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    White Dog Fell from the Sky
    White Dog Fell from the Sky
    White Dog Fell from the Sky
    Audiobook14 hours

    White Dog Fell from the Sky

    Written by Eleanor Morse

    Narrated by Carla Mercer-Meyer

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Botswana, 1976. Isaac Muthethe thinks he is dead. Smuggled across the border from South Africa in a hearse, he awakens covered in dust, staring at blue sky and the face of White Dog. Far from dead, he is, for the first time, in a country without apartheid. A medical student in South Africa, he was forced to flee after witnessing a friend murdered by white members of the South African Defense Force.Walking along the road into Gaborone, Botswana's capital, White Dog following close behind, a chance encounter with an old school acquaintance changes the course of Isaac's life. Amen, a member of the ANC, the South African resistance movement, invites Isaac to stay with his family. Petrified of deportation and determined to find work, he swears he will stay just for a few days. He sets out to find work and is hired by a young American woman, Alice Mendelssohn, who is living in Botswana with her husband, Lawrence.A year later, her marriage an empty shell, Alice sets off on a work-related trip to the vast bush that she loves-alternately austere and lush, with light that blinds-leaving her home in the care of her new gardener, Isaac. It is on this trip that she meets Ian, an expert on the !Kung San and a rebellious, untamable man twenty years her senior, with whom she imagines a very different future.Returning home, Alice finds Isaac missing and White Dog waiting loyally at the end of the drive, dehydrated and malnourished. When she goes in search of Isaac, what she finds out will change her life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 28, 2013
    ISBN9781452681979
    White Dog Fell from the Sky
    Author

    Eleanor Morse

    ELEANOR MORSE is the author of White Dog Fell from the Sky and An Unexpected Forest, which won the Independent Publisher’s Gold Medalist Award for Best Regional Fiction in the Northeast United States, and was selected as the Winner of the Best Published Fiction by the Maine writers and Publishers Alliance. Morse has taught in adult education programs, in prisons, and in university systems, both in Maine and in southern Africa. She lives on Peaks Island, Maine.

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    Reviews for White Dog Fell from the Sky

