Choke Chain
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in Choke Chain for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
`does what a good debut novel should: whet the reader's appetite for the next book'.
--Scotland on Sunday
'direct, spare and evocative' --The Scotsman
--Scotland on Sunday
'direct, spare and evocative' --The Scotsman
Review
`This is a stupendously good and beautifully written first novel'
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a powerful read, sensitively written. The author transports you into his world, and makes you care for the characters more than you can know. Ultimately the book is a coming of age novel, but it is also more than this. It is a snapshot of life in late 1980s South Africa. It is a book about morality, and might makes right, and exclusion and racism and so much more.
There is plenty of metaphor in here. Observations about a vicious dog - it is not its fault, someone made it that way - reflect right back on the central characters for instance. The pot bellied black child that is ignored by a mother of two boys again leaves so much unsaid, and yet gets its message powerfully across.
The imagery in the book is wonderful. Without wasting words, the author transports you into another country so completely that you end up thinking you could have grown up there! The beautiful mountain scenery, the aquamarine Indian ocean, the grimy poor suburb the family live in - it is all well drawn. So too are the characters.
This book is a very good, gritty read but with an ultimate message of hope.
Highly recommended.
There is plenty of metaphor in here. Observations about a vicious dog - it is not its fault, someone made it that way - reflect right back on the central characters for instance. The pot bellied black child that is ignored by a mother of two boys again leaves so much unsaid, and yet gets its message powerfully across.
The imagery in the book is wonderful. Without wasting words, the author transports you into another country so completely that you end up thinking you could have grown up there! The beautiful mountain scenery, the aquamarine Indian ocean, the grimy poor suburb the family live in - it is all well drawn. So too are the characters.
This book is a very good, gritty read but with an ultimate message of hope.
Highly recommended.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
well written, thought provoking book set in South Africa in the eighties, very evocative of the period. A master class in the portrayal of a young boy's coming of age under the influence of a racist, bullying and manipulative father. This is a great book and deserves a much wider audience.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A quick and rewarding read that will make you make more sofa-time. This book got me back into reading. Without rose-tinting it, this book throws you back into a how it felt to be a kid. The unpretentious language transports you to another place and hauls you through the story. It leaves you with insightful moments that totally stick in your head. A couple of Scottish schools have just started using it! Definitely recommend this to anyone who can read.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Compelling invocation of apartheid South Africa through a young boy's...
12 year old Alex and his younger brother Kevin Thorne are a pair of brothers growing up in 1980s South Africa. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Jo Bennie
outstanding debut novel
Choke Chain was one of the six novels short-listed for the Author's CLub First Novel Award, which I judged, and was one of my favourites in a very strong list. Read more
Published on 19 April 2010 by A. Craig
Choke Chain by Jason Donald
This book is great. Read it as part of our book club and I would give it 9 out of 10.
Set in South Africa it looks at the relationship between a mother and her 2 sons and... Read more
Set in South Africa it looks at the relationship between a mother and her 2 sons and... Read more
Published on 15 Jan 2010 by Julie E. Lynas
I was there
This was a fabulous book - not sure I agree with the reviewers who said they laughed. There was little to laugh at here. Read more
Published on 10 Jun 2009 by A. M. Dell Munro
Terrifying. Beautiful. Brilliant.
This is an incredibly satisfying read. The characters are expertly done, and the writing pulled me right into the centre of this family. Read more
Published on 3 April 2009 by The Keeper of Ducks
A strong new voice
I've never been to South Africa and I'd almost forgotten the 1980s, but Jason Donald has uncommon powers of observation, recollection, and imagination. Read more
Published on 2 April 2009 by S. Connor
Gripping
The author grabs your attention immediately and holds it as you race through the story to its dramatic end, leaving you breathless and desperate for answers. Read more
Published on 16 Mar 2009 by Lizz
Chokechain - excellent first novel
Jason Donald's first novel about a couple of boys growing up in a dysfunctional family in South Africa is excellent. You'll laugh and cry in equal measures. Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2009 by G. Neilson
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
