VORSTER, Gordon - The Textures of Silence - (Excellent Paperback) *

Book still in a great condition - Better than the one shown.  >>>   This is an amazing book that I first read in 1985 on the beach of Swakopmund having loaned it from the beautiful old library (and what a perfect holiday read!), and reread after I tracked my own copy down. It is the extraordinary harrowing tale of Daan Cilliers who lives in a small South African rural town with his parents. He is blind from birth and deaf from trauma and the only sensory perceptions he has are those of taste, feel and smell. Through all his trials and tribulations, or perhaps because of, Daan Cilliers remains a gentle person who is able to appreciate life through the small pleasures left to him; his mother's herb garden and the pleasure the strong fragrances give him becomes a thread through the story, preparing us for teh sensual awakening which will lead to emotional maturity. It is a story of human endurance and triumph over handicaps beyond imagination. His life touches other lives. His beautiful mother suffers from terrible guilt because of youthful indiscretions. Her withdrawal from the world drives his father into a secret affair with the social worker responsible who visits the Cilliers household. Central to Daan's life is Mina the black servant charged with looking after his most basic needs. But Daan Cilliers is an exceptional man in spite of his afflictions. The book is not afraid to show the triumph of the human spirit in almost impossible circumstances. This was Gordon Vorster's first novel. He was an artist, writer, film producer and director, actor, poet, photographer, critic, broadcaster and novelist. His paintings made him famous in his time and hung in all of the major South African art museums.