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      White Dog Fell From the Sky by Eleanor Morse is a powerful indictment of Apartheid and the white rulers who wrote the terrible and reprehensible narrative that was South African history for most of the 20th century. In 1976, when black medical student Isaac Muthethe witnesses the brutal murder of a friend at the hands of white South African police, he realizes that he has two choices: leave the country or die. Smuggled north and across the border into Botswana with nothing but the clothes on his back, Isaac is befriended by a white dog and encounters a former schoolmate, Amen, who invites Isaac to stay with him and his wife and child. Isaac wants only peace and a chance to save his family, whom he had to leave behind. But Amen, an active member of the militant wing of the African National Congress, is determined to bring down the South African government by any means possible. Isaac’s attempts to become self-sufficient lead to a position as a gardener working for an American named Alice, a job for which Isaac, with no qualifications, manages to talk his way into. Over several weeks, as he learns the trade by doing it, an unlikely but trusting friendship springs up between Alice and Isaac. This occurs at the same time that Alice’s marriage is fragmenting. The turning point in the novel comes when Alice, who is employed by the Land Use ministry of the Botswana government, is sent to a remote part of the country for several weeks on a fact-finding mission, leaving Isaac in charge of her home and belongings. It is during this period that South African police, trying to root out pockets of ANC militancy and tipped off to Amen’s activities, cross into Botswana. When Isaac is discovered in Amen’s house he is arrested and deported by the Botswana authorities. In South Africa, and in the total absence of due process, he is imprisoned and tortured. Alice’s search for Isaac and her efforts to have him released occupy the remainder of the book. In this, her third novel, Morse skillfully blends the personal with the political, dramatizing the many ways, overt and subtle, in which an inhumane system of racial segregation, ruthlessly enforced and which persisted for decades, affected individual lives. She handles her racially and politically charged material with elegance and endows her characters with humble dignity as they pursue their objectives, be it to find love or simply to survive. Admittedly, some of the symbolism is a bit heavy-handed, and there is nothing subtle about the novel’s morality. But these are minor caveats. White Dog Fell From the Sky remains a memorable and deeply moving depiction of a shameful period in human history, one that is painful to remember but must never be forgotten.
    • 5/5
      (Fiction, recent Historical, Literary)In mid-1970s apartheid S. Africa, medical student Isaac Muthethe has himself smuggled out of the country into Botswana. He is in danger in his home country because he witnessed the murder of a friend by white members of the South African Defense Force. He is hired as a gardener by a young American woman, Alice Mendelssohn, who has followed her husband to Africa. The white dog of the title is a stray that shows up just when Isaac is dropped off in Botswana, and that attaches itself to the young man.This book made me aware of the issue of cattle-farm fences across Africa, which cut off wildlife from their families and from water supplies. It also sharpened my understanding of the apartheid situation in South Africa, especially after Isaac is extradited and tortured.This is not Precious Ramotswe’s Botswana. This is a powerful and moving book that should have received more attention than it did. 4½ bright stars
    • 5/5
      What a beautiful book this was. It will easily be one of my favourite books of 2014 and will be one that I remember for a long time.Isaac Muthethe has led a lucky life for a black man in South Africa during the apartheid regime. In 1976 his luck starts to fail him. He is on his way home from first year medical school with a friend when, suddenly, two white policemen throw his friend under the arriving train. Isaac has gone to a few meetings with this friend but does not belong to the African National Congress (ANC). With this occurrence he realizes his life is in danger and he leaves South Africa for Botswana. To get out he was hidden under a coffin in a hearse. When the undertaker got into Botswana he dumped Isaac on the road and left him, not caring if he was alive or dead. Isaac regained consciousness to find a white dog sitting beside him. The dog continued to follow him as Isaac tried to find some shelter. Stumbling along a path he encounters a man that he attended school with and this acquaintance, who is active in the ANC, offers him a place to stay. As an illegal refugee Isaac is advised to look for a job as a gardener. Isaac knows nothing about gardening but he is smart and figures he will be able to fake it. He finds work with Alice Mendelssohn, an American who followed her husband to Botswana. Alice is a good woman who cares about the country and its people but is not sure that she is really helping in her government job. Her marriage is falling apart and she is unable to conceive children. These two, both searching for something to make their lives meaningful, are never a couple in the sexual sense of the word but they do form a partnership. Before that can happen, though, they both go through difficult times.The descriptions of the countryside and its flora and fauna were almost poetic. The juxtaposition of the paragraphs of beautiful description with explanations of abuse and racism worked well. And, of course, I loved the inclusion of the dog in the story.Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Joy's review: South African medical student escapes for his life to Botswana and is employed by an American as her gardener. Morse does some occasionally beautiful writing and the basic story had a lot of potential. For me, though, it had no 'stick-to-it-tiveness'. I could put the book down and not be thinking about it even 5 minutes later. The issues, characters and story just did not resonate. That said, most members or our book group enjoyed the read.
