A powerful tale of British oppression in South Africa and its results, still resonating today

This is a book you will remember long after the last page is turned. There are two story-lines. Notably, the main protagonists are all white. In the first part (utterly compelling and beautifully written), farmer's wife Sarah van der Watt writes a diary for her soldier husband, off to fight the British in the Boer War. Sarah and her son, Fred, see their farm razed to the ground by the British before being evicted and transported to the 'safe place' of the title. In reality, this is an internment camp as brutal as the later Nazi concentration camps. Although the Boers felt oppressed by the British, they themselves had, of course, subjugated the Kaffirs (black people) for generations. 

The second part starts in Johannesburg in 1976, at the height of apartheid. Rayna Brant, struggles to bring up her daughter Irma and son Piet, while her husband works up north in the mines. This leads on to her daughter's story and that of her son, Willem, in the 1990s through to the 21st century. Apart from the brief prologue, when we see Irma and her fiance Jan sending Willem off to boot camp, the two narratives do not interlock until quite late in the book. Compared to the first story-line, part two took a while to settle into. The characters, though well-drawn, are unlikeable and unsympathetic at first. Willem is the exception. You feel for him. He can't fit in at school or at home. Though his mother and grandmother love him, they fail him. Do persevere though; it's worth it to see the strong link between the two narratives. 

Part three, set in the boot camp, is heart-rending. The final few chapters show how times have changed for post-apartheid whites, many now living in poor townships, as the blacks had just a generation before. The end pulls all the threads together in a satisfying but disturbing way.

I would have rated this five stars but for the slow start in part two. Also, it would have been good to have had more than a glimpse of the black servants' thoughts as they lived through scenes with their masters. This only really happened right at the beginning. 

A compelling read for anyone interested in British or South African history.

It is 1901 and the height of the Boer War, when Sarah and her small son are taken to a concentration camp and held by the English where they are told they will be safe.
In Johannesburg 2010 Willem is a typical teenager who just wants to be left alone with his books and his dog. However, his mother is determined to make a man of him and sends him to training camp.
This book is inspired with real events and is both chilling and touching. I found it difficult to read in places and left me wondering about man's ability to be so cruel at times.

A novel which straddles the period from 1901 and the Boer War to the near-present. Much of it relates to the experience of a woman taken, with her son, by the British to a concentration camp where blacks help to guard the Boers. I knew about the creation of concentration camps by the British, and the suffering they caused with the accompanying scorched earth policy, so this did not have the shocking impact it probably would have on someone unfamiliar with this dark episode in British history.

I am afraid I never really got engaged in the novel, and found the links between the different time periods a little forced.

I enjoyed reading the diary and I think it is good to address this rather conveniently forgotten part of our history.  I wasn't sure about the contemporary story and I spent a long time wondering how they'd connect.  It was good to find out what happened to Sarah and Fred (although) and very ironic that her husband ended up signing after all that.  And then, 100 years later, you have her descendant treating boys in the same cruel way.

Regrettably this book was not for me. I just could not get into it. 
Thank you to both NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for my eARC in exchange for honest unbiased review

This is a disturbing, hard-hitting story set in South Africa that follows a family turned out of their farm by the British during the boer war and also a modern story of a boy being sent to a camp to make a man of him. Both stories are full of casual rascism, cruelty, inhumanity. It’s a sobering read but fascinating and well written and it stayed with me for a long time afterwards.

British writer and journalist Damian Barr’s first novel takes in over a hundred years of South African history beginning with the Boer War where a “scorched earth” policy led to those unwilling to sign a pledge of allegiance to the British Crown being evicted from their homes and into internment camps.  For the first section of the novel we follow Mrs Van Der Witt and her young son Fred through diary entries written in the camp intended for her husband fighting the English in 1901.
 A prologue introduces us to a modern camp which is picked up on again in the second narrative thread when teenager Willem’s parents send him to a conversion camp to make a man out of him.  The two narratives are linked through location and a school history lesson visit to the turn of the century site.
This is a powerful and chilling read and is, on consideration, the best book I have read so far this year ahead of critically acclaimed titles from big-hitters such as Kate Atkinson, Belinda Bauer and Liam McIlvanney.  The history of South Africa is complex but by touching on two time zones Barr manages to get an epic sweep and involves the reader through strong characterisation and an unpredictable and occasionally brutal plot.
 The aspect which stops me giving it five stars, thus keeping it as a book I would certainly like to hang onto to read again rather than a book I couldn’t bear to part with is its narrative structure which makes some significant moments seem a little unresolved and despite some connections makes the early narrative a little distant from the contemporary one.  I think running the two strands a little more side by side could have been more powerful, but probably as many readers would be frustrated by this structure.  Here, I felt the moving forwards through time at critical moments seemed a little jarring as these moments are left to dangle and not always be picked up immediately, which felt a little like producing cliff hangers for cliff hangers sake.  This can be done very successfully as in John Boyne’s “The Heart’s Invisible Furies” but here at times I found it slightly grating.
 Minor quibbles, however, for a very strong debut novel written with what I can best describe as a calm powerfulness which will stay with the reader for a considerable time.

