Perfect for readers of The Secret Life of Bees and The Help a perceptive and searing look at
Apartheid-era South Africa told through one unique family brought together by tragedy. Life
under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad a ten-year-old white girl living
with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart Beauty Mbali a
Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei struggles to raise her
children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race
and their meeting should never have occurred...until the Soweto Uprising in which a protest by
black students ignites racial conflict alters the fault lines on which their society is built
and shatters their worlds when Robin s parents are left dead and Beauty s daughter goes
missing. After Robin is sent to live with her loving but irresponsible aunt Beauty is hired to
care for Robin while continuing the search for her daughter. In Beauty Robin finds the
security and family that she craves and the two forge an inextricable bond through their deep
personal losses. But Robin knows that if Beauty finds her daughter Robin could lose her new
caretaker forever so she makes a desperate decision with devastating consequences. Her quest
to make amends and find redemption is a journey of self-discovery in which she learns the harsh
truths of the society that once promised her protection. Told through Beauty and Robin's
alternating perspectives the interwoven narratives create a rich and complex tapestry of the
emotions and tensions at the heart of Apartheid-era South Africa. Hum If You Don t Know the
Words is a beautifully rendered look at loss racism and the creation of family.
