Divided Lives

Lyndall Gordon grew up in Cape Town in 1941, a city so far from the rest of the world that sea travel to anywhere important took about two weeks. Her mother was an invalid whose unexplained illness kept her indoors for years, and the two of them shared a closeness built on stories, reading and her mother's writing. Lyndall came to know the world through these books and tales, a private realm full of dreams and imagination, far removed from everyday hardship. The story turns on what happens as a daughter grows up and must step out of that shared world.