could never happen to them: their son has committed murder. What kind of loyalty do a mother and a father owe a son who has committed this unimaginable horror? What have they done, in influencing his character; more ominously, where is it they have failed him?  The House Gun  is a passionate narrative of love being particularly complex between parents and their children. It moves with the restless pace of living itself, from the intimate to the general condition; if it is a parable of present violence, it is also an affirmation of the will to human reconciliation that starts where it must, between individuals.  Reviews  'Gripping. So well written that it draws you into itself like a dream. I urge you to read it' Independent  'Gripping. So well written that it draws you into itself like a dream. I urge you to read it' Independent  Harald and Claudia, highly successful professionals (he heads up an insurance company, she is a physician), find their comfortable life in post-apartheid South Africa turned upside down when their only son is accused of murdering one of his housemates, using the communal house gun they had purchased for protection. The parents are dumbfounded when Duncan does not deny the crime. How could their son be a murderer, and are they somehow to blame? Duncan acted out of jealousy, but was it heterosexual jealousy or something else? He is going to be defended by a black attorney. Will the attorney's lack of courtroom experience be a liability, or will his race favorably influence the judge? Harald and Claudia are ashamed to find themselves asking these questions. Nobel laureate Gordimer's book is much more ambitious than the plot-driven thrillers of Scott Turow or John Grisham. It is a novel of ideas that investigates troubling issues of race and gender, but it is also a subtle character study that avoids easy stereotypes. Gordimer's trademark prose style, with its sudden shifts of voice and points of view, seems especially well suited to capturing the moral ambiguities of South African life. Highly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9\/15\/97.]'Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch., Los Angeles\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Book Express","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41843952746570,"sku":"3575k","price":8.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/9101\/8826\/files\/3575k.jpg?v=1764509580","url":"https:\/\/www.bookexpress.nz\/products\/the-house-gun-by-nadine-gordimer-3575k","provider":"Book Express","version":"1.0","type":"link"}