Hirson, Denis's Books

My Thirty-Minute Bar Mitzvah

A Memoir

By: Denis Hirson

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A “beautifully written, funny and deeply moving” memoir about a son’s reckoning with his father’s political idealism, set against the menacing backdrop of apartheid-era South Africa (Finuala Dowling, author of The Man Who Loved Crocodile Tamers) A bestselling South African writer known for tackling history and memory finally makes his American debut Witty and deeply poignant, My Thirty-Minute Bar Mitzvah is a breathtaking account of one man being confronted by his past and, ultimately, how his daughter proved to be the key in understanding his own father. Recreating 1960s Johannesburg through his adolescent eyes, bestselling South African author Denis Hirson gradually reveals the details of his extraordinary 13th birthday as he explores the familial and political divisions in Apartheid South Africa that weighed on him and his developing consciousness of his Jewish heritage. My Thirty-Minute Bar Mitzvah is a gem of a book about becoming a man. It’s also a valuable account of a forgotten time of white, Jewish activists, their families, their community, and most importantly, their children, who had to stumble through life in the aftermath of their commitment to racial justice.

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Page Count

193

Publisher

Pushkin Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

180533753X

ISBN 13

9781805337539

My Thirty-Minute Bar Mitzvah

A Memoir

By: Denis Hirson

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My Thirty-Minute Bar Mitzvah

A Memoir

By: Denis Hirson

A moving, witty memoir about a Jewish childhood in apartheid-era South Africa __________ 'Hilarious and heart-breaking. Hirson has the ability to evoke not just the city of his childhood, but his own thirteen-year-old voice and imagination of the world - with its perceptions, terrors and incomprehensions' William Kentridge 'This gem of a book is truly a gift for readers' Vrye Weekblad 'Poetic... The intensity and honesty Hirson brings to his narrative brings it close to the reader... Singular' News24 __________ "There were three other people present, or five, depending on whom one chooses to include... The ceremony lasted precisely thirty minutes, as had been agreed on well in advance, not a second longer." What kind of bar mitzvah lasts only thirty minutes? Which five people could have been present, and where could such a ceremony have taken place under these circumstances? As Denis Hirson gradually reveals the details of his extraordinary bar mitzvah, he explores the familial and political divisions that formed his story. Recreating 1960s Johannesburg through his adolescent eyes, Hirson writes of the silences that surrounded his Jewish heritage, and of the day that one of his family's secrets finally exploded. Witty and deeply poignant, My Thirty-Minute Bar Mitzvah is a beautiful account of one man being confronted by his own past.

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Page Count

152

Publisher

Pushkin Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1805337521

ISBN 13

9781805337522

In the Heat of Shadows

South African Poetry 1996-2013

By: Hirson, Denis

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In the Heat of Shadows

South African Poetry 1996-2013

By: Hirson, Denis

South African poetry today is charged with restlessness, burstng with diversity. Gone is the intense inward focus required to deal with a situation of systematic oppression, the enclosing effort of concentration on a single predicament. While politics and identity continue to be central themes, the poetry since the late 1990s reveals a richer investigation of ancestors and history, alongside more experimentation with language and translation; and enduring concern with the touchstones of love, loss, memory, and acts of witnessing. In the Heat of Shadows: South African Poetry 1996-2013 presents work by 33 poets and includes some translations from Afrikaans, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sesotho and Xitsonga. This collection follows on from Denis Hirson’s 1997 anthology The Lava of this Land: South African Poetry 1960-1996.

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Page Count

282

Publisher

Deep South

Published Date

ISBN 10

0987028235

ISBN 13

9780987028235

Year of Fire, Year of Ash

The Soweto Schoolchildren’s Revolt that Shook Apartheid

By: Baruch Hirson

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Year of Fire, Year of Ash

The Soweto Schoolchildren’s Revolt that Shook Apartheid

By: Baruch Hirson

We can say without fear of being contradicted by history, that June 16, 1976 heralded the beginning of the end of the centuries-old white rule in this country.' Nelson Mandela Originally banned on publication by the apartheid government, Year of Fire, Year of Ash is an eye-opening account of how, in June 1976, 20,000 school students faced down the tanks and guns of a vicious racist regime, in a revolt that galvanized the black working-class and became a pivotal turning point for the anti-apartheid movement. More than this, the book overturns much of the conventional logic that served to explain the event at the time, showing it was not simply a student protest, but part of a wider uprising. Released in this new edition to mark the fortieth anniversary, Year of Fire, Year of Ash provides an unparalleled insight into the origins and events of the uprising, from its antecedents in the 1920s to its role in inspiring global solidarity against apartheid. As South Africa experiences a new wave of popular discontent, and as new forms of black consciousness come to the fore in movements around the world, Baruch Hirson's book provides a timely reminder of the Soweto revolt's continued significance to struggles against oppression today.

