Synopses & Reviews
A companion novel to the award-winning
Empire Settings,
Ivory from Paradise is a powerful story of betrayal, family legends, and the fickle nature of history.
Helga Divin, the matriarch of a prominent white family from Durban in Kwa Zulu-Natal, South Africa, lies dying in the splendid London mansion of her second husband, the unscrupulous industrialist Arnold Miro.
Her children Danny and Bridget, both well established in Boston, rush to her side where they quickly realize that Arnold, in addition to mistreating their mother, has begun to claim as his own a priceless collection of African artifacts that their dead father spent a lifetime assembling and chronicling.
The collection's most important pieces are a pair of majestic ivory tusks that were once owned by King Shaka, founder of the Zulu nation and a major symbolic figure in modern South Africa. Their father's account of the origins and provenance of the tusks — how, after a long and complicated journey, they had finally come into his possession — was a story often told and long accepted.
As Danny and Bridget move to thwart what they see as an unforgivable theft of their family heirlooms, they find themselves having to face instead the truth about their father's stories, the true ownership of this unique collection of Africana, and long held beliefs about their own past and their country's history.
After many years away, the two return home to Durban to finish what they started in London. Amid the turbulence of the "new" South Africa, and against the backdrop of dramatic changes in the lives of old family friends' and former domestic servants, Danny and Bridget come face-to-face with the reality that much of what they always thought to be true is instead as fragile and as suspect as the story of King Shaka and his ivory tusks.
Review
"Sure to spark discussion, the novel vividly evokes white culture in South Africa, past and present, and the myths it has engendered..." Booklist
Review
"What distinguishes [Schmahmann's] take on the subject is an insistent focus on aspects of race-relations far more complicated than egregious discrimination by whites against blacks...a probing and ruminative novel about the legacy of apartheid in South Africa." Miami Herald
Review
"Memories' ghosts haunt this intriguing novel...An entrancing literary effort drawn from authentic characters and settings." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
A Jewish family of South African expatriates is torn by emotional conflicts and a battle over possessions, revealing their illusions about the past and the realities of life in South Africa post Nelson Mandela.
Synopsis
Helga Divin, the matriarch of this prominent white family from Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, lies dying in the London mansion of her second husband, industrialist Arnold Miro. Her children, Danny and Bridget, both successfully established in Boston, rush to her side. The pair soon realize that Arnold, in addition to mistreating their mother, plans to steal a collection of African artifacts their late father spent a lifetime assembling. The most important pieces in the collection are majestic tusks whose provenance traces to the legendary king Shaka Zulu, who presented them to the first white men to set foot in Zululand back in the 1800s. To their father—and now to Danny and Bridget—the tusks have both personal meaning and great historic value. The Divins seethe when they hear Arnold expropriate their father’s stories about “his” African collection, along with the collection itself. When Danny and Bridget move to thwart Arnold they find themselves facing the layers of myth surrounding their family, their youth and even their own identities under apartheid. This process accelerates when Danny, Bridget, and their families return to Durban to honor their mother. There, amid the turbulence of contemporary South Africa reinventing itself as a multi-racial democracy, they come to realize that what they have always believed about themselves is as fragile and suspect as the stories they and others once accepted as truth.
About the Author
David Schmahmann was born and raised in Durban, South Africa. A graduate of Dartmouth College and the Cornell Law School, he writes and practices law in Boston and lives with his wife and two daughters in Weston, Massachusetts.
Exclusive Essay
Read an exclusive essay by David Schmahmann