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The Nononsense Press has just republished Sylvester Stein’s third novel written in the early ’60s and called What the World Owes Me by Mary Bowes. It has been republished in the Nononsense Press’ exciting new format printed on A4 paper and staple-bound so it is easy to read in bed, in the bath and on a bus.
This is the second production by the Nononsense Press: in 2008 it republished (a jubilee edition) his satiric novel 2nd class Taxi, the one the then South African government banned for subversion, but which remains a classic of South African literature.
This production has now been launched to coincide with a new website outlining Sylvester Stein’s interesting life. There you can explore his early life, his time on Drum, his acting years and his anti-apartheid days as well as a bit of the Drum story.
What the World Owes Me by Mary Bowes is not so famous but, originally published by Faber and Faber, it came out to much critical acclaim.
Mary, poor girl, has lost her tongue completely after what happened in the ‘Off Beat’ and the ‘Portisano’; and before she finds it again we discover what happened to her, not only in the murkier by-ways of Soho, but also in the Blitz, when she was born, in North Wales, where she was an inmate of an infants’ home, and in South Africa where she really grew up.
Most people will feel that the world owes Mary Bowes more readings than one. Pick up your copy here today.
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