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Page Count

367

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1783608986

ISBN 13

9781783608980

Worlds in One Country

A Brief Survey of South African Writing - Nineteenth Century to 1994

By: Denis Hirson

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Worlds in One Country

A Brief Survey of South African Writing - Nineteenth Century to 1994

By: Denis Hirson

Worlds in one country is a compact, inclusive history of writing in South Africa from the nineteenth century to 1994 that crosses boundaries of language and colour, including prose, poetry and theatre.

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Page Count

156

Publisher

Jacana Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1431402478

ISBN 13

9781431402472

We Walk Straight So You Better Get Out the Way

By: Denis Hirson

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We Walk Straight So You Better Get Out the Way

By: Denis Hirson

A work of deeply sensitive memories and reflections, this autobiography--a political history of the time--chronicles the turbulent life of a South African man. Including details of the author's childhood years, experiences while in the army, the loss of his father, and the memory of a nation, this book's delicate and finely tuned phrases appeal to the reader as the narrative twists and turns through time.

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Page Count

174

Publisher

Jacana Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1770091440

ISBN 13

9781770091443

I Remember King Kong (the Boxer)

By: Denis Hirson

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I Remember King Kong (the Boxer)

By: Denis Hirson

I Remember King Kong (the Boxer)' is a book of reminiscences which are, and could only be, South African in their timbre, scope and feeling. The memories, some personal and some public, will take you on a journey to a time and place that you'll savour long after you have put the book down."--Provided by publisher.

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Page Count

140

Publisher

Jacana Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1770090320

ISBN 13

9781770090323

White Scars

On Reading and Rites of Passage

By: Denis Hirson

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White Scars

On Reading and Rites of Passage

By: Denis Hirson

White Scars also explores the moments at which Hirson read the four books. They include the arrest of his anti-apartheid activist father, Baruch Hirson in the early 1960's; his own move to Paris in the 1970's; his father's death, and the end of a period of mourning for him.

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Page Count

208

Publisher

Jacana Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1770092560

ISBN 13

9781770092563

Worlds in One Country

A Brief Survey of South African Writing - Nineteenth Century to 1994

By: Denis Hirson

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Worlds in One Country

A Brief Survey of South African Writing - Nineteenth Century to 1994

By: Denis Hirson

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Page Count

156

Publisher

Jacana Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1431402478

ISBN 13

9781431402472

In the Heat of Shadows

South African Poetry 1996-2013

By: Denis Hirson

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In the Heat of Shadows

South African Poetry 1996-2013

By: Denis Hirson

South African poetry today is charged with restlessness, burstng with diversity. Gone is the intense inward focus required to deal with a situation of systematic oppression, the enclosing effort of concentration on a single predicament. While politics and identity continue to be central themes, the poetry since the late 1990s reveals a richer investigation of ancestors and history, alongside more experimentation with language and translation; and enduring concern with the touchstones of love, loss, memory, and acts of witnessing. In the Heat of Shadows: South African Poetry 1996-2013 presents work by 33 poets and includes some translations from Afrikaans, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sesotho and Xitsonga. This collection follows on from Denis Hirsons 1997 anthology The Lava of this Land: South African Poetry 1960-1996.

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Page Count

282

Publisher

African Books Collective

Published Date

ISBN 10

1928476198

ISBN 13

9781928476191

Book's by Hirson, Denis

My Thirty-Minute Bar Mitzvah

My Thirty-Minute Bar Mitzvah

My Thirty-Minute Bar Mitzvah

My Thirty-Minute Bar Mitzvah

In the Heat of Shadows

In the Heat of Shadows

Year of Fire, Year of Ash

Year of Fire, Year of Ash

Worlds in One Country

Worlds in One Country

We Walk Straight So You Better Get Out the Way

We Walk Straight So You Better Get Out the Way

I Remember King Kong (the Boxer)

I Remember King Kong (the Boxer)

White Scars

White Scars

Worlds in One Country

Worlds in One Country

In the Heat of Shadows

In the Heat of Shadows

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