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You Will Be Safe Here

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You Will Be Safe Here

By: Damian Barr
Narrated by: Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo
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About this listen

Bloomsbury presents You Will Be Safe Here by Damian Barr, read by Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo.

An Observer, Guardian, Financial Times, Irish Times, Irish Independent, Big Issue and Strong Words Pick of the Year

‘This is a book that tilts the world’ STYLIST

'A gripping, heartbreaking tale of uncomfortable histories and the resilience of love' GRAHAM NORTON

'I want you to read this ... I enjoy a lot of books but few stay with me like this has' PHILIPPA PERRY

'Completely gripping and profoundly moving' MAGGIE O'FARRELL

'Very beautiful. Only a truly wise and kind person could write such a book' MAX PORTER

'Heart-wrenching ... redemptive and full of love' JOJO MOYES

A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME

The book that will change the way you see the world.

2010. Sixteen-year-old outsider Willem just wants to be left alone with his books and his dog. Worried he’s not turning out right, his ma and her boyfriend send him to New Dawn Safari Training Camp. Here they ‘make men out of boys’. Guaranteed.

1901. The height of the second Boer War in South Africa. Sarah van der Watt and her son are taken from their farm by force to Bloemfontein Concentration Camp where, the English promise: they will be safe.

©2019 Damian Barr (P)2019 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction War & Military

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There were moments in the narration where the skipping between British and South African accents made it hard for the narrator to keep up but her reading was natural and engaging. I changed how I felt about this book part way through - I have definitely struggled with empathy towards the characters with their racist views at the start, and this made me disengage from really engaging with their situation. And I was fully prepared to dismiss this book and finish and move on… then we reach the second part of the book when we are focussed more on the modern day South Africa - and I found myself intrigued by the real life inspiration for the book and took myself on a tangent of reading about the motivation for Barr to write it. I think this book will
stay with me for a long time. It’s horrific. But I feel like it has resonated with me in an area where I was perhaps not challenging myself. That said, it is also very disturbing to think about how these awful, misogynistic, homophobic, racist practices are being glorified in the world today.

Complicated, skillful and honestly horrific

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Having grown up part of my life in South Africa, this book intrigued me. We emigrated to South Africa in 1983 in the thick of apartheid lured there by the promise of opportunity after my Dad’s career imploded in the UK thanks to Thatcher’s policy on manufacturing.

Some of this is the history that I learnt (Boer War and concentration camps) and some of it I’ve seen growing up. Listening to this book made me feel so many emotions, it’s an amazing story and the author ties all the parts together so beautifully.

If I had one small complaint it would be the Afrikaans accent on the boer war/concentration part there is too much emphasis on rolling R’s and putting them in places where they’re not needed. Also Geldenhuys’s name in the last part changed a few times to Geeldenhuys which was a bit annoying. It should rhyme with gel but not with reel phonetically. Other than that a really good performance from the narrator and an astoundingly heartfelt novel that I related to so very much.

What a journey!

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It was fascinating. Part of history I was unaware of. Terrible that such things continue today

Excellent

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This novelisation of real events in South Africa in two eras is constantly absorbing and is enhanced by the reading which uses accents well and accurately.

Astonishing, informative, and beautifully read

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A sad but extremely compelling read illuminating one aspect of South Africa’s complex history, that of the legacy of the boer war and how the savage British behaviour echoes through to the present day. And apart from the history it is a clever and engaging story.

Illuminating and clever narrative

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Loved it a story full of history that not many of us are aware of.

Great story

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My only caveat would be that book is two stories in one and sags dramatically at the beginning of the second part. It could have done with a robust edit at this stage to keep readers interested. Secondly there are point of view jumps mid scene where the author jumps into the head of another character. This is disconcerting and a bit surprising for an author as well known as Barr. It is probably the playwriter in the author coming out. An editor should have sorted that. But do read and persist through the sag in the middle. Warning. It is shocking and brutal. I do highly recommend but you need to be in a robust mood.

Superb, brutal. Must read

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amazing audiobook the writing and Performance are incredible. historically interesting and well worth a listen

amazing audio book I really enjoyed it.

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I thought the performance was brilliant, I was completely absorbed. Well written story with interesting characters.

compelling, moving and informative

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I decided to read this after reading the author’s memoir “Maggie & Me”. This book was very different to that. The story is gripping, at times a hard listen. Really glad I found this. Has intrigued me to read more about what happened during the Boer wars, something I knew very little about before. Recommend

Incredibly well written story

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