An enlightening, moving and thought-provoking read about an area of history with which I was previously unfamiliar. It took me a little time to settle into the story and narrative style, but it was worth the time.

Haunting and thought provoking, You Will Be Safe Here connects the Boer War with 20th and 21st century South Africa with stories that bind together abuses of the past and present. Damian Barr skilfully elicits the reader's compassion for even unlikeable characters within the context of a troubled and deeply troubling history.

I thought I wouldn’t like this, I don’t know much about South African history and it was a little slow at first but I slowly got drawn in and really got engrossed in the story.
I kept wondering whilst reading as to how these stories link up. I thought I had missed something. They do link up. 
It was a harsh, interesting read and I would highly recommend.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get into this habit only read five percent I thought it would pick up but no. I was really looking forward to reading a book set in South Africa

I was very keen to read this book as I absolutely loved Maggie and Me, which was Damian Barr's first book and was based on his coming of age in Thatcher's Britain. You Will be safe here has been four years in the making, and I can now appreciate the research that it must have taken to write it. 
I can start by saying this was nothing like Maggie and Me and was a real departure for the author. Set over two time periods and in South Africa You Will Be Safe Here is very different. My Dad always told me that the British invented concentration camps, but I knew very little about the Boer War (or even that there were two of them) and about how the white farmers and their black staff were treated by the British at this time. The historic story of a family forced to live in a camp after their farm was burned down sets the scene for the more modern story of a child born on the day that Nelson Mandela was elected president. It provides an understanding of some of the complex difficulties in South Africa post-Apartheid.
I really enjoyed the book.  It is not an easy read, and I was stressed and sad for much of it. I think the author has been brave to write about the issues in the book and I learned a lot. The characters are complex and not always likeable. For example Raina was a very hard woman to like, but I found myself having compassion for her despite her views and prejudices. The voice of the teenage Willem was particularly strong and I found myself desperate to know what would happen to him. I still have unanswered questions that will stay with me for quite a while - always the sign of a good book.
I recommend this book and think it would be a great book club choice. I wish i had someone to discuss it with right now! 
Thank you to Damian Barr, #NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the opportunity to read and review #YouWillBeSafeHere

Gripping, brutal fact based historical tale about families in South Africa ranging from 19th Century to the present day. One of those stories that make you wonder "why haven't we learned yet" and makes you feel ashamed to be human. A truly eye opening experience.

At times this book was hard to read, especially sine it was so well researched and based on historical facts. The two stories were completely separate, but became entwined in the end. It was hard to realise that the author was not, in fact South African. He seemed to have a love for the country but at the same time seeing it's many flaws. The characters were fiction but the stories, both the young lad sent away to be toughened up and the mother and son's mistreatment in a 'containment camp', seemed very real.  An intense story I would recommend.

This ambitious book opens with a boy called Willem about to enter a correctional camp for teenagers run by an AWB supporter in South Africa. The narrative then jumps back in time to the second Boer War where we meet Sarah and her young son Fred who are interned by the British at Bloemfontein Concentration Camp. We only get to meet Willem again much later in the book, leaving us to try to figure out what connects these two parts of the narrative – a twist that is revealed towards the end.

