I almost didn’t start this novel.  I read the synopsis and was of the belief it was a dual time-line historical novel.  However, when I started reading, I realised that it was based on a true story of the death of a young man at a Military Training Camp in South Africa.  

I am the mother of a teenager who did not fit in at school.  The understanding that this could be my son’s story made it difficult to read.  But I am glad I did.  

Like the story it’s a tough powerful novel and I struggled to keep going with it at times, but I am glad I did.
Thank you to the Publisher and the Netgalley for an advance ARC in return for an honest review.  I am just sorry that it took me so long to get around to reading.

I started this book with an open mind and wow it was so much better than I had expected! 

This is one of those beautiful books that you never want to end, but at the same time just can't stop reading. It covered two different timelines that linked and came together at the end for a magical ending. I did not know much about this time in South African history so it was a real learning for me. 

Highly recommended.

Having read and enjoyed Maggie and Me (and seen Damian Barr at Huddersfield Literature Festival) I was keen to read his first novel. It did not disappoint. A rich world, evoked by wonderful language, this is a book that stays with you.

Very powerful. I wasn't sure it would be for me when I read it...some time ago now, but it drew me in and I became hooked. A very difficult read at times but a novel that should be read.

A devastating indictment of the military style training camps for young men in South Africa, a legacy of the Boer conflict. Also a powerful depiction of the "scorched earth' policies devised by the British which led to thousands of Boer people being forced out of their homes into concentration camps. Two stories, a hundred years apart, are tragically based on truth. A riveting and moving read.

Such a powerful read. I thought at first that it wasn't going to be for me, but was quickly drawn in. The author takes us from 1901 and the Boer war internment camps in South Africa, to the present day and teenage survival style brutal camps. I'm not sure which was worse. I was with Sarah and her family in 1901 and felt her pain. I did wonder what the connection between the two parallel stories was going to be, and when I discovered the truth it did make me gasp. A powerful and gripping piece of writing. And a moment to pause and think about the world we live in. #netgalley #youwillbesafehere

Title – You Will Be Safe Here

Author – Damian Barr

Genre – Historical Fiction

It’s been quite a while since I have posted something and I’m really glad that you guys stuck around being this supportive. One of the books that I had read last month was You Will be Safe Here and apparently it was quite apt since June was relatively a huge month when we witnessed Pride Month as well as Black Lives Matter in lieu of the murder of George Floyd.

The book is set in two different timelines within a century and shows how the lives were interconnected with one another. Inspired by real events, the first time line is during the second Boer War where Sarah and her son were forced from her home and had been kept in the concentration camp. The second story is of Willem who was sent to this so called ‘conversion’ camp which proudly stated that they make men out of boys. The entire book revolves around the struggles during the two events and how the book sends out a powerful message by the time you finish the same.

I was pretty much looking forward to get this book for a long time and I was really glad when I was approved for a ecopy by Net Galley during my quarantine days. The entire set of characters makes a huge impression on the readers at times shocking you out of your wits. After I finished the book, I did try to make an effort on reading about the second Boer War and we could see how the powerful have tried to swing the same in their favor.

I would recommend everyone to pick up this book since this is one book that I would not ask you to miss. It’s engrossing, it’s sentimental and it does deliver on the promise of being a book that would make you think about the struggles of the underprivileged. A must read for everyone out there.

My Ratings – 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 (4.5 out of 5 stars)

A stunning, shocking debut novel that explores the long hidden history of Great Britain in South Africa. This is one book that will stay with you forever.

A couple of years ago, reading about the Boer Wars, I found out that the British used some of the first concentration camps during this time, locking up the families of Boer fighters and their domestic workers so they didn't help them. But the British hadn't thought how they would keep all these alive when no one was working the land and all of the food they had was intended for their own troops, so the Afrikaner slowly and painfully died of hunger.

