Samson

SAMSONThe Past Is Inherited. The Future Is Chosen.Fifteen-year-old Samson Ndlovu Zondi has buried his parents, lost almost everything his family owned, and inherited responsibility for three younger brothers.Then the rumours begin.People say the Zondi children have AIDS. Friends turn against them. Adults keep their distance. Even the church that once stood beside the family begins to treat the boys as something dangerous.Samson has no money, almost no food and no adult willing to carry the burden for him. Yet hunger is not the greatest threat facing the brothers.Around them lies a world in which fear can become fact, religion can become power, charity can become opportunity, and vulnerable children can become useful symbols in somebody else's campaign for money, influence or moral authority.Set in rural KwaZulu-Natal in 1996, Samson follows a young boy forced to become protector, provider and decision-maker long before he is ready. His world is shaped by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the wounds left by apartheid, Zulu family and cultural traditions, political violence, old accusations and grievances passed from one generation to the next.But Samson is not simply a novel about poverty or suffering.It asks a harder question.What happens when a child inherits the hatred of adults?Samson must decide whether the wrongs committed against his family will determine the man he becomes. Along the way he encounters loyalty where he expected betrayal, prejudice within himself as well as others, and people whose kindness forces him to reconsider what he believes he knows.This is a story about courage, but not the easy kind. It is about the courage to protect others, to question accepted truths, to admit when you are wrong, and to resist becoming what has hurt you.Written for young…