Blood’s Inner Rhyme, Antije Krog

R360.00

In Blood’s Inner Rhyme, acclaimed poet Antjie Krog returns to the Free State to reflect on her bond with her mother, Dot Serfontein. Blending letters, diary entries, and care-home records, Krog explores love, creative influence, generational divides, and the complex histories of land, race, and heritage in South Africa. A deeply personal and beautifully written meditation on family and identity.

Blood's Inner Rhyme

I came to know the country, I have enacted my life not better or worse than others, the harvest was not richer or poorer than that of others, though full of good shoots. But I knew that I was coming to die here next to the river; I came to look for it like the elephants do.
Poet Antjie Krog returns to the landscape of her childhood. The Free State plains enchant her – it is her home, and the home of her mother, the writer Dot Serfontein. In her nineties, Dot is frail and needs full-time care, but her intellect and sense of humour are razor-sharp, and her writing is comparable to that of her daughter.
In  Blood’s Inner Rhyme, Antjie Krog breaks the boundaries between genres and writes about this relationship that continues to fascinate and torment her. Using letters, diary entries and care-home records, the book explores creative influence, ideological disagreements and the realities of ageing.
Krog exposes the insurmountable differences between generations but also shows the love and mutual admiration between two highly skilled writers. Beautifully and poignantly written, Blood’s Inner Rhyme delves into cultural heritage, the country›s Anglo-Boer War history, issues of land ownership and race, as well as romantic relationships across racial boundaries.
The story of the relationship between mother and daughter, this is Krog’s most personal book, as well as the most universal.

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