Reports Before Daybreak by Brent Meersman

1980s South Africa – the Republic is ablaze. Zukiswa Nonkosi’s half-brother returns as a freedom fighter. Fifteen kilometres away but a world apart, Francois de Koninck leaves to fight on the border, while his brother musters dreams of becoming an artist. In a mansion on the other side of town, Bertie Diepenaar is reading Marx.

Across all barriers, fate will link their destinies as all hell breaks loose. Framing their story with newspaper headlines, biographies and eyewitness accounts, Reports Before Daybreak is a portrait of the country in its darkest decade, but with the promise of a new beginning with Mandela’s release. It is the story of a generation’s coming of age and the breaking of a new dawn.

Date of Publication: 2011
ISBN: 9781415201060
Website: meersman.co.za
Publisher: Umuzi
Reviews: “The novel should fall like rain in the desert of minds parched by ignorance of the history of our people and amaze those who do remember it with its vivid recreation of those times . . . It’s a great bonding of fiction and history and by showing us how much has changed, a wonderful antidote to disillusion at the seemingly slow progress we have made since the 1980s. It’s a timely reminder of what we have been through and why we must keep on keeping on. Moreover, it’s a page-turner.” – Jane Rosenthal, Mail & Guardian.

“Meersman supports his tale of Dickensian complexity with vivid insights into the lives of ordinary people, workers and other classes . . . Meersman traces the intricate links that bind individuals in this fragmented land, and uses those connections to prove the subtle interdependence of communities” – Len Ashton, Noseweek.

“Rises above that description of a political novel . . .an extremely good book indeed.” – John Maytham, Cape Talk, 17 June 2011.

“Clever, very clever. Here we have something that, instead of trying to expiate, blame or moralise, and mostly unsentimentally describes the lives and perceptions of the generations that lived through apartheid. This is not to say you will not be brought to tears, but it’s not just for the oppressed in the classical sense, but also for those who were brain-washed, and suffered breaches of their human rights even though they were allowed to vote.” – Aly Verbaan, Cape Times.

“The ideal choice for every reader that knows little about an important part of the history of South Africa’s people, as well as those that wish to relive past memories through this outstanding depiction . . . The honest, to the point narrative follows the reports that clearly lay bare an undiluted history.

The novel portrays each character during the Struggle in a unique way . . . Meersman uses these voices to experience the truth through fiction.” – Nikki Lordan, Die Burger, 9 May 2011.