When I heard there was a book that talked about this, and also about a conversion camp, mixing two timelines, I was instantly captivated. So when I saw it pop up in NetGalley, I didn't hesitate and I requested it. Unfortunately, when I tried to read it, I was unable to: the formatting is just bad. I know some publishers send perfectly well formatted ARCs and others not, but until now, even those that weren't great were annoying but readable. This (and another book by a different publisher) were not the case. The words are jumbled up, there's random line breaks, there are strange numbers splitting paragraphs, etc.

It is incredibly disappointing, but I'm afraid I will have to wait until it comes out and see if my library wants to buy it so I can read it.

This book was very powerful and I really appreciated being able to read about an aspect of history that I didn't know much about. I had read that Britain had rounded up and imprisoned Boer families during the  brutal Boer war but had no idea the camps were so awful. I found the diaries of The Boer farmer wife very moving, they had so little to start with and even less in the camps. The second story which eventaully connects with the earlier story is set around the time of Mandela becoming president of South Africa and the next few decades as Afrikaaners try to make sense of the new order. A prospective right wing stepfather sends the "moffie" son of his fiancee to a training camp which turns out to have many parallels with the British camps in the Boer war. I wasn't always sure that the two stories fitted together that well, despite some links becoming apparaent as the narrative came to a conclusion, but the writing flowed and I wanted to keep reading on to find what the outcome would be for the two protagonists. Good read.

I became confused at the beginning of this book  by not noticing the change of date from prologue to main text. Given that, I really enjoyed the story telling through the decades. It is a complex story through 100 years. Not always an easy read but well written. Stick with it - all the dots are joined together in the end.

This is a moving and powerful novel and as a debut novel, is an impressive read. Set a hundred years or so apart, you see two situations where vulnerable people are kept in camps. In 1901, you are taken to Bloemfontein Concentration Camp, where Sarah is being kept. Fast forward to 2010 and Willem is enduring a stay in the New Dawn Safari Camp. It is as much of a prison as Sarah's camp. Mo matter what is said otherwise, neither of them are safe there.
I found Sarah's camp diary to be a very effective way of conveying her thoughts and observations. It is an intimate method of recording thoughts and a great contrast to the third person account of later parts, which seem more impersonal and underline the isolation which Willem must feel as he is expected to conform. The premise behind the Training camp, that boys can be 'toughened up' and made to conform is a shocking idea.

The historical detail of what happened in South Africa during the Boer War is a shocking and hard hitting element. This is a sad and moving read which informs and shows you how ideology can be a cruel and dehumanizing master when allowed to fester.

Thanks to the author for a copy of the book.

A thought-provoking and disturbing novel which features fictional characters set in two different eras in South Africa. Brilliantly written and researched, I found myself wanting to dig into the historical issues mentioned when I finished the book. A beautifully written book which highlights the brutality and inhumanity that still exists in parts of the world.

Damian Barr's novel , set in South Africa, spans the period 1910 to 2010 The story involves Wilhelm and his distant ancestor, Sarah van der Watt. Sarah's story is all about her brutal eviction from the family farm by the British, at the height of the Boer War. She and her son were taken to a prison-of-war camp where they were exposed to dreadful accommodation, terrible disease and heartless cruelty.
Some 100 years later it is 16 year old Wilhem, whose only crime was failing to live up to the expectations of his stepfather, who is sent off to a equally dreadfulcamp - this chosen for its reputation as somewhere that makes men out of boys!  What it does, in realit,y is expose Wilhem to endless sadistic cruelty and bullying.  History repeating itself.
Barr pulls no punches and some of the descriptive passages are positively visceral. But the strong storyline is extraordinarily gripping albeit a sad reflection on the morality of those in power . Victims of their own unshakeable convictions that their actions are improving lives rather than destroying them. Powerful writing.

You Will Be Safe Here is a debut novel by Damian Barr, who I was already a big fan of on Twitter and his brilliant Big Scottish Book Club on TV, so my hopes were high when I started reading this book. And they were far exceeded!

