Bianca Maraisis the author ofHum If You Don't Know the Words. She holds a certificate in creative writing from the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies, where she now teaches creative writing. Before turning to writing, she started a corporate training company and volunteered with Cotlands, where she assisted care workers in Soweto with providing aid for HIV/AIDS orphans. Originally from South Africa, she now resides in Toronto with her husband.
Praise for Hum If You Don't Know the Words
“Radiant...a stirring ode to a country’s painful maturation.”—O,
The Oprah Magazine
“Richly drawn...[The characters’] journeys and eventual love
poignantly demonstrate that nothing is simply black or white.”—USA
Today
“In this standout debut Marais handles topics such as grief and
racism with a delicate intensity that will make readers fall in
love with her characters. From the first few heartfelt chapters to
a fast-paced and heart-wrenching ending, Marais has created a
stunning historical drama that shouldn’t be missed.”—Publishers
Weekly (starred review)
“Lyrical...A captivating story about finding family in unexpected
places and maintaining culture in the face of adversity.”—Library
Journal (starred review)
“Bianca Marais’ new novel, which was inspired by her own life, will
sweep you up and not let you go until the final page.”—Bookish.com,
Must Read Summer Books of 2017
“A satisfying emotional journey.”—Kirkus Reviews
“A deeply compelling story of love, loss, racism, sacrifice, and
family.”—Hello Giggles
“Breathtaking...Intense, powerful and moving, Hum If You Don't Know
the Words is an exalting anthem of love, family and
humanity.”—Shelf Awareness
“With its vivid, emotional scene-setting, alternating narration and
tense plotting, this novel is a thoughtful, compelling
page-turner.”—Goodhousekeeping.com
“[Marais] brings her homeland to life with compelling descriptions
of both city and rural life and the great divide that separated
people during the apartheid era.”—Cedar Rapids Gazette
“An important contribution to literature about racism in South
Africa...it's a powerful story and one with a perspective many of
us haven't read.”—Terry McMillan, New York
Times bestselling author of Waiting to
Exhale and I Almost Forgot About You
“Bianca Marais’s compassionate debut paints a picture of the
alternately beautiful and tragic strategies we humans employ to
meet our needs for love. Hum If You Don’t Know the
Wordstakes us into the human heart’s wiliness as it attempts to
survive the frontal attack of racism. While the attack is a sin,
the response is wondrous and wounding and an illustration of the
resiliency that can transcend the color of a person’s
skin.”—Rebecca Wells, author of The Crowning Glory of Calla
Lily Ponder and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya
Sisterhood
“Bianca Marais’s stunning debut offers an evocative and
thought-provoking look at the unlikely relationship between two
South Africans. Set against a backdrop of apartheid-era South
Africa, Marais illuminates the experiences of both black and white
South Africans during one of the bloodiest periods in the country’s
history and gives us an emotionally powerful and historically
important story about forgiveness, love and redemption.”—Tara
Conklin, author of The House Girl
“Bianca Marais’s compelling debut novel is a heartrending
coming-of-age tale that not only illuminates the horrors of
apartheid South Africa but also speaks with unmistakable
relevance to the racism of our own times.”—Jennifer Chiaverini,
author of Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker and Fates and
Traitors
“Beautiful and tragic, intimate and sweeping, Hum If You Don’t Know
the Words is a gorgeous debut novel. You don’t read this story, you
live it. Bianca Marais creates characters with such love and
compassion they nearly walk off the page.”—Tish Cohen,
bestselling author of Town House and The Truth About Delilah
Blue
“I read this book in a gallop, compelled to discover the
intertwined fates of its tragic heroine, Beauty Mbali, and her
young orphaned charge. Hum If You Don't Know the Words is
an exciting and compassionate novel about a period of devastating
cruelty in South African history. With passion and grace Marais
makes the political personal and the personal intimate.”—Meira
Cook, author of Nightwatching and The House on Sugarbush Road
“Bianca Marais parts the curtain on an unexpected view of
Apartheid-era South Africa in this gutsy, surprising, and richly
imagined tale. It will be a long time before the reader forgets the
novel’s compelling characters, and the tremendous determination,
yearning, and humanity with which they navigate complex emotional
landscapes in their intersecting quests for connection, family, and
justice.”—Ania Szado, bestselling author of Studio Saint-Ex
“Expertly crafted, both lyrical and gripping, with some truly
poignant moments especially pertaining to parenthood.”—Emma Hooper,
author of Etta and Otto and Russell and James
“Bianca Marais has written a haunting and moving novel of Apartheid
South Africa that held me in its thrall from beginning to end.
Against a backdrop of legislated racism, Marais brilliantly
entwines two disparate voices in a searing story of love, loss and
recovery. Masterful and memorable.”—Terry Fallis, two-time winner
of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour
“A classic loss-of-innocence story with a striking social
backdrop…Well-researched and dosed with humor and
humility.”—Seattle Times
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