Masquerade The Story of My Life by Rayda Jacobs

Masquerade The Story of My Life

by Rayda Jacobs

 "It was never my intention to write my own story at this stage. After the publication of Confessions of a Gambler, however, and all the hoopla and hype around it, especially as it pertained to the main character in the book and whether the story is a true one or not, I looked into my heart long and hard - who are you, Rayda Jacobs? - and thought it better to write it now."

An autobiography that starts with a mostly miserable childhood in Diep River, Cape Town, and then covers the author's parents' divorce; the forced removal of the family to Athlone; the author being trained and working – as a white – as a legal secretary in the Cape Town CBD, before spending 27 years in 'exile' in Canada after someone alerts the authorities and she is, at 21, is left no choice but to leave; two marriages in Canada, the first, to an Iranian, produces two children, the second to an Egyptian – both end in divorce; her daughter's near fatal car crash; her return to South Africa in the early nineties, where she starts writing full-time and making documentary films, culminating in her directing and acting the lead role in Confessions of a Gambler, based on the novel by the same title which won her the Sunday Times Award.