Family tale set against South African background

IF YOU WANT TO MAKE GOD LAUGH

Author: Bianca Marais

G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 423 pages, $26

Just in time to mark the 25th anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s election and the end of apartheid, South African-born Bianca Marais releases her second novel, “If You Want to Make God Laugh.” The fast-changing political and societal landscape (civil unrest, AIDS epidemic) in the mid-1990s provides the backdrop for the saga of three women.

The first is Ruth, a middle-aged white woman drinking her way through a third divorce after a career as an exotic dancer. The second is Ruth’s sister, Delilah, a former nun who devotes her life to aid work and who mourns a son whose existence she can’t acknowledge. The sisters reluctantly reside together on the family’s defunct avocado farm as they try to figure out what to do with the rest of their lives. The third woman is Zodwa, a bright but poor black teenager who becomes pregnant and must spend her life in domestic servitude.

The three women’s lives are forever linked when Ruth and Delilah discover a newborn boy on the doorstop of their farmhouse. Soon they find themselves pondering existential questions such as: What does it mean to be take care of someone? What does it mean to love? What roles do race and class and faith play? Through the experiences of Ruth, Delihah and Zodwa, readers can explore the intricate bonds of family, the hideous results of violence and sexism and the ability of the human spirit to triumph despite it all.

Marais’ first book, also set in South Africa, is called “Hum If You Don’t Know the Words.” She is currently working on a third book, which she describes as a psychological thriller. Before her writing career, Marais started a corporate training company and volunteered to assist care workers in Soweto with providing aid for HIV/AIDS orphans. She now teaches creative writing and lives in Toronto with her husband.

Brandy Hilboldt Allport is the Books Page editor for the Florida Times-Union. She can be reached at brandysbookmarks1@outlook.com.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Bianca Marais will be at The Bookmark, 220 First St. in Neptune Beach, at 7 p.m. Tuesday.