    • 1/5
      I DNFd the audiobook version. While the narrator's voices were excellent, her pacing was so slow that it made the story drag. If you're going to read this novel, I would suggest print.
    • 5/5
      Excellent book. The time line was a bit of a puzzle. For me reading about Africa is painful but this was a worthwhile and well written book.
    • 4/5
      Having spent time in both Botswana and South Africa, this book was of interest to me and I found it well-written and a good read. I found the back cover "blurb" a bit misleading -- it says it is a "moving story of tree people", but does not mention the third person (besides Alice and Isaac). I found Alice's relationship with her husband to be poorly developed and her relationship to Ian to be rather unbelievable and wish that more effort had been made to develop a story around Isaac. This would have added so much to the story. I would recommend it to others, with the caution that the book may not be what a reader is expecting if the back cover blurb is the story they are expecting... The writing was good and I will certainly look for other titles by this author...I would like to know whether and in what capacity she spent time in Botswana.
    • 4/5
      Issac, a young black man flees for his life from apartheid South Africa, after witnessing a friends' murder. He seeks shelter in Botswana. and takes a position as far from his previous educated one of a medical student and meets a white woman who works for the land development branch of the government. This books is extremely well written, alternately beautiful when describing the country and horrible, when describing more inhuman acts that man continually perpetuates on others. The dog of the story is one that adopted Isaac when he gets to Bostwana. Alice, the white woman is married at the beginning of the book and I really have no idea why he was introduced because he leaves and plays no other part. Alice herself is a somewhat stereotypical white do gooder who does put herself out for Isaac, but her affair with Ian I really did not like nor did I like his character very much. Isaac, who was the most interesting is not developed as much as I would have liked him to be. Yet, this book is very readable and I love learning about places and cultures I have not read very much about. I actually downloaded the E-book of Mandela, which I hope to read soon as he is man that I admire very much. When I saw this book, I thought it would provide more background on apartheid and what it did to the country and its people.
    • 5/5
      White Dog Fell from the Sky by Eleanor Morse is set in late 70s Botswana, not far (enough) from the border with apartheid South Africa, a changing country still struggling with social change. The main characters are a black South African refugee and an expat American woman working out where her future is following a marriage breakdown. It's a brilliantly well told story and very moving. Yes, it's another novel set in Africa by a white writer from a developed country, but apart from that, and Botswana itself, the only thing it has in common with the Mma Ramotswe series is a belief in the importance of humanitarian values and human rights. The book is published by Penguin Books on both sides of the Atlantic.Thanks to Penguin/Fig Tree for the ARC of this book, which I received free for review.
    • 5/5
      I cried. Several times.
      I read for "stories", but after getting to 'the end', knowing how everything turned out and closing the book, I realized there were more themes to think about than these 351.5 pages could seem to have held.
      Sneaky . . although they never got in the way of the storyline, now such a richness of profound topics left behind to dwell among my musings . . .
      This is a book I recommend and will look for Morse's other works.
    • 4/5
      Set in 1976, White Dog Fell From the Sky weaves together the stories of Isaac, a refugee fleeing from Apartheid in South Africa, and Alice, an American woman living in Botswana. Isaac's story was by far my favorite part of the book, and I would give his part of the story 5 stars. His thoughts are insightful and eloquent and he is very brave. With just the clothes on his back, he is forced to flee South Africa after witnessing a friend's murder. I did not find Alice's story nearly as engrossing. Her marriage falls apart and she begins a relationship with a man she meets on a business trip. Her relationship problems seem unimportant contrasted to Isaac's struggle. I found myself hurrying through the chapters about her to find out what would happen to Isaac. I would give her part of the book 3 stars, hence the four star average. Morse's writing was beautifully evocative, I will look forward to her next novel
    • 5/5
      Wow. This novel, set in Botswana and South Africa during apartheid, lives right in the fictional country I most admire - balancing on the crossroads of political turmoil and character's lives. Beautifully written and powerful. Thank you, Eleanor Morse.
    • 5/5
      He thought, if they were like his great grandfather, there would be laughter falling from the sky. These days, people live in the world as though they are precious vessels, separate, each holding something that must be guarded. But his grandfather taught him something different. We are doorways, openings into something greater than ourselves, something that we don’t understand and will never understand. We have nothing precious in and of ourselves. We are only precious in that we are part of something that is too big to know. - from White Dog Fell From the Sky, page 33 -Isaac Muthethe is living in South Africa in 1976, a black medical student whose life is upended by the murder of a friend by white members of the South African Defense Force. Forced to flee to Botswana, Isaac leaves everything behind: his bright future as a doctor, his mother, his young siblings, and the country he has called home since his birth. Smuggled across the border in a hearse, he