Slovo, Gillian 1952–

PERSONAL: Born March 15, 1952, in Johannesburg, South Africa; daughter of Joe Slovo (a political activist) and Ruth First (a journalist); children: one daughter. Education: Manchester University, B.A., 1974.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, A.P. Watt, Ltd., 20 John St., London WC1N 2DL, England.

CAREER: Novelist, journalist, and film producer.

WRITINGS:

Ties of Blood (novel), Morrow (New York, NY), 1990.

Façade (novel), Virago Press (London, England), 1993.

Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country (autobiography), Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1997.

Red Dust (novel), Virago Press (London, England), 2000, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 2002.

Ice Road (historical novel), W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 2005.

(With Victoria Brittain) Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom (play), Oberon Books (London, England), 2005.

CRIME NOVELS

Morbid Symptoms, Dembner Books (New York, NY), 1984.

Catnap, Virago Press (London, England), 1985, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1986.

Close Call, Virago Press (London, England), 1986.

Death by Analysis, Women's Press (London, England), 1986, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1988.

Death Comes Staccato, Women's Press (London, England), 1987, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1988.

The Betrayal, Virago Press (London, England), 1992.

Contributor to publications, including the Guardian.

SIDELIGHTS: South African writer Gillian Slovo was born in Johannesburg in 1952, the daughter of Joe Slovo, leader of the South African Communist Party, and Ruth First, like her husband an anti-apartheid activist. (Also a journalist, First would be killed by a letter bomb in 1982.) Slovo moved to England in 1964, where she received her education and went on to work as a journalist, novelist, and film producer. Morbid Symptoms, her first book, starts a series of crime novels, many of which feature female detective Kate Baeier. Set in London, the story follows journalist-turned-investigator Baeier as she investigates the death of a man found at the bottom of an elevator shaft, and answers the question of whether he jumped or was pushed. When the case is revealed to be one of murder, Baeier discovers that it reveals a far broader mystery involving apartheid and the racist program's English supporters.

Death by Analysis takes place during the summer of 1981, while England celebrates the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. Meanwhile, political intrigue points toward serious problems for the nation, and the death of a psychoanalyst with a political past might be a warning to anyone believing their own past to be dead. In Death Comes Staccato Baeier is hired to protect a young musical prodigy from a stalker, but finds that the greatest threats sometimes come from within one's own family. The case forces her to deal with drug runners and corrupt police, putting her in the same danger as her client.

Slovo has written novels outside of the crime genre as well. With Red Dust, she mines her experiences in her native South Africa. The story follows Sarah, an attorney originally from South Africa who is now working in New York City as a prosecutor. Her mentor requests that she return home and she finds herself the legal advisor to a young black man, Alex, who has been asked to testify before the government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Alex does not want to return to his hometown where he was previously jailed and tortured, but agrees to go in order to help the parents of a friend who has been murdered discover the truth about his death. Claire Rosser, in a review for Kliatt, wrote that "Slovo is unrelenting—she shows how injustice, violence, and humiliation affect personalities, relationships, and a culture." Writing for World Literature Today, Ursula Barnett commented that Slovo "shows much of her skill in unveiling a mystery," but added that "elements of drama, excitement, and detection, however, do not sit altogether easily with the philosophical and psychological examination of truth, guilt, revenge, forgiveness, and justice triggered by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission." Melanie Kaye, in an article for Women's Review of Books, wrote that Slovo's work "opens into deep questions of guilt and innocence, the relationship between truth and justice. Does truth heal? Is justice essential or possible? Every overthrow of massive oppression, dictatorship, brutality, has to reckon with what to do with those who oppressed and tortured. How to heal a society fractured by hate and violence." A contributor for Publishers Weekly remarked that "this powerful novel—full of legal and emotional twists and turns—strips bare the torment forever ingrained in victim and jailer alike, a torment that runs through all segments of post-apartheid society."

In Ice Road, Slovo turns away from South African politics and instead looks at the USSR under Stalin. Set in Leningrad in the winter of 1933, the book follows the lives of various characters as the promises of the Russian Revolution crumble under political reality. A contributor for Kirkus Reviews wrote that "Slovo risks melodrama, but on the whole her tale is smart and poignant, exploring some of the same moral territory as Nikita Mikhalkov's film Burnt by the Sun. A big idea well handled."

Examining another, quite different political situation, Slovo coauthored the play Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom with Victoria Brittain. The play addresses the U.S. military's acquisition of young Muslims of various nationalities from Afghanistan and other places, and the transport of these detainees to a base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they were held in violation of humanitarian laws. Richard Norton-Taylor, reviewing the work for New Statesman, remarked of viewing the play that "my confidence in drama as an effective vehicle for exploring current affairs was confirmed."

Slovo has also written an autobiography that focuses on her experiences as a child in South Africa and on the effect her parents' political convictions and work as activists had on her. Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country pays homage to her parents' lives and achievements, and includes personal as well as political information. The volume garnered criticism for being anti-communist, and Slovo was accused of revealing too many details that should have remained private, but the book's honesty reflects her attempt to remain at least partly impartial. Melanie Kaye called the work "a dazzling and essential book," and remarked that reading it "reinforces one's sense of the essential dignity of the struggle against apartheid and the value of her parents' lives." Hazel Rochman, writing for Booklist, stated of Slovo that, "fueled by anger and by love, her writing is lyrical and intelligent and open."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Slovo, Gillian, Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1997.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 1997, Hazel Rochman, review of Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country, p. 1378; December 15, 2001, Hazel Rochman, review of Red Dust, p. 704.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2001, review of Red Dust, p. 1390; March 1, 2005, review of Ice Road, p. 257.

Kliatt, July, 2003, Claire Rosser, review of Red Dust, p. 27.

Library Journal, October 1, 2001, Christine Perkins, review of Red Dust, p. 144.

Nation, May 12, 1997, Vivian Gornick, review of Every Secret Thing, p. 46.

New Internationalist, January-February, 2001, review of Red Dust, p. 46.

New Statesman, June 7, 2004, Richard Norton-Taylor, "Spirit of Inquiry," review of Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, p. 39.

Publishers Weekly, November 5, 2001, review of Red Dust, p. 39.

Race and Class, October-December, 1997, Barbara Harlow, review of Every Secret Thing, p. 95.

Women's Review of Books, July, 2002, Melanie Kaye, "The Price of Heroism," reviews of Red Dust and Every Secret Thing, p. 30.

World Literature Today, April-June, 2003, Ursula Barnett, review of Red Dust, p. 88.