{"product_id":"the-blackridge-house-a-julia-martin-9781868429646","title":"THE BLACKRIDGE HOUSE - A Memoir","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA quest is never what you expect it to be.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eElizabeth Madeline Martin spends her days in a retirement home in Cape Town, watching the pigeons and squirrels on the branches of a tree outside her window. Bedridden, her memory fading, she can recall her early childhood spent in a small wood-and-iron house in Blackridge on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg. Though she remembers the place in detail - dogs, a mango tree, a stream - she has no idea where exactly it is. 'My memory is full of blotches, ' she tells her daughter Julia, 'like ink left about and knocked over.'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJulia resolves to find the Blackridge house: with her mother unsettled, lonely and confused, would this, perhaps, bring some measure of closure? So begins a journey that traverses family history, forgotten documents, old photographs, and the maps that stake out a country's troubled past. Kind strangers, willing to assist in the search, lead to unexpected discoveries of ancestors and wars and lullabies. Folded into this quest are the tender conversations between a daughter and a mother who does not have long to live. Taken as one, \u003cem\u003eThe Blackridge House\u003c\/em\u003e is a meditation on belonging, on the stories we tell of home and family, on the precarious footprint of life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Julia Martin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1868429644\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781868429646\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Jonathan Ball Publishers\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/14\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 264\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.79lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.55d\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Julia Martin","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44074938728703,"sku":"9781868429646","price":18.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_01395968-f306-44ff-babc-72ad6b51ea08.jpg?v=1685456658","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-blackridge-house-a-julia-martin-9781868429646","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}