Set in South Africa and covering pivotal points of that complex nation's history, You Will Be Safe Here begins in 2010 with Willem, a teenage boy, being taken by his family to a military style training camp. The reader is then dropped into the epistolary style 1901 diary of Sarah van der Watt, addressed to her husband who is fighting the British at the height of the second Boer War. Sarah and her six year old son Frederick are taken from their farm by force - with a mix of cruelty and manners that feels peculiarly and disturbingly British - to a concentration camp at Bloemfontein.

The narrative doesn't then flit between Sarah and Willem, as I thought it might. Instead it uses their powerful stories, and those of Willem's gran and mother (Willem was born in 1994, on the day Nelson Mandela was elected as South Africa's first black President), to stitch together an overarching story of South Africa that I doubt has been told like this, in its entirety, anywhere else. This story's themes of oppression, resistance, prejudice, fear and survival may feel familiar but perhaps in separate historical contexts. You Will Be Safe Here gives them a faintly depressing cyclical treatment - but there is, as we know, hope. Barriers are gradually broken down, though by acceptance, diversity and change; not by war and hate.

Aside from the compelling storytelling (I really couldn't put this book down during the long Boer War section), Damian Barr writes like an angel, albeit one who isn't shy of depicting violence (yet never gratuitously). I loved and re-read individual sentences of wonderful imagery and I found the dialogue immersive. I applaud Damian Barr for tackling such an epic, yet little known, history and complex topic with his first novel and can't wait to read more from this incredibly skilful, deft and compassionate writer.

It’s October 2010 and Willem Brandt is being dropped off at New Dawn Training Camp with a backpack full of expensive items to help him survive his time there. From khaki trousers and boots, to mess tins and a hunting knife, the list was comprehensive, suggesting to the recipient that this would be quite an adventure. This camp is quite something. They boast about making boys into men and giving them the skills to survive which many parents feel valuable now that there is no conscription for National Service. This is a training camp that takes away modern comforts, a place where no phones are allowed and speaking Afrikaans is a must. The English language is completely prohibited.

This training camp didn’t come cheap of course but it seems Willem’s soon-to-be stepfather, Jan, is determined to impress Irma, Willem’s mother, even if it does cost him a small fortune. After all, he is sending away the one thing that Irma idolizes which means he will get her all to himself.

Before this story truly gets underway though we are then introduced to Mrs. Sarah van der Watt of Mulberry Farm in Ventersburg. The year is 1901 and she is concerned that her farm will be taken from her by the English unless Samuel can return victorious but from where we are unsure.

“I ‘ve never met an English man, except in novels. There’s strangely little to do now but wait.

I’ m getting so carried away I nearly forgot dinner – we eat like Kings now! The more we eat, the less we leave for the Khakis.”

I can only assume by this statement that she is talking about the British Army who wears khaki and because of the date, 1901, that this part of the story is set during the Second Boer War.

The British finally arrive on her farm to either take whatever they want or destroy what is left. Leaving not a trace of the farm behind, Mrs. Sarah van der Watt and her son Frederick are transported from their home to Bloemfontein concentration camp, although at the time of their arrival it was designated as a refugee camp to all those it was about to house.

“Our camp – there are others – had 250 tents. The official limit is supposedly fifteen per tent. So, there are at least 3,000 of us. A week ago, we were all farmers. Now there are no farms. We are ‘refugees’.”

Refugees guarded by soldiers who carry guns and where fences are covered in wire with lookout towers strategically placed to keep an eye on the goings-on below. It sounds distinctively more like a prison with so many rules that must never be broken. Welcome to the Prison Camps of the Boer Wars, something the British should be extremely embarrassed about.

We then flash forward again, this time to Johannesburg during 1976.

