What a lovely book about love during a difficult time in history.
About the Book
Title: National
Author: Christopher Lai
Genre: HIstorical Fiction | Romance | Historical Romance
Pages: 178
Format: Kindle Unlimited and eBook
Blurb
It’s 1986 and apartheid South Africa is banned from global sporting events. Chanelle Va der Merwe, the daughter of a wealthy South African banker must convince footballer and Jamaican National icon, Patrick Anderason, to take part in the international football competition South Africa is hosting. In a bid to save her father’s company Chanelle offers Patrick the deal of a lifetime if he agrees to put together and captain a Caribbean team.
Patrick, who has not forgotten the fate of the blacklisted cricketers who took part in the 1983 Rebel Tour to South Africa, refuses the offer. Plus, unlike the cricketers, he will not compromise his integrity to become an ‘Honorary white’.
Despite a rocky start, a friendship develops between them when Patrick, in order to help fund medical care for his gravely ill godson, must choose between nationhood and friendship; play football in apartheid South Africa or allow the boy to die. He realizes that life is not black and white — including any future with Chanelle — and begins to understand that at times some deals are brokered out of great pain, and that love can have a fighting chance even if it’s forbidden.
My Thoughts
This is a sweet love story woven into a historical fictional representation of actual events that took place during apartheid in South Africa. As someone who was seven when apartheid ended, but who grew up in the Deep South, which the book even mentioned had (and still has) similar racial issues as South Africa, this was a deeply interesting book. As a lifelong avid reader and student of history and the human condition, I know some about apartheid and South Africa – probably even a little more than the average American my age. So, it was incredibly interesting to read this – albeit fictional – account from someone experiencing the divide from the inside.
The main female character, Chanelle, was a white woman raised in South Africa. While she did not agree with the way black people were treated, she was still deeply affected by the way she was raised, having a hard time when she was first outside of South Africa realizing she could interact with and touch black people. Though she went to college in Florida, the Deep South, which she saw was culturally more similar to her home than she would have liked it to be.
In an unlikely turn of events, as she recruited black Caribbean football (soccer for those of us with American vocabularies) to play rebel games during a worldwide ban against playing in South Africa, she fell in love with the captain of the team, Patrick. She could never be with him while apartheid was alive and well, and her father would probably still never accept the match. It was a sweet and tragic Romeo-and-Juliet type love story. You’ll have to read to find out how it turns out.
I’m a banker with a Master’s degree in Economics… and he’s speaking to me like I’m a 17-year-old who’s refusing to attend college.
– Chanelle, National
While there were many sweet parts of this story, it is not overall, in fact, sweet. It is marred by deep racism, tragedy, desperation, and so much sadness. And knowing so much of the history of my region, apartheid reminds me so much of the South with slightly different rules and regulations. But the basis – humans hating those who differed from themselves – remains the same.
I’m grateful to the author and LBT for including me in the tour!
Content Warnings: This is a non-exhaustive list of topics included in this book that may distress some readers, including, but not limited to, racism, violence, death, grief, chronic illness (including cancer), injury, terminal illness, drug use, classissm, and misogyny.
About the Author
Chris Lai has worked extensively in the food industry, the banking industry and as an economist. Outside of his career, he’s into coaching football at his club, which he represented as a player, teaching math at his alma mater and working with the Down Syndrome Foundation.
Links
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H63ZXNWJ/?bestFormat=true&k=national%20christopher%20lai&ref_=nb_sb_ss_w_scx-ent-bk-v2_k0_1_20_de&crid=2TQ54W42EQGNV&sprefix=national%20christopher
Amazon UK: https://amzn.eu/d/0aD1DRMO
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/254313808-national
