The Book of Cathy: A South African Childhood

The Book of Cathy is a memoir of a childhood in South Africa by Catherine Kentridge, who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s. These were the apartheid years, but the book is not written from the point of view of “now.” Catherine has written about life in the way she experienced it and the context at the time, while aware that it was unjust and unconscionable. This awareness came from both parents, lawyers who fought for the rights, so restricted, of all the disenfranchised. The Book of Cathy chooses to address memories by topic, not in chronological order, and it gives a glimpse of family life in circumstances and at a time that has gone into history.