Rayna is part of the privileged white community in Johannesburg and through her eye’s we begin to realise what living in this country would be like for both English immigrates and natives trying to live side by side, although there is a clear divide where the white community feels completely superior.

Pregnant after being raped with her first child, she marries young and then losses her parents in a fatal car crash. Her husband then uses the excuse to run off to the mines leaving her to fend for herself and her young son. After several months of feeling sorry for herself, she finally realises that she needs to become the sole breadwinner and secures a job at Africa’s largest train station.

It is during her time here that she meets Johannes, and soon a friendship followed by an affair follows. To begin with, everything is fantastic. They meet each week at the same hotel, forgetting about their other commitments to enjoy each other’s company. It is only once Rayna reveals she is pregnant that things start to deteriorate. So now Rayna is on her own once again but with not one but two children, Piet and Irma, to look after.

Finally, in 1993, we are reintroduced to a younger Irma. This time she is just 16 and pregnant with Willem.  It is through her story that we are forced to face the reality of life just as the South African Apartheid was drawing to a close.

It is a country that clearly has hopes of a better future but is that how things actually turn out? Do the characters in this novel really end up better off, and how do the lives of Samuel and Sarah van der Watt link to those of Rayna, Irma, and Willem?

My Thoughts on You Will Be Safe Here

Reading this beautifully crafted prose by Damian has only highlighted by naivety to what has both happened and to some extend is still happening across the world. I feel ashamed that, until reading this, I was not actually aware that the British created these forced ‘refugee’ prison camps during the Boer Wars. This is part of my history, just like the actions of the British during the World Wars, but we are not taught about these times during our school years – perhaps because they can hardly be called our glory years.

It is also eye-opening to discover exactly how people were, and potentially still are, treated because of their race. I could never imagine having a discussion with people, highlighting that things have progressed slightly because the queues in the supermarkets are now mixed-race whereas before they would have been forced to form separate lines. These are discussions happening during my lifetime, not some distance time previously, which just makes me ashamed of the human population in general.

To think that in South Africa mixed-race marriages were prohibited until the mid-1980’s that the first couple were able to legally marry is just mind-boggling and something I am still reflecting on after reading Damian’s book.

One of the main reasons for this story comes though from the extensive research Damian has done following the murder of Raymond Buys. A young lad sent to a training camp, similar to the one Willem was forced to attend, designed to make boys into men. A camp created to beat the ‘gay’ out of people, the stupidity out of those with learning difficulties and kill off all the natural adolescent teenage boy angst turning boys from petulant children into young adults that would be seen as respectable. In truth, it sounds like nothing more than a modern-day concentration camp.

It’s not very often I feel such strong emotions when reading a book as I did with this one.  Parts of this story are written with such raw emotion, I felt it in every torturous paragraph. I wanted to scream out for the pain and suffering that was being inflicted upon others; at times even putting the book down for fear of getting far too emotionally involved.

To say my eyes have been opened is an understatement. You Will Be Safe Here is so much more than a novel spreading across several decades, it is an education that will stay with me long after finishing that final chapter.

What a powerful read. I’ve been thinking of what I should say and no matter what it won’t do it justice. You really need to read for yourself. It’s not what I was expecting, to read about two different times. Very sad but an honest account of the lives these people lead. Very well written and easy to read. Flowed well and once you started you didn’t want to put it down. Excitement to see where the book is taking you and what comes next

I know very little about South African history, and this book opened my eyes to a lot of issues.  There are two, possibly three, distinct strands to the story - the first in 1901 in the Boer War when Sarah van der Watt and her son Fred are forcibly removed from their farm by the English to a camp in Bloemfontein; then there is a back story of Rayna and her daughter Irma; and finally Irma's son Willem, a sensitive child trying to find his place in the world, who is sent to a special camp to 'make him a man'.

