Jacana Media Solidarity Reads Day 1: My Father, My Monster by McIntosh Polela

Solidarity Reads: Delivering the best ebooks Jacana Media has to offer at very special prices.

For the 21-day lockdown period Jacana Media is curating a series of ebook special offers from its extensive catalogue of titles.

There is something here for everyone, from fiction and memoir, to natural history and political biographies.

We hope you enjoy what we have curated for you, so keep an eye on our mailers and also our social media platforms.

My Father, My Monster

by McIntosh Polela

‘My father had taken more than just my mother’s life. He had taken a piece of my soul. These thoughts tested my forgiveness, and made me scared about how I would react to meeting him again. I had grown up with too much pain … I dreaded being reminded of all that had happened to me and my sister.’

You may remember McIntosh Polela from his time as a self-assured government spokesperson and his incisive reporting as a television journalist. But behind his seemingly unfazed demeanour, a troubled past of abandonment, neglect and abuse haunted him.

His parents disappeared when he was a little boy, leaving him and his sister Zinhle to suffer years of brutal abuse. When the truth of his parents’ disappearance is revealed, the teenage McIntosh makes a fully functioning gun from found objects which he keeps for the day when he comes face to face with his father to confront him about his mother’s brutal death.

How can McIntosh possibly forgive when his father remains a remorseless, brutal and heartless monster?