We were thrilled to find out last week that Dayspring by C. J. Driver, edited by J. M. Coetzee, was selected as Lyndall Gordon’s book of the year for the New Statesman.
Gordon writes:
Dayspring: A Memoir (Karavan Press and uHlanga) is by CJ (Jonty) Driver, a poet and political activist against apartheid. He is a moral being writing with a directness that comes from the soul. This honesty reminds me of the autobiographical fictions of JM Coetzee, who edited this book. The memorable relationships are with interrogators while Driver was imprisoned and with a girl he loved. He’s truthful, too, when it comes to his own failure: casual infidelity. Goodness is hard to convey, but this memoir does so, a respite in a world rent by liars.
See the other New Statesman Books of the Year here.