Throughout the book is a tale of people abusing and manipulating others who do not match their criteria - by colour, strength, sexual orientation or just by being 'different'.   The description of Sarah's Boer camp is heartbreaking, and while the aim was not extermination, for many, especially the children, that was just the result through disease and neglect.  Forward in time to Willem's life in camp, and things are not really much different, with the strong preying on the weak.

A fascinating, disturbing, uncomfortable and very sad book, in part based on real events, which makes us wonder how far we have really progressed.  Well written, you can see and smell the settings for the events, and you certainly identify and empathise with the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing PLC for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In 1901, during the Second Boer War, Sarah van der Watt and her son are forced from their farm by British soldiers and taken to a concentration camp. Sarah keeps a secret diary detailing life in the camps, whilst she tries to keep her son safe and hopes for the return of her husband.

Over a hundred years later, outsider Willem loves reading books and his pug, Britney. He doesn't have any friends and is being bullied at school. His mum and her boyfriend decide to send him to the New Dawn Safari Camp where he will 'learn' how to be a man.

This book is absolutely heartbreaking but it is one of the best books I have ever read, I was completely gripped. It covers over one hundred years of South African history and the way the different storylines are connected is so intricate and clever. Beautifully written, You Will Be Safe Here shows the powerful link between the past and the present, and why we must learn from our history but never take our rights for granted. This isn't always an easy read but a very important one nonetheless.

You Will Be Safe Here: symbolic, raw and unforgettable

So I’ve been a bit of a fan of the writer Damian Barr for a while – from his social media and also from The Big Scottish Book Club, a TV programme in which he interviews the biggest names in books from across Scotland, the UK and beyond. But I hadn’t read any of his actual books until now. Hence I jumped at the chance when I was offered the opportunity to read and review Damian’s debut novel You Will Be Safe Here to publicise it’s recent paperback publication.

Now, as well as being a fan of Damian Barr, I also have a deep respect for him as a writer. You Will Be Safe Here is courageous and powerful – not just because it is such a bold story in its own right, but also because Barr’s prose is so stark and uncomfortable. Furthermore, the skilful structure of the novel enhances its power, subtly interweaving the second Boer War with post-apartheid South Africa.

You Will Be Safe Here is the story of Sarah van der Watt and her young son Fred who are transported to Bloemfontein Concentration Camp in 1901 following British soldiers burning their family farm to the ground. This is during the second Boer War (1899-1902), and as Barr points out in his historical note at the end of this novel the Boer Wars are ‘now almost fondly remembered as a great Victorian adventure.’ In this brutal, poignant novel, Sarah and her son portray the thousands of Boer women and children who were sent to camps for their ‘own safety and at great expense‘ to the British. What they experience is definitely not what I would consider a great adventure. 

It is also the story of Willem, who was born during the 1994 general election that elected Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa. The symbolism surrounding the date of Willem’s birth is so powerful. As Willem grows up he is often regarded as an outsider and called derogatory names. With his mother wanting to solve his ‘difference’ in society, at the age of 16 he sent to the New Dawn Safari Camp where he’s told ‘it’ll sort you out‘ as the camp ‘make men out of boys.’

For me You Will Be Safe Here is a truly unforgettable novel. I’m not going to shy away from it, I found it deeply uncomfortable too. Especially as I learnt of the cold brutality of the British military during the Boer War and the legacy of that brutality that has shaped South Africa since. This still haunts the country today. It has been days since I finished this novel and I still can’t stop thinking about it. But that’s the true power of this book – it is seeped in emotional intelligence, thought provoking and haunting. 

This is a novel that educated me, it also made me cry, frightened me but it definitely warmed my heart too. This is a book that needs to be read. 

For me to be given the opportunity to review You Will Be Safe Here to help publicise it is a true privilege. 
You Will Be Safe Here was released in paperback on 2nd April so it is available for you now to purchase and read. 

Thank you to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to this blog tour. To follow the tour please see below.
https://noveldelights.com/2020/04/14/you-will-be-safe-here-symbolic-raw-and-unforgettable/