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    The Whale Caller: A Novel
    The Whale Caller: A Novel
    The Whale Caller: A Novel
    Ebook266 pages5 hours

    The Whale Caller: A Novel

    By Zakes Mda

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    "A voice for which one should feel not only affection but admiration." --The New York Times

    The Whale Caller, Zakes Mda's fifth novel, is his most enchanting and accessible book yet-a romantic comedy of sorts in which the changing face of post-apartheid South Africa is revealed through prodigious, lyrical storytelling.

    As the novel opens, the seaside village of Hermanus, on the country's west coast, is overrun with whale watchers-foreign tourists wearing floral shirts and toting expensive binoculars, determined to see whales in their natural habitat. But when the tourists have gone home, the Whale Caller lingers at the shoreline, wooing a whale he calls Sharisha with cries from a kelp horn. When Sharisha fails to appear for weeks on end, the Whale Caller frets like a jealous lover-oblivious to the fact that the town drunk, Saluni, a woman who wears a silk dress and red stiletto heels, is infatuated with him.

    After much ado-which Mda relates with great relish-the two misfits fall in love. But each of them is ill equipped for romance, and their on-again, off-again relationship suggests something of the fitful nature of change in post-apartheid South Africa, where just living from one day to the next can be challenge enough.

    Mda has spoken of the end of apartheid as a lifting of the South African novelist's burden to write on political subjects. With The Whale Caller, he has written a tender, charming novel-the work of a virtuoso among international writers.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateOct 17, 2006
    ISBN9780374708191
    The Whale Caller: A Novel
    Author

    Zakes Mda

    ZAKES MDA (full names: Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda) is a South African writer, painter, composer and film maker. A novelist, poet and playwright of more than twenty works, he has won numerous literary awards in South Africa and the United States. When he isn’t writing, Zakes splits his time between teaching creative writing at Ohio University and beekeeping in the Eastern Cape. He is honorary patron of the Market Theatre, Johannesburg. "Rachel’s Blue" was written as a response to the legal situation that persists in many US states today – that the father of a child conceived as the result of a rape can still claim the same paternity rights as any other father.

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    Reviews for The Whale Caller

    3.5/5

    26 ratings3 reviews

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    • 1/5
      Strangest book I've ever read. Did not get it at all.
    • 3/5
      Mda's The Whale Caller is so rich that it's difficult for a reader to distinguish between fantasy and reality. The characters are so flawed and distinctive, and their story so sweet, that the world becomes something almost idyllic, despite its downfalls and poverty. Centered in off-kilter romances and fantasy, the book is something of a lovesong to what imagination can accomplish for its characters, and of course for the reader.Yet, for me, I have to admit that the ending very nearly ruined the book for me, and certainly ruined the world of the book. Having read it, and been so shocked by it, I couldn't really recommend the book to other readers unless they could commit to neglecting those last few pages. I adore Mda's writing, but that ending... well, it would be enough to put me off of his work if I weren't already a fan, not for the believability, but for the too-easy horror, that is all to believable, just as much as the rest of the story is surprisingly believable.I don't know what to say beyond the fact that Mda's writing and world-building an character creation are marvelous. And that I now hate him, just a bit, for writing this ending.
    • 4/5
      This was a treat! The Whale Caller is passionate about the whales that periodically visit the waters of the small coastal town of Hermanus, where he blows his kelp horn for them. He is especially enamoured of Sharisa, a female southern right, who responds to his call and rewards him by dancing to his music, with him, for hours on end. Saluni, the feisty village drunk, is equally passionate about the Whale Caller. She follows him around and makes no secret of her adoration for him. Being of subtle disposition, he is regularly embarrassed and scandalised by her attention. She couldn’t be more different to him. She is a free spirit who loves life, laughter and living; he is quiet, cautious, and patiently content with his lot."Saluni was made to be recklessly happy. She has no cares in the world,” and is, “A glorious celebrant of worldliness.” Her physical make-up is colourful: Her manicured nails are red. She always wears a fawn pure-wool coat over a green taffeta dress, with red pencil-heeled shoes (which she often has to remove, when inebriated), black fishnet stockings, a long black cigarette holder with a shock of red hair to complete the picture.As a relationship slowly develops between the two, we become steeped in an unforgettable love triangle comprising a gentle man lost in his adoration of a whale, a whale who seems to love him in return, and a seriously enamoured woman who will stop at nothing to have the man she loves completely to herself. This was a wonderfully entertaining read! It is naughty, playful and sometimes totally irreverent.

    Book preview

    The Whale Caller - Zakes Mda

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