Many of the present-day characters in particular are dislikable due to the casual racism that spills out of their mouths. Having a black maid is commonplace and the women are often referred to as ‘girls' and worse. In many ways, black people are relegated to the fringes of this book - from Sarah’s servants, to the black guards at the camp, to the helpers in the present-day narrative. By doing this, Barr is surely reflecting a South African society of the past yet he manages to explore the mechanics of racism too. How did forcing black people to work as guards for the British in the concentration camps during the Boer War help to entrench apartheid, for example? This is an area of history I had no idea about, so I ended up learning much from Barr’s magnificent book. Everything about it feels authentic, so I began to imagine that Barr himself must be South African, but no, it is all down to meticulous research. It seems as if Barr chose one of the most difficult subjects imaginable for this, his debut novel. Reader; he pulls it off with aplomb. You Will Be Safe Here is a testament to empathy, understanding and talent – a tour de force.

Skilful blending of past atrocities and near present-day conflicts in a South Africa where the end of Apartheid has not eradicated the cruelty inherent in the system.  

Willem is sent to a training camp to be 'made a man' but the charismatic and bullying leader is out of control.

Haunting and compelling.

I had high hopes when I read the description of this book, but I'm afraid I was disappointed. The book is in 2 parts: one is the diary of a woman who was taken from her home with her young son and placed in a refugee camp during the Boer war. I found this quite interesting, as I know very little about this part of history. However, I felt that this part of the story was left hanging. The other part tells the story of 16 year old Willem, whose parents send him to a camp which promises to make a man out of him. This is set in recent times. Although the subject matter is not very cheerful, I found it difficult to warm to the characters and become invested in their story. Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

I was shocked when I finished this and discovered the author wasn’t South African; it was written with the disappointment and tenderness usually felt by a parent for a recalcitrant child or a native of a flawed nation. 
I lived in SA as a UK expat from 1974-79 so was present (though a pre-teen) during some of the years covered here and it felt very vivid to me. It’s a compliment to Damian Barr that this was such an accurate depiction of a beautiful land at war with itself.  Well - and at war with Britain! 
The chapters about the concentration camps was heart-wrenching. I kept finding myself torn between sharing the misery of Mrs van der Wat and a twinge of karmic vengeance for what her people did to the indigenous folk.  Then remembering she wouldn’t know any better. Then remembering that she should have. An emotional roller coaster for sure, and that’s before we jump to the 70s and then the 90s and beyond to see a people flailing wildly in the death of their identity as the master race. 
The novel was inspired by a poignant true story and I hope this becomes a much wider known tale as when I googled it, I could barely find out what happened. 
In short, I strongly recommend this powerful debut.

A very moving and sad debut novel about a time in history I knew little about but written in such a beautiful way making it a book though dealing with difficult subjects also an enjoyable read. My main struggle was with the formatting of the book on my kindle and this made it at times hard to follow however it was worth all that as the writing was just so wonderful. Highly emotional and something very different I can well recommend this book.
My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

An interesting and important story that dramatises parts of South Africa's troubled history through multiple generations of a Boer/Afrikaaner family. The first part is the strongest for me as a wife whose husband is fighting the British in the Second Boer War is placed in a British concentration camp with her young son. 

Anyone who doesn't know about this particularly dark episode in Britain's brutal colonialist regime may well be shocked as well as enlightened. It's especially interesting to track our own emotional response as we're horrified by Sarah's plight - and yet simultaneously remember that the Afrikaaner Boers are themselves descended from Dutch colonialists who have killed, displaced and enslaved black native Africans. The Boer Wars were, ultimately, about who owned the gold and diamond mines of South Africa (barely mentioned in this book) and the capitalist struggle between white empires. 

The second section is a stolid connector that links Sarah's story to later generations - it feels flat and 'told' after the intimacy of Sarah's camp diary - and there are some cheesy moments that link the family stories in too obvious and convenient a way. 

Part three takes place in a post-Mandela, post-apartheid South Africa as key Boer Afrikaaners refuse to accept modernity and seek to reimpose a regime of white supremacy which gets tangled up with a form of toxic masculinity. 

There are times where the politics of this book feel opaque. The writing can also be uneven: the immediacy of Sarah's diary is vivid and involving, the switch to third person in sections 2 and 3 less so. There's also something a bit too simplistic about the straight-line connections being made across history: (white) Afrikaaners were ill-treated by the (white) British and that led to them implementing and justifying apartheid? Hmm, the relationships between white colonialists and black Africans is more complicated than that...

All the same, this book takes a look at a part of history that is rarely fictionalized, and is worth reading for the camp diary alone: 3.5 stars.