wakes up disheveled and confused but not alone. A white dog sits at his side and stubbornly refuses to be run off. With White Dog at his heels, Isaac makes his way to Gaborone where he unexpectedly meets up with an old acquaintance named Amen, a man who has become embroiled in the South African resistance movement called the ANC. Isaac accepts the invitation to stay with Amen and his wife and young child, while he looks for work as a gardener. Eventually he is hired by Alice Mendelssohn, a white American whose marriage is coming apart at the seams. When Alice leaves Isaac to watch over her home while she goes on a work-related trip into the bush, she has no idea that tragedy is about to unfold. When Alice returns only a few short weeks later, she finds White Dog nearly dead at the end of the driveway and Isaac missing. Her search to uncover the mystery of Isaac’s disappearance will open her eyes to the cruelty of Apartheid in South Africa and the chance for a life she had never imagined.Eleanor Morse’s brilliant and heartbreaking novel explores the ways in which our lives become entangled with others in the face of tragedy and loss, and how that connection is able to lift us from despair to recovery and redemption. Isaac is a man whose sensitive and caring nature is challenged by the cruelty of Apartheid. Gifted and honest, he only wants to make the world a better place, especially for his younger siblings still caught up in the danger in South Africa.You hold the future for others, not only for yourself. – from White Dog Fell From the Sky, page 9 -Then there is Alice, a woman who finds herself in Africa, far from her home in the Midwest and questioning her future without her husband. Alice is flailing about, searching for something which will anchor her to the unforgiving land. On her trip into the bush she meets Ian, a man who feels at home in the desert and has a heart not only for the land and its native peoples, but for the art created by the !Kung San.Ancient Bushmen pounded hematite for red paint, bound it with blood serum, shaped quills, feathers, or bones for brushes, and found the stillness in themselves to capture life as they’d felt it. You could see it in the paintings: they’d watched, they’d listened, they’d understood their own place in the universe, no greater and no lesser than the animals they painted. You could feel in these paintings how time whirled through them, how the infinite opened up before them when they knocked at its door, spilling out its terrible glories. - from White Dog Fell From the Sky, page 160 -White Dog Fell From the Sky is a novel of tremendous scope and depth, giving the reader an unflinching look into a region of astounding beauty and cruelty, a look at political and military brutality against the backdrop of a vivid culture which depends on the environment, ecology and the unrelenting flow of wildlife for survival.This novel is riveting, tensely written, and gorgeously penned. I found myself wanting both Alice and Isaac to find their paths into a brighter future. I longed to see them realize their dreams. All of the characters are well-drawn and flawed, complex and very human in their motivations, desires and fears. White Dog is a surprisingly compelling character, symbolic of love and loyalty and trust in a novel which challenges all of those things.White Dog would not leave his side. She knew his grief, this dog who was more than a dog, this dog who had fallen from the sky. – from White Dog Fell From the Sky, page 90 -Morse explores the idea of faith and the very human response to reject a greater good when evil exerts its forces. Isaac, of all the characters, finds his faith shaken to the core.He looked at the stars and planets and felt them ripped from their sockets by a wind hurled from the heavens. To whom would he pray? In that huge, quiet, senseless darkness, he understood that he could no longer believe in a god who let such things happen. All his life, he’d been taught to pray, but now there was no one there. - from White Dog Fell From the Sky, page 140 -Morse’s prose is breathtaking and wrenching. I literally found myself holding my breath at times as I turned a page, eager to see what was coming next, and yet terrified to find out. White Dog Fell From the Sky is literary and historical fiction at its best – essential, affecting and electrifying. This is literature whose story feels important and which speaks to what makes us all human no matter where we live or who we are. In the end, it is a novel which is unforgettable.I found myself emotional and tearful when I turned the final page of Morse’s book. Readers who are interested in Africa, specifically the regions of South Africa and Botswana, will find this to be a must read novel.Very highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      White Dog Fell from the Sky is a novel that is set in Botswana and South Africa during the Apartheid years. In it, Eleanor Morse brings Africa alive, with all of its dust, wildlife, and political cruelty. She focuses on the parallel stories of two main characters. Isaac is a twenty-seven year old poor, black, medical student from South Africa who is forced to flee his home, his mother, and siblings that he loves, to fend for himself in neighboring Botswana. Alice is a dissatisfied white American living in Botswana in the ex-pat community with her unfaithful husband. Their paths cross when Alice hires Isaac to work as her gardener. There are political undertones in both stories: Isaac lives with a family of South Africans who belong to the ANC and stage violent attacks against the South African regime, and Alice falls in love with a British researcher who tries to save the wildlife of Botswana from the policies of the white ranchers, who put up fences that keep the animals from their watering grounds. White Dog is another character in the book. She is a mutt who appears from nowhere (falls from the sky) and faithfully follows Isaac everywhere. Although most of the things that fall from the sky in Africa seem to bring only pain, White Dog is good, and is a symbol of hope for all involved. I couldn't put this novel down!