The Syringa Tree (2007)

by Pamela Gien

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pamela Gien turned her successful 2001 off-Broadway play of the same name into an impressive and gripping novel.

The story is told by Elizabeth Grace, a privileged white child living in South Africa under apartheid with her Jewish father, a physician working in a black hospital, and her depressed mother.  Elizabeth treasures her close relationship with her Xhosa nanny, Salamina, whose life is torn apart by the laws and oppression faced by those of her race.  Salamina has a baby illegally in the white suburb where the Grace’s reside, and Elizabeth and her parents help her hide the child, Moliseng, from the frequent police raids and Afrikaner neighbors.  Elizabeth becomes as attached to her as she is to her beloved nanny.  Yet eventually, their secret is revealed and Moliseng is taken away to live in the slums with her grandmother.  Moliseng grows to become a freedom fighter, and tragedy strikes, exposing Elizabeth to the realities of apartheid and shattering her innocence. 

The novel’s poetic prose and descriptions of the beautiful landscape of South Africa are sharply contrasted by the cruelty and inhumanity that befell most of the nation’s cultures.  Gien’s Broadway play won the Obie award in 2001, and her book is